The world outdoors is full of secrets. They are so attractive that quite a lot of people are busy 1 them. All 2 us are birds, animals, trees and flowers. The facts about how they live and grow are as interesting as anything could be.
Do you know that one of the great presidents of the USA spent hours and hours studying birds? A businessman who lives near New York City became so interested in insects that he began to 3 them. He now has over one thousand different kinds of insects carefully kept in glass boxes.
Come with me and I will help you find some of the 4 secrets. Let's go quickly 5 the woods and fields. Here we shall find how a rabbit 6 the other rabbits that there is danger. We shall follow a mother bear and her young ones as they search for food and get ready for their long winter 7. We shall watch bees dancing in the air to let the other bees know where they can find food. I will show you many other 8 things. But the best thing that I can teach you is to keep your eyes 9 when you go out. Nature tells her secrets only to people who look and listen 10.
Gladys Holm was a secretary(秘书). She worked in an office all his life. Gladys made about $15,000 a year. She died when she was 86 years old. And she left a big surprise—$18 million! She gave the money to a children's hospital.
Gladys Holm never got married or had any children. But she always liked children, and she wanted to help them. When her friend's daughter was ill in hospital, Gladys brought her a toy bear. After that, she visited the hospital many times. Every time she visited, she brought toy bears for those children. After that, people started to call Gladys the "Toy bear Lady."
Gladys always gave toys and presents to her friends and family but no one knew she had a lot of money. She lived in a small house outside Chicago. Everyone was very surprised when they learned she was a millionaire. A family friend said, "She always gave us nice presents and things, but we didn't know she was rich."
How did Gladys get so much money? She asked her boss how to make more money, and she listened to what he said. She bought the stocks(股票) that he told her to buy, and she got very rich. Before she died, she talked to her friends about "giving something to the children's hospital." No one knew that the "something" was $18 million!
In 1638, John Harvard donated some money and about four hundred books to a new university. This was the beginning of the library at Harvard University. The gift was so important that the university was named for John Harvard.
Thomas Bray began the first free lending library in the late 1600s. He set up more than 30 or these libraries in the American colonies. However, the idea for this kind of free library ended when Bray died in 1730. In 1731, Benjamin Franklin and some friends started the first subscription library in the United States. In a subscription library people pay money to become members, but they may borrow the books without paying again.
In the United States, every child had a free education. This idea soon led to free libraries. One of the first libraries that used tax money to buy books was a library in Peterborough, New Hampshire. This library was set up in 1833.
