1 . Mark Twain, born in Florida     1     November 30th, 1835,     2    (bring) up in Hannibal, Missouri, along the Mississippi River. He is best known for his     3    (novel) set in his boyhood world on the river, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. So much     4     he love the river that even his pen name was about the river. The phrase “mark twain” means that the water is two fathoms in     5    (deep). The play in this unit is adapted from The Million Pound Bank Note     6    (write) by Mark Twin. It was the summer of 1903,     7    two wealthy brothers made a bet. One of them doubted     8     a man could survive a month in London with a million pound bank note. At this moment, they saw a penniless man     9    (wander)on the pavement. It was Henry,     10     American businessman, who was lost in London.

2 . Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. He was famous because of the books he wrote for children. They combine funny words, pictures, and social opinion.

Dr Seuss wrote his first book for children in 1937. It is called And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street. A number of publishers refused to publish it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Soon other successful books followed. Over the years, he wrote more than forty children’s books. They were fun to read. Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects.

By the middle 1940s, Dr Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful writers of children’s books. He had a strong desire to help children. In 1954, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read. The report said many children’s books weren’t interesting. Dr Seuss decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read.

In 1957, Dr Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 225 words to write the book. This was about the number of words a six-year-old should be able to read.

The story is about a cat who tries to entertain two children on a rainy day while their mother is away from home. The cat is not like normal cats. It talks. The book was an immediate success. It was an interesting story and was easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today many adults say it is still one of the stories they like best.