In 1912, a man called Wilfrid Voynich bought a number of books in Italy. He bought so many that he didn’t look very _______ at the books. When he arrived home, he _______ he had bought a very strange handwritten manuscript (手写稿). It was written _______ a language he had never seen before. It was also full of pictures of plants.

Since then, the book — now known as the Voynich Manuscript — has _______ the world’s most mysterious (神秘的) manuscript. Many people have studied it. However, no one has ever discovered its meaning and _______.

There are many ideas about _______ wrote it and why. Some say that a famous scientist like Francis Bacon wrote it. Some think it could be a religious (宗教的) text. Others think the manuscript is a hoax (骗局) and _______ nothing at all.

Scientists have learned that the manuscript was made between 1404 and 1438. However, this only tells us how _______ the paper is, not when the book was written. But there’s still hope. After all, the manuscript is real and there’s meaning to its words.

The Voynich Manuscript remains a mystery today. You can go online to find it _______ you would like to know the truth. Are you __________ in it? Then please look up some information about it on the Internet.

Sally woke suddenly. She heard strange sounds; she could smell smoke. The room was full of smoke. She coughed. What was happening? Her bedroom door opened with a bang and her mother ran in, her face white.

“Get up, Sally. We have to go! Get dressed now!” her mother shouted.

Sally jumped from her bed and opened the window. Cries came from the streets below. Sally watched people throw their things into carts (马车).

“Hey, what’s happening?” Sally shouted.

“Fire!” her neighbor shouted back.

“Coming from Pudding Lane! Get out now, Sally! No one is safe!”

Sally pulled her window shut and got changed as quickly as she could. Downstairs (楼下), she found her father, mother and sister putting their things into a cart. They watched people trying to put out (熄灭) the big fire with buckets (桶) full of water. It didn’t seem to make any difference, as the fire jumped from one building to the next.

“The houses are so close and made of wood!” Sally noticed.

The boy, Tom Winter, saw Sally and said, “Some people are going to St. Paul’s Cathedral to stay safe. Made of stone. Won’t burn like wood.” Sally nodded, but followed her parents down the dark street.

They walked and walked. Finally, they arrived at Moorfields. It was a wide-open space with no buildings to burn. They were safe.