This story is told about Napoleon and a Swede，his soldier.The swede fought bravely in many battles and gained the French soldiers respect.But he was not good at learning languages.He could not speak French.
Several years later，news came that Napoleon himself was coming to inspect（视察）them，and the Swede was warned that the great man would probably ask him some questions.
All the soldiers worried about this for him. "What can he do ?"
Some of the soldiers said.
It was well known that Napoleon always asked the same three questions, and usually in the same order. The first question was, "How old are you ?"The second was, "How long have you been in my army?"And the third was，"Did you serve in either of my last two campaigns（战役）？"For many days the soldiers helped him to remember the answers in the same order.The Swede would walk about，saying to himself.
"Twenty-three，sir.Three years，sir.Both，sir！"Before the day of the inspection，his friends were satisfied.He knew his answers.There ought to be no trouble.
Napoleon arrived.Standing in front of the straight lines of soldiers，helooked at them with great satisfaction（满意）.Then he begen to walk along the lines，smiling sometimes.The Swede stood quite still，practising.
Napoleon suddenly caught sight of the Swede.He stopped in front of him.For some reason，this time the great man began with the second question
"How many years have you been in my army？"he demanded.
"Twenty-three，sir，"said the Swede clearly and well.
Napoleon was surprised.He looded at the tall man and asked，
"How old are you，then？"
"Three years，sir，"replied the Swede quickly.
Napoleon was astonished（惊奇）."Either you are mad，or I am，"
he declared."Both，sir！"cried the Swede proudly.

Somebody once asked Mark Twain whether he could remember the first money he ever earned.
He said，“It happened at school.Schoolboys in those days had very little respect for their teachers and even less for their desks ."
The boys used pens and pencils and even knives to draw stars and faces, or to write their names on the desks. At last the schoolmaster said, ""The next time anybody does such a thing, he will have to pay five dollars, or he will receive a beating in front of the whole school."
Soon after that, I had to go to my father for five dollars. I was honest enough to explain that I couldn't agree to receive a beating instead, but he said,
"No, I can't allow you to connect our name with such a thing. So I' ll pay the five dollars. But you must suffer for what you have done. I' ll give you the beating here, at home."
So he beat me, and then gave me the five dollars to take to the school, But I decided that the beating didn't hurt so much and another beating at school wouidn't be worse.
So I told them to give me a beating in front of the whole school, and Ikept the five dollars. And that was the first money that I ever earned.

Newton，the great British scientist，was often so deep in his thoughts that he would forget to eat.
One day he invited a friend of his to dinner.When the food was orought to the table，Newton was still busy in his study.His friend，who knew him well，sat down and waited for him.A long time passed，but Newton did not come.His friend decided that Newton must have lost imself in some new theory and forgotten all about the dinner.So he began eating without waiting for Newton and helped himself to the chicken on the table.
When he had finished, he thought he would play a trick on his friend. He put all the chicken bones back on the dish and covered them with the dish cover. then he quietly left the house. He was quite certain that his trick would work.
Several hours later, Newton came out of his study, feeling very hungry. He saw the dish on the table and so he sat down. When he lifted the cover and saw the chicken bones, he was very surprised.He turned，looked at the clock，and saw that it was long past his usual dinner time.
"Well，well，"he said to himself，"I thought I hadn't had my dinner，but I see I was wrong."
Getting up from the table，he went back to his study（书斋）and began to work again，thinking that he had eaten his dinner at the usual hour and had foigotten all about it.

The boys shouted and laughed as they ran about in playground. It was near the end of term in a school in Germany about two hundred years ago. Soon school would be over for a few weeks. No wonder （难怪） they felt happy！
Their teacher watched them from the classroom window. He did not feel happy at all. End of term for him meant a lot of work. He thought hard. what could he find for the boys to do that would keep them quiet for a long time？ Then he could deal with （处理） his own work.
All of a sudden he had an idea. when the bell rang for the end of playtime, he was smiling.
One by one the boys came back to the classroom and sat at their desks.
Listen, boys, said the teacher. I want you to take your pencils and write down all the numbers from 1 to 100. When you have done that, add them all up. And no talking,mind（记住了）！”
The teacher smiled as the boys began their work."That should keep them busy for a bit, "he said to himself. But he was wrong Five minutes later the slowest boy was still writing down the date. Most of the other boys had just begun to add the numbers. One boy, however, put his pencil down.
“ What's the matter,Karl？” asked his teacher.“ Can't you do it？”
“Yes,sir，” replied the boy，“ But i have finished. The answer is 5,050.”
Nobody in the room believed him. How could a boy of ten add up all those numbers in such a short time？
Perhaps you had better tell us how you got your answer, 'the teacher told him.
It was easy, said the boy. First of all I added up 1 and 99， and that made 100. Then I kept on adding 3 and 97， 4 and 96， and so on until I got to 49 and 51. Each time the answer was 100， and so I had 49
hundreds in all. That made 4， 900. Then I added on the two numbers I left out, 50 and 100. and i got the answer 5,050.
The teacher groaned. It seemed as if the boy was quite right Now. he would have to find something else for them all to do.
Today we have forgotten the name of the teacher, but not the little boy who was so quick at his sums. His name was Karl Gauss.
Karl Gauss became a famous scientist. One of his great interests was astronomy（天文学）， the study of the stars. Before he died in1855，he had written 155 books.

We all know about Benjamin Franklin, He was a very famous American political leader. He was also the first man to discover electricity. He had strong interest in learning about new things.
One day he heard from a friend that something black in color holds the heat better than something white in color. Franklin wanted to find out if it is true or not by practice.
One winter, he went to the north and found snow on the ground. He put two large pieces of cloth over the snow. One piece of cloth was black in color. the other was white. He waited and waited until the sun began to shine. After several hours，he looked under the piece of cloth and saw that the snow under the white cloth melted （溶化） little while the snow under the black cloth was melted much more. Happily, he got the result of the test and put down the whole course（过程）.

When Albert Einstein was at primary school, he didnt do well. His teachers thought he was stupid and not worth teaching. His mother took him home and tought him a little by herself, for the family was very poor. As a child, playing the vivin was all he was good at.
When he was ten, he met Dr Max. The Dr talked with him and tried to help him. They read books together, and Einstein showed an interest in maths. He understood difficult maths prob lems and ideas. Later on he went to school again. but school work was not easy for him. He could not learn things by heart. He even did not pass his first test to enter college Because of his learning problems, Einstein made few friends. He was shy in groups of people. However, he overcame（克服) many of his shortcomings（缺点）and became a well known scientist in the field of physics. Now he is regaxded as one of the most important thinkers and greatest genius（天才）of 20th century.

James Watt（詹姆期 瓦特） was an English boy. He liked to ask questions and think hard. One day he was sitting in the kitchen with his grand mother, there he saw a kettle on the fire Soon steam began to come out o the kettle（水壶）. The lid was shaking.
"Grandma, what's in the kettle" he asked.
"Water, my boy, nothing but water"
" But I know there is something che. It pushed the lid（盖子）up".
"Oh, thats only steam.”
How did the steam get under the lid comes from the hot water.
The boy said to himself, How strong the steam is！ It can push things. If there is more water, the steam must be much stronger.
For many years, James watt tried to make steam woik for people. He made the first steam engine（蒸气机） for the world.

During the second World War, Churchill was the british prime minister（首相）. One day he had to go to the British Broadcasting Corporation（the BBC）to make an important speech to the nation An hour before the time of his speech, he stopped a taxi in the street and asked the driver to take him to the bbC, but the driver, who did not recognize him said he could not take him anywhere just then, because he wanted to go to his home back at the other end of london to hear churchill make a speech on the radio Churchill was so pleased when he heard this answer that he gave the man a pound, which was worth quite a lot in those days.
"All right, get in, "said the driver happily, opening the door of the taxi. " I'll take you and to hell with（见鬼去吧） Churchill and his speech ."

Mark Twain, the famous American writer, liked to play jokes on others. But once a joke was played on him.
One day Mark Twain was invited to give a talk in a small town. at lunch he met a young man, one of his friends.
The young man said that he had an uncle with him. He told Mark Twain that his uncle never laughed or smiled, and that nobody and nothing was able to make his uncle smile or laugh.
" You bring your uncle to my talk tonight，" said Mark Twain. I am sure I can make him laugh.
That evening the young man and his uncle sat in the front. Mark Twain began to speak. He told several funny stories, but the old man still kept quiet. Mark Twain told his funniest stories. Finally he stopped. He was tired and quite disappointed.
Some days later, Mark Twain told another friend of his about what had happened.
“Oh，” said this friend.“ i know that old man, Hes been deaf（聋）or years."

In the course（过程） of one of his lecture trips, Maik Twain arrived at a small town. Before dinner he went to a barber's shop to be shaved（刮脸）.
Are you a stranger？ asked he barber
“Yes，" Mark Twain replied This is the first time I have been here."
"You chose a good time to come, the barber continued."Mark Twain is going to make a lecture tonight, You'll go, I suppose."
“Oh, I guess so."
“ Have you bought your ticket？”
“ Not yet."
But everything is sold out. You'll have to stand.
“ How annoying（令人生气）！” Maik. Twain said with a sigh（叹息）·“I never saw such luck. I always have to stand when that fellow is giving lectures."