In 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg on its first trip across the Atlantic, and it sank four hours later. At that time, the Titanic was the largest ship that had ever traveled on the sea. It was carrying 2207 people, but it had taken on enough lifeboats for only 1178 people. When the passengers tried to leave the ship,
only 651 of them were able to get into lifeboats.

Mount Everest, 29,002 feet high, is situated on the boarder of Tibet and Nepal. Since the end of the nineteenth century climbers have been ambitious to conquer Everest and stand on the highest point of land in the world. On Friday, 29 May 1953, two members of the British Everest Expedition succeeded in reaching the top. They were the first men known
to have done so.

James Naismith invented basketball in 1891. Naismith was a Canadian, but lived in the United States. He was a teacher
at Springfield Training School in the state of Massachusetts.

This year we decided to have a special celebration of Mother's Day. We thought it a fine idea. It made us all realize how much Mother had done for us. So we decided that we would make a great day, a holiday for all the family,
and do everything we could to make Mother happy.

A tourist was travelling alone in the desert. After two weeks his car stopped working. He got out and started walking. He was lost and he had no water. It was very hot and he became very thirsty. After five hours he saw a small tent in front of him. There was a woman in the tent. The tourist said to the woman, "Water. Please sell me some water." "I'm sorry. I haven't any water. I am taking ties to the market to sell,"
the woman replied.

When my mother finally became too old to live alone, we decided that she should stay with us in town. I was surprised at the amount of furniture she had. All those ancient chest of drawers and wardrobes, antique armchairs and settees, valuable vases, pictures of our ancestors in golden frames and many other decorations that she had been collecting for years. There definitely was no room in our flat to store all that, so we had to leave it in her house. I always intended to clear it out and sell the place, but somehow I kept putting it off. One night I woke suddenly at four o'clock, almost in
tears.

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the
next day would be Christmas.

When I was a boy I lived along way from school. I had to walk through the forest to get to our school. I usually took
my father's gun with me.

The USA is the country which observes many national holidays. But there is no official list of national holidays because the establishment of holidays is within the province of the individual states. In most states banks, post-offices
and most places of business are closed on these days.

Twelfth Night, the 5th of January, is the eve of Twelfth Day, of the Feast of the Epiphany, twelve days after Christmas. In old times it was the most popular festival next to Christmas and Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night" produced in 1602, was so called because it was written to be acted at the Twelfth Night festivities. Most authorities agree that the festival was a survival of the old festival of Saturn, which was held at this season and which was a time of great merrymaking. Through the centuries the custom of celebrating Twelfth Night has almost died out; it is now chiefly remembered as the time by
which all Christmas decorations should be dismantled.