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take out loans, to be honest, as a matter of fact, on the basis of, by accident ,in return, be about to, ought to |
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as a matter of fact, care about, ought to, by accident, on the basis of, take out a loan, be about to, to be honest, make a bet, in return |
In the spring and summer months, thunderstorms are common. . In thunderstorms, lightning can strike (击中) people and buildings and is very dangerous.
It was reported that a man was struck by lighting when he was making a phone call under a tree and died at once. You may not know it, but nearly 1,800 thunderstorms are happening at any moment around the world. . So what should you do during a lightning storm? Scientists say that a person's chances of being struck by lightning are 1 in 600,000. .
If you are indoors during a thunderstorm：
*Stay away from anything that is metal because lightning can come into the house through it.
*Don't stand near the windows.
*Don't take a shower or bath. Lightning can travel through water.
*Never use the phone. .
If you are caught in a thunderstorm outdoors：
*. If there's no building around, try to find a low place to stay in.
*Do not go under a tree because lightning could hit the tree and travel through the tree to hit you.
*Also never use a cell phone.
A. Try to get home as soon as possible
B. Go into a nearby building right away
C. But it is very important for us to learn about lightning
D. In fact, many people are killed by lightning every year
E. Lightning could travel through the phone line and hit you
F. Since they happen often, some people don't take them seriously
G. But you can reduce those chances by following these safety rules
This year the US will honour one of the country's most famous writers — Mark Twain (1835—1910). Most readers know that his real name was Samuel Longhome Clemens, but how many know where the pen name "Mark Twain" came from?
The answer shows Clemens' colourful early life before he became a writer. "Mark Twain" was the cry shouted on a ship when the ship entered a part of a river that was two fathoms (6 feet) deep. "Twain" is an oldfashioned way of saying "two". Twain trained as a ship pilot on the Mississippi river for two years, a time that he wrote about in the humourous Life on the Mississippi (1883).
The famous river would become an important theme in many of his works — who could forget the journey of the Huck and Jim along it in his most famous book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)?
With little education, he had to teach himself how to write stories. Whenever possible, he would go to public libraries. There he spent much time reading and thinking, which greatly helped him with his writing.
On the other hand, his life experiences gave him wonderful material to write about and attract readers. Twain wrote in a style that has been called "local colour" because it shows great knowledge of local people and their customs.
This gift is very clear in the two books for which Twain is still celebrated today. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its follow-up The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which many people call"The Great American Novel" .
The most amazing invention in the book is the voice of Huck himself. Huck did not enjoy schooling. It shows in the way he uses language, in a spoken style. Only a master like Twain could copy the way a
young southern boy talked so well.
Wilkie Collins was born in London in 1824 and his first novel — a historical romance called Antonina — was published when he was 26. Shortly after this he met Charles Dickens, and they formed a close friendship that lasted for ten years and influenced both men's writing. Collins went on publishing 25 novels as well as many short stories, plays and works of nonfiction. However, he is most wellknown for the two mysteries (悬疑故事) The Woman in White and The Moonstone.
Collins published both mysteries as serials in All the Year Round. When it appeared in the magazine in 1860, The Woman in White was so popular that it became the subject of a song and a play. It even influenced fashion, and many women started to dress in white. Eight years later The Moonstone was published and earned Collins the title "the father of the modern English detective (侦探) novel". T. S. Elliot, another famous writer, said that The Moonstone was the "first and greatest of English detective novels", and it is still admired by modern crime writers today.
An author of many mysteries, Dorothy L. Sayers considered The Moonstone to be "probably the finest detective story ever written", and many people agree with her. There are several reasons why they think so. One is that Collins uses different characters to tell each section of the story. The characters have very different personalities and voices, which are interesting and often amusing. There are also several features of the plot which start trends (趋向) in mystery writing. For example, many detective stories are set in a country house, where the theft must have been committed by one of the people in the house. A number of modern films have also used the idea of a cursed (被诅咒的) jewel stolen from a religious statue. And of course, in The Moonstone and most other good mystery novels, the person who at first seems the least likely to be the criminal turns out to be guilty.
