THE MILLION POUND BANK-NOTE

Mark Twain
Mark Twain(whose real name was Samuel Clemens) was born in Missouri in 1835 and grew up close to the banks of the Mississippi River. Clemens started out as a printer, setting type in Iowa, New York City, Philadelphia, and other cities.
Clemens then turned to piloting a steamboat on the Mississippi River until the American Civil War. __
______In 1861, Clemens served briefly as a soldier in the Confederate army. Later that year, Clemens moved to Nevada and began writing articles as a newspaper reporter.
In 1863, Clemens began signing his articles with the pseudonym(pen name) Mark Twain. In 1865, Twain finished his first story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"《卡拉维拉县有名的跳蛙》, which became an instant hit. Twain's masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1884)《哈克贝利.费恩历险记》 remains an icon(偶像) of American literature.
In his later years, Twain became a celebrity(famous person), becoming known for wearing white suits wherever he went. Although known mainly as a humorist during his life, scholars now regard his work as some of the best and most authentic(worthy of trust) in American literature. His portraits of pre-civil war America, and his use of spoken language in his novels dominate Twain's legacy._
When you are reading, try to find out the answers to the following questions.
1.When and where was Mark Twain born
2.What was his first story, what was his masterpiece
3.Where was the ￡1,000,000 Bank-note from Why did brothers give it to a stranger
4.What happened to the young man with the ￡1,000,000 bank-note
About_ the ￡1,000,000 Bank-note
英格兰银行出于特殊的需要发行了两张面值一百万的钞票,其中一张收回并作废,但还有一张却留在银行,两兄弟打赌,一个身无分文的人带着这张钞票会发生什么,兄弟A说会死去,兄弟B说他肯定能活一个月.他们物色了一个年轻人做试验,带着这张毫无使用价值的百万英镑钞票.年轻人走进商店买东西,拿出钞票要求找钱,店老板都震惊了并立刻改变态度,极力讨好这个年轻人,年轻人得到了他想得到的,包括爱情和受人尊敬.他爱上的女孩正是兄弟B的女儿.最后,百万英磅被银行收回并作废,年轻人则过上了幸福生活.
The Bank of England once issued two notes of a million pounds each, to be used for a special purpose connected with some public transaction (交易)with a foreign country. For some reason or other only one of these had been used and canceled; the other still lay in the vaults of the Bank.

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