1 . In 1812, the year Charles Dickens was born, there were 66 novels published in Britain. People had been writing novels for a century—most experts date the first novel to Robinson Crusoe in 1719—

but nobody wanted to do it professionally. The steam-powered printing press was still in its early stages; the literacy（识字） rate in England was under 50%. Many works of fiction appeared without the names of the authors, often with something like “By a lady.”Novels, for the most part, were looked upon as silly, immoral, or just plain bad.

In 1870, when Dickens died, the world mourned him as its first professional writer and publisher, famous and beloved, who had led an explosion in both the publication of novels and their readership and whose characters — from Oliver Twist to Tiny Tim— were held up as moral touchstones. Today Dickens’ greatness is unchallenged. Removing him from the pantheon（名人堂） of English literature would make about as much sense as the Louvre selling off the Mona Lisa.

How did Dickens get to the top? For all the feelings readers attach to stories, literature is a numbers game, and the test of time is extremely difficult to pass. Some 60,000 novels were published during the Victorian age, from 1837 to1901; today a casual reader might be able to name a half-dozen of them. It’s partly true that Dickens’ style of writing attracted audiences

from all walks of life. It’s partly that his writings rode a wave of social, political and scientific progress. But it’s also that he rewrote the culture of literature and put himself at the center. No one will ever know what mix of talent, ambition, energy and luck made Dickens such a singular writer. But as the 200th anniversary of his birth approaches, it is possible — and important for our own culture—to understand how he made himself a lasting one.

4 . Toni Morrison was an American writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her novels, Beloved, Song of Solomon and others explored the way African-Americans search for freedom and identity in a country obsessed (受困扰的) with skin colour. Morrison was nearly 40 when she published her first novel The Bluest Eye in 1970. The Nobel Prize committee described her writing as “language itself, a language she wants to liberate from race”. Her novels discussed America’s past, focusing on black history and the effects of slavery and racism. She called her characters “the unfree at the heart of the democratic experiment”.

In 1988, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Beloved, the story of a mother who kills her baby daughter rather than permit her to return to slavery. It became a best-seller and was later made into a film. Many Americans admired her as the country’s greatest writer, including former President Barack Obama.

She was born in 1931. She attended Howard University, an all-black university in Washington, DC. At Howard, she read African, British and American literature, including writers William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf. After a short marriage, she became a single mother of two sons and worked as a book editor in New York.

Several publishers rejected her first book The Bluest Eye, but it impressed The New York Times’ book critic John Leonard, who believed Morrison was an important new voice. He said her writing was “so full of pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry”.

Morrison enjoyed her literary fame and was proud of her Nobel Prize.

5 . Every day around the world, thousands of people with little or no scholarly training in art history walk into museums. They may or may not read notice boards that share relevant information of the artworks or artists. Imagine, before being permitted to direct their eyeballs to the art on the walls, museum visitors were required to read a 15- or - 20-page introduction to each piece or each artist. How many people would go to museums if that were the case？

Yet this seems to be the expectation when it comes to reading classic literature. Classic novels typically come with 15- or -20-page introductions, which often include spoilers, assuming that readers do not come to classic books to discover, be absorbed in, and be surprised by the story world. Also, apparently, we mustn’t read classics alone, without experts guiding our experiences.

However, classic literature is in a unique position to show us that we’re not alone in our pains and joys. By taking us out of our time, classic books free us to see beyond the set of beliefs we stick to and to connect human experiences that remain alive across time and place. Our personal engagement is the first step of a longer journey of discovery that deepens our knowledge and understanding of ourselves and our world. We may, for example, feel for Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter though we despair of the world she lived in.

While we’re letting go of things, let’s stop worrying about understanding everything we can’t.It will be fun if we embrace curiosity, the pleasure of working out a mystery, and our common relationships as humans.

6 . Death is a serious theme worthy of great poets. For example, John Keats’ When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be and John Donne’s Death, Be Not Proud both discuss death in reflective ways. However, the imagery in these poems shows that while Keats believed death can only bring destruction, Donne believed death can be overcome.

Keats was afraid of death, because to him death meant the loss of those things that made his life worth living: “…on the shore/Of the wide world I stand alone, and think/Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.“ In other words, Keats’ fear was that death was a ”nothingness” that would arrive before he could finish his life’s work or find his true love.

Donne had a different attitude toward death, and so the imagery in his poem is different, too. To Donne, death should “be not proud”, because it was not “mighty and dreadful”. He also said that death was like “rest and sleep”. Donne believed that we would all wake from the sleep of death to everlasting life, just as we wake from our normal sleep to our everyday lives.

Keats and Donne both knew that death was a part of life, and both poets used powerful imagery to talk about that difficult theme. The differences in this imagery show two very different attitudes toward the subject, one of which is much more positive than the other. Which poet to believe is up to the reader to decide.

Not surprisingly, the readers’ own experiences may play a part in the way they respond to these poets’ approaches. Like the two poets and their beliefs, contemporary readers also may be divided on the subject. This may explain why Keats’ and Donne’s poetry remains fascinating years after their deaths.

7 . Mark Twain (1835-1910) — we've all heard the name, but what makes him “the father of American literature” as classic US author William Faulkner once called him?

Mark Twain is someone Americans are taught to love. Older relatives, English teachers and the media always praise him. But when you actually take the time to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, you find that his work is more wonderful than you could have ever imagined.

The novel describes a young boy named Tom Sawyer growing up in a small town along the Mississippi River. He explores the countryside on a riverboat with his friends, falls in love with girls, starts secret clubs and searches for treasure. Twain's idea of childhood is magical—a time of imagination, wonder and, of course, adventure.

More importantly, through the eyes of Tom Sawyer, Twain cleverly makes fun of US culture. For example, Tom hates going to church, and Twain uses scenes of Tom there to mock religion and its old traditions. “Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it,” he writes in one chapter.

Twain's writing is full of these kinds of critical points about culture and politics. That's why he is so loved in the US — he wasn't afraid to state his opinions, and he did so clearly. For instance, Twain didn't like US wars abroad. In 1900, after the US invaded the Philippines, Twain wrote in a newspaper article: “We do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines…We have gone there to conquer.” He also believed strongly in women's right to vote in elections and gave a famous speech on the subject, called “Votes for Women”, in 1901. “Tom was a glittering hero once more—the pet of the old, the envy of the young,” Twain writes in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. But he could just as well be describing himself.

8 . The first set of Chinese stories presented in English scripts (剧本), titled Stories of China: Performed in English, was officially published by Foreign Languages Press. Planned by the New Channel International Education Group with the participation of playwrights from China, the United Kingdom and the United States, the book provides a new way for young people to learn English while inheriting (传承) and spreading Chinese culture.

The book contains 20 English scripts in novel formats covering a wide range of subjects. Unlike the most common English scripts for young readers on the market which are based on adaptations of European and American stories, those presented in this book are unique for being based on classic Chinese stories, readapted and written in English. The book is divided into first to third grades in terms of grammar and vocabulary difficulty, making it suitable for young English learners from primary school to junior and high school.

All the scripts in the book are written by top playwrights with elegant, pure and vivid language. The scripts are provided with a summary of the story in both Chinese and English, so that readers can fully understand the plot as well as the history and culture behind it. Readers can not only improve their English skills through immersive (沉浸式) reading and performance but also appreciate Chinese culture.

Hu Min, English education expert and founder of the New Channel, said the combination of traditional culture and English teaching has become a trend, guiding young people to bring their own wisdom and deep cultural heritage to tell Chinese stories to the world. New Channel will offer special courses on Stories of China: Performed in English in its many schools across the country, and cooperate with primary and secondary schools in Beijing, Shanghai to offer English drama courses on a trial basis. Hu believes the courses will set off a new wave of enthusiastic learning among young people.

There are various reasons why people write     1     (poet). Some poems tell a story or describe something. Others try to convey certain emotions. Poets use many different forms of poetry to express themselves. Some of the first poetry a child     2     (learn) in English is nursery rhymes. The language is concrete but     3     (imagine). The poems may not make sense and even seem contradictory, but     4     are easy to learn and recite. List poems are poems     5     list things. It has a flexible line length and     6     (repeat) phrases which give both a pattern and a rhythm to the poem. Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that     7     (make) up of 17 syllables. It can give a clear picture and create a special feeling     8     (use) the minimum of words. It is very popular     9     English writers. So today many English poems you read are translations from the Japanese haiku poems. With so many different forms of poetry to choose from, students may     10     (eventual) want to write poems of their own.