1. My Platonic Sweetheart
Mark Twain

2. Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is most noted for his novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel."

3. Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a printer. He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion's newspaper. After toiling as a printer in various cities, he became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion. He was a failure at gold mining, so he next turned to journalism. While a reporter, he wrote a humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," which became very popular and brought nationwide attention. His travelogues were also well received. Twain had found his calling.

4. Mark Twain( )

5. Mark Twain’s Masterpieces

6. Mark Twain’s Writing Features
represented social life through portraits of local places which he knew best
drew from his own rich fund of knowledge of people and places
local colour
tall tales (highly exaggerated)
a texture of most local color literature，a kink of humor

7. a master of language American dialect an American language
“Mark Twain was the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs, who descended from him."
he used colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects
short
concrete
direct in effect
American dialect
words
an American language
sentence & structures
simple, even ungrammatical

8. Mark Twain’s Writing Features
is of witty remarks mocking at small things and making people laugh
humour
is a kind of artistic style used to criticize the social injustice

9. Writing Characteristics of Mark Twain
Literature is an art of language. Mark Twain’s language is artistic and like a sharp weapon without doubt. Mark Twain is famous for his humor and satire.
Mark Twain’s humor is based on the humor of the Western in America.
He used a lot of colloquial idioms and colloquial syntax.
He often described persons who was innocent, simple, naive, and ignorant as his heroes or heroines.
He used the artistic style of hyperbole on the basis of the western traditional humor and made his writing full of allegories that lay behind the humor.

11. Reading Parts Mr. Bell (Iowa) Mr. Van Nostrand (New Jersey)
Mark Twain
Richard H. Gaston (Minnesota)
Mr. John J. Williams (Illinois)
Mr. Wm. R Adams (Indiana)
Mr. Charles J. Langdon
Mr. Slote (New York)
Mr. A.L. Bascom (Ohio)
Mr. Rev. James Sawyer (Tennessee)
Mr. Bell (Iowa)
Mr. Van Nostrand (New Jersey)
Mr. Morgan (Alabama)
Mr. Rogers (Missouri)
The Chair (need to be in charge)
Mr. Halliday (Virginia)
Conductor: