Written in the first chapter of the book Pride and Prejudice is an extraordinary sentence of which even a person who has had only a brief look upon the book will not fail to receive a deep impression — It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. In terms of Sherlock Holmes, we'd better alter the sentence into “It is a fact universally accepted by readers throughout the world that an excellent book in possession of our famous detective Sherlock Holmes is undoubtedly a masterpiece of all times.” Perhaps this is one of the most obvious explanations for the unrivaled popularity of “Holmes series” in the field of detective stories. Overwhelmed by the recommendations provided by my friends, I decided to take a look on this Sherlock Holmes and the Duke's Son originally published by Oxford University Press.

    As a whole, this book is about a case concerning the Duke's missing son. Arthur, the Duke's son, was found out in a certain morning to have disappeared, accompanied with which was also the disappearance of the German teacher. The school master Dr. Huxtable then turned to the famous detective of the time Sherlock Holmes for help. Realizing how tough and important the case is, Holmes immediately made up his mind to accept the case and followed Dr. Huxtable back to Mackleton by train. Having formed a rough idea about the whole matter, Holmes probed into the case immediately and had a careful investigation of the entire area shortly after the arrival, during the process of which he discovered the body of the German teacher Heidegger. Finally, primarily due to his prominent ability as a detective, he managed to unravel the mystery.

    Having once started reading this fiction, I was completely immersed in the mysterious story. At the beginning, unlike other detective stories, this story first delineates the client's strange behavior at length to indicate the severity of the incident in order to attract the readers to continue reading it. As is known to all, vivid depiction is essential to detective stories as it makes the story more authentic and attractive. Therefore, trying to present a “real world” to his readership, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the original “Holmes series”, has skillfully arranged the plots of the whole story from the perspective of Dr. Watson, a friend of Homes'. In this way, he elaborately (精心)depicted every scene and character in the book. Apart from the special start, the ending of the whole story, being dramatic but reasonable, is certainly an outstanding one. After all, except the author himself, who knows that the Duke's seemingly ordinary secretary is in fact the Duke's bastard(私生子)? In addition, who knows that the Duke actually has already been acquainted with the whole thing before Holmes solves this complicated problem? Yet, surprising as it is, this ending seems so natural that it fits all the plots of the story perfectly well. Closing my eyes, I can even “see” the story happening just like watching a film.

    As far as I am concerned, nothing is more admirable and surprising in the hero Sherlock Homes than his profound knowledge which has certainly assisted him a lot when he was studying the case. Take the bicycle tyres for instance, Holmes is capable of recognizing 42 different varieties of bicycle tyres. Except for his illimitable knowledge, Holmes also specializes in arranging the facts in order and then finding the fact leading him to a great discovery or even the truth itself. In this case, after getting rid of unrelated facts, Sherlock Homes eventually grasped the clue and discovered the amazing fact.

    Needless to say, as a world-renowned masterpiece, Sherlock Holmes and the Duke's Son has attracted and is still charming numerous readers from all corners of the world and people from all walks of life. The “Holmes series” has already set up a standard against which all the following detective fictions are measured. Sherlock Holmes, beyond all doubt, has been a name firmly rooted in people's memories. Although Dr. Watson's closing The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes in 1927 was a great pity to the readers, the discontinuance of the entire “Holmes series” may have actually added to the legendary stature of Sherlock Holmes.

    David Beckham was born in 1975 in London, at a place called Leytonstone. When he was a young boy, his greatest passion was in football. He played it whenever he had the chance. Sometimes he would go and watch a game with his friends. When David Beckham was 12 years old, he won the Bobby Charlton Soccer Skills award. This was an important step forward for this young boy, and it led him to go for a visit to a football training camp in Spain. As a boy he played for schools of Essex and also for his county team.

    In 1991, he became a trainee with Manchester United. This meant that he could practice football as much as he wanted to and play for the highly successful Manchester United Youth Cup team and Under-21 team. In April, 1995 he played his first football league game against Leeds Untied. During 1995 and 1996, David became a regular member of the team and Manchester United won in both football seasons, with David scoring many goals.

    His goals made him a household name. In the first game of the 1996-1997 season, he scored a surprising goal from beyond the halfway line; seeing the goalkeeper a little way out of his goal, Beckham became famous overnight. He continued to score astonishing goals, especially from free-kicks. The speed of one of his shots was timed at 157 kph. He also had the ability to make the ball go from left to right, or right to left, whenever he chose. Goalkeepers were never sure where the ball was going, and it regularly ended up in the goal.

    The Children's Book-Show Competition is a chance for young readers to be writers.

    Reading, it seems, is coming back in fashion, if a survey by the famous National Literacy Trust (the NLT) is true. It shows that the percentage of children who admit enjoying reading has grown for the first time in the past 8 years.

    So it's a good time to launch a competition that includes a shed-load of new books for schools as prizes. The Children's Book-show Competition, backed by The Independent, is taking to the roads again from the start of next term, with a nation-wide tour of 15 big cities, featuring a line-up of a dozen children's writers and illustrators (插图画家) aiming to persuade pupils to follow their footsteps.

    The competition, launched by the children's writer and illustrator Jessica Souhami, has two categories: the under-nine's and nine to 13-year-olds.

    Children are asked to choose their favorite fairy or folk tale and set it in an extraordinary place.

    Then they are to retell it with the aid of drawings and writings—whether it is set at sea, on a distant planet, in the future or in the past. The closing date for the competition is 30th November.

    “Tell your tale in pictures and in words, ”say the organizers of the competition. “It can be in a picture book or comic-book format.”

    The winner of each competition will receive a signed copy of a book by each of the 12 authors involved in this year's tour, plus £150 worth of books for their school. The runners-up will receive a signed copy of Souhami's new book.

    At your next meeting, wait for a pause in conversation and try to measure how long it lasts.

    Among English speakers, chances are that it will be a second or two at most. But while this pattern may be universal, our awareness of silence differs dramatically across cultures. What one culture considers a confusing or awkward pause may be seen by others as valuable moment of reflection and a sign of respect for what the last speaker has said. Research in Dutch (荷兰语) and also in English found that when silence in conversation stretches to four seconds, people start to feel uneasy. In contrast, a separate study of business meetings found that Japanese people are happy with silence of 8.2 seconds—nearly twice as long as in American meetings.

    In Japan, it is recognized that the best communication is when you don't speak at all. It's already a failure to understand each other by speaking because you're repairing that failure by using words.

    In the U．S., it may originate from the history of colonial (殖民地的) America as a crossroads of many different races. When you have a couple of difference, it's hard to establish common understanding unless you talk and there's understandably a kind of anxiety unless people are verbally engaged to establish a common life. This applies also to some extent to London.

    In contrast, when there's more homogeneity, perhaps it's easier for some kinds of silence to appear. For example, among your closest friends and family it's easier to sit in silence than with people you're less well acquainted with.

    Our mother earth is going through a very tough situation and we, the entire human race, are destroying our environment or unconsciously without even realizing its consequences. Now we have to act very smartly and plan something to sustain what we still have, getting all necessary support from nature to lead healthy lives.

    Gardening is always an excellent and environmentally friendly idea. If you can go for sustainable gardening, then it will be even more useful for all. Gardening is a favorite hobby for many. It is time to channelize your hobby towards a more meaningful motivation.

    When we do gardening we need to use different ingredients to grow plants. Some of them are natural resources like water, soil, sunshine, and many things like this. Using these resources smartly is a part of sustainable gardening. Some simple techniques include: use less water and organic things to grow plants; try to store rainwater so that you can use them for gardening; try using less energy to drive devices; avoid using plastics in any form while gardening; reuse the leaves from your garden to fertilize them. These are the basic sustainable measures. To do so we need to have proper knowledge about gardening and its requirements so that we can use proper resources without wasting any of them.

    In today's busy life we don't get much time to spend on our environment. Gardening gives us a chance to do so. We can also have some pesticide-free and fresh food if we grow them in our garden. This is the right time to do some good to protect our own environment and gardening is one of the easiest ways. Do you want to start gardening, but you're not sure how? Click here: http://www. Garden how to.come.

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