There is a lot to learn about the creations of Beatrix Potter—not only is she the author and illustrator of one of the world's most famous children's books, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, but also a pioneering conservationist with the spirit of a scientist.

“Potter grew up as the daughter of a wealthy Victorian family, but along with her brother filled an entire floor of their large house in London with all sorts of animals,” said Anne Lundin, a retired professor for the UW-Madison School of Library Studies.

“As an adult, she was a frustrated botanical illustrator and scientist. That field was not open to her because she was female,”Lundin said. Potter was urged to turn the charming illustrations and stories she wrote in letters to children into books. She wrote 23 books in all—a body of work that has inspired plays, ballets, films and an astonishing amount of merchandise.

“The Tale of Peter Rabbit is probably the most famous children's book in the world, which was published 113 years ago and has really stood the test of time. It's been translated into 36 languages. The parents and grandparents will share it with the next generation,”said Lundin.

Potter also made a mark on the world through her land conservation. “In many ways, she was like Peter Rabbit, venturing into a world of adventure and risk. She withdrew from London as soon as she started making some money on her books to the Lake District and became an extremely important farmer and conservationist. She preserved and passed on 15 farms and over 4,000 acres, which were given back to the country as gifts in the 20th century,”said Lundin.

Even though she was born 150 years ago, she was amazingly modern—her embracing of the natural world, commented Jennifer Blatchley Smith, an artistic director of the show Peter Rabbit Tales to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Potter's birth.

Jane Austen, a famous English writer, was born at Stevenson, Hampshire, on December 16,1775，and died on July 18,1817. She began writing early in life, although the prejudices of her times forced her to have her books published anonymously(匿名 )．

But Jane Austen is perhaps the best known and best loved of Bathˈs many famous local people and visitors. She paid two long visits here during the last five years of the eighteenth century and from 1801 to 1806，Bath was her home. Her deep knowledge of the city is fully seen in two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, which are largely set in Bath. The city is still very much as Jane Austen knew it, keeping in its streets and public buildings the well-ordered world that she described so well in her novels. Now the pleasure of learning Jane Austenˈs Bath can be enhanced by visiting the Jane Austen Centre in Gay Street. Here, in a Georgian tow house in the heart of the city, you can find out more about Bath in Jane Austenˈs time and the importance of Bath in her life and work.

The Centre has been set up with the help and guidance of members of the Jane Austen Society. After your visit to the Centre, you can look round the attractive shop, which offers a huge collection of Jane Austen related books, cards and many specially designed gifts. Jane Austen quizzes are offered to keep the children busy.

You can also have walking tours of Jane Austenˈs Bath, which is a great way to find out more about Jane Austen and discover the wonderful Georgian city of Bath. The tour lasts about one and a half hours. The experienced guides will take you to the places where Jane lived, walked and shopped.

The Two-Dollar Bill

Returning from a trip to Washington D. C., I arrived in Anchorage at about 2: 00 A. M. At 9：00 A.M., I was   (1)   to talk at local high school to students in a   (2)   designed to educate the troubled kids in school.

The school is well   (3)   because most of the kids are troublemakers who become involved with the law. I found it very   (4)   to deliver a speech to the multi-cultural   (5)   and talk about things that could stimulate them for their   (6)  . I wasn’t making any headway   (7)   I started talking about what I do so well, helping people with money.

I   (8)   a stack (堆) of $2 bills and started giving them out. The kids started to   (9)   because it was free money. The   (10)   thing I asked them was to spend it on   (11)   people. Some of them asked me for my signature. I think I   (12)   some of them with my honesty. I started   (13)  a copy of the book I had written for the dollar bills. Then I told them that my grandfather’s care had always   (14)   me to go forward.   (15)   I closed with telling them no matter what happens, someone out there   (16)   cares about them and is pulling for their   (17)  .

This is not the   (18)   of the story. When I left the classroom, I told them to call me   (19)   they ever had problems.

Three days later, I received a thank-you letter with a new $2 bill in it   (20)   by a girl who heard my talk.

   I think it was October, 1982. A friend had business dealings in the city of Reno, Nevada, and I was asked to accompany her on an overnight trip. While she conducted her business, I was aimlessly wandering down Virginia Street, heading into a most gloriously beautiful sunset. I had an urge to speak to someone on the street to share that beauty, but I couldn't make eye contact with anyone. Quickly I ducked into a department store and asked the lady behind the counter if she could come outside for just a minute. She looked at me as though I were from some other planet and said, "Well..." Surprisingly, she followed me out.

   When she got outside I said to her, "Just look at that sunset! Nobody out here was looking at it and I just had to share it with someone."

   For a few seconds we just looked. Then I said, "God's in his heaven and all's right with the world." I thanked her for coming out to see it and sharing the beauty.

   Four years later my situation had changed considerably. I had come to the end of a twenty-year marriage, I was alone and on my own for the first time in my life. One day, while my clothes were going around, I picked up a Unity Magazine and read an article about a woman who had been in similar circumstances. She had come to the end of a marriage, moved to a strange community, and the only job she could find was one she disliked: cosmetic sales in a department store. We had a lot in common.

   Then something happened to her that changed everything. She said a woman came into her department store and asked her to step outside to look at a sunset. The stranger had said, "God's in his heaven and all's right with the world.", and she had realized the truth in that statement and that she simply had not been seeing it. From that moment on, she turned her life around.

April 23,2016 marks the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death. Organizations in Britain have planned numerous events to honour him.

In Stratford-upon-Avon, his birthplace, the tourism organization has a great number of free events, including performances of Shakespeare's plays, and a dazzling fireworks display. And the BBC is broadcasting a live show from Stratford-upon-Avon, celebrating Shakespeare's widespread influence on the world. In England's capital, the London Shakespeare Centre and King's College London are holding a series of public performances, exhibitions and activities. It isn't just England that honours the anniversary of the death of this extraordinary writer. In Washington,D.C., the Folger Shakespeare Library, which houses the world's largest collection of documents relating to William Shakespeare, is displaying a series of exhibitions.

Shakespeare is probably the most famous author and is considered a genius by most. He wrote around 38 plays and 154 sonnets(十四行诗), and his work has been translated into over one hundred languages! He penned beautiful metaphors(暗喻), serious dramas and amusing tales.

Shakespeare also invented many new terms and phrases. If someone's behaviour suggested he/she was not being honest and should not be trusted, Shakespeare called his/her actions suspicious. If someone was being silly and perhaps looking like a fool, Shakespeare found his/her actions laughable. And Shakespeare called people who offered their opinions on the quality of something critics. Today, for instance, food critics and film critics give audiences their opinions of food and films. The familiar phrase “break the ice” comes from Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew. The “ice is broken” when a difficult conversation or meeting is calmed by some basic introduction, such as a simple game. More common words coined by Shakespeare include road, gossip, lonely, bump and hurry.

Four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare surely lives on, in everyday speech, as the most famous writer of all time!

Given the tradition of students bringing apples to their teachers, it somehow seems fitting that an old apple barn(谷仓) will find a new life as a one-room schoolhouse.And it is just as fitting that a retired schoolteacher will become the caretaker of that historic treasure.

My friend Velma, a teacher for more than 30 years, has been retired for some time now, but that doesn't stop her giving history lessons at the old Englewood School, located on her family's California farm.The lovingly restored building was constructed around 1850 as a home for a woodsman and later was used as an apple barn.Then, in 1870 it began a new life as a schoolhouse.

Originally located in the nearby Englewood meadow, it was now moved to its current site in 1978 by Velma's late husband and his brother, Robert and Richard, who thought it would help keep Velma busy in retirement.No nails had been used in the original construction, so each piece of wood had to be carefully marked and the building was reassembled(重装) on its new site.The brothers worked with much care and hard work to ensure a perfect fit of mitred(斜接的) corners.After the relocation, Velma and her family furnished the school with some of its original desks.They also added a collection of schoolbooks, the oldest dating back to 1845.

Nowadays Velma gives tours to local schoolchildren and other groups, who learn what it was like to attend school back in the good old days.She has kids ring the school bell, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing Good Morning to You as they might have done in days gone by.Then, with twinkling eyes and much enthusiasm, she tells the history of the school, and gives a short sample lesson.