I have just returned from a visit to my landlord, Mr. Heathcliff. I am delighted with the house I am renting from him, which suits me perfectly.

Mr. Heathcliff is my only neighbour, and I think his character is similar to mine. He does not like people either.

When I introduced myself, he said nothing, but frowned, and did not encourage me to enter. After a while, however, he decided to invite me in.

“Joseph!” he called. Joseph was an old servant. He looked crossly up at me as he took my horse. “God help us! A visitor!” he whispered to himself. Perhaps there were no other servants, I thought. And it seemed that Heathcliff hardly ever received guests.

His house is called Wuthering Heights. The name means “a windswept house on a hill”, and it is a very good description. The trees around the house are bent by the north wind, which blows fiercely every day of the year. Fortunately, the house is strongly built, and is not damaged even by the worst winter storms.

Mr. Heathcliff and I entered the huge main room. We sat down by the fire, in silence.

“Joseph!” shouted Mr. Heathcliff. No answer came from the cellar, so he dived down there, leaving me alone with several rather fierce-looking dogs. Suddenly one of them jumped angrily up at me, and in a moment all the others were attacking me.

“Help! Mr. Heathcliff! Help!” I shouted. My landlord was nowhere to be seen, but luckily a woman, who might be the housekeeper, rushed into the room to calm the dogs.

“What is the matter?” Mr. Heathcliff asked me rudely, as he finally entered the room, accompanied by his man-servant.

“Your dogs, sir!” I replied. “You shouldn’t leave a stranger with them. They’re dangerous.”

“Come, come, Mr. Lockwood. Have some wine. We don’t often have strangers here. I’m afraid neither I nor my dogs are used to receiving them.” I could not feel offended after this, and accepted the wine. We sat drinking and talking together for a while. I suggested visiting him tomorrow. He did not seem eager to see me again, but I shall go anyway. He seems a fascinating man.

You don’t know me. I have chosen you to be my pen friend. Our English teacher said it would be a good thing if we all chose a pen friend, as it would help with our writing. I chose you from a list of people wanting a pen friends in last Sunday’s paper. I hope you haven’t had so many letters that you can’t reply to me.

I chose you for two reasons. I like the sound of your name, and you live in the country. I’ve only been to the country once. We live in high buildings — our flat is on the tenth floor. But that doesn’t mean people can’t look in. I mean in the city planes go past all the time, and you never know who could be in them. And, anyway, at night when the lights are on, people from other flats can look in, and who would want that?

I’ll tell you a bit about myself. I’ve worked hard at being interesting, because I’m not much to good at. My name is Maria. I hate it. There are five Marias in our class. I am by far the most exciting of the five.

I live in Richmond, in Melbourne, with my beautiful mother and boring father, and a brother who is best ignored. I go to South Richmond High School, and I’m fourteen, just.

My mother works with a cosmetic company (化妆品公司). My father is a public servant and does nothing. Actually, he is a clerk in the railways but I prefer to call him a public servant. It makes him sound cleverer than he is.

I think you are the only one called Emily in your class. Please answer soon and tell me about yourself and your family and everything.

Rachel Louise Carson was born on May 27th, 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She grew up on a farm where she learnt about nature and animals. Rachel loved reading and writing stories when she was young. She even had a story published when she was only ten years old. One of Rachel’s favorite subjects was oceanology(海洋生物学).

Rachel attended college at the Pennsylvania College for Women where she majored in biology. She later got her master’s（硕士） degree in zoology from John’s Hopkins University. After graduation, Rachel taught for a while and then got a job at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. At first, she wrote for a weekly radio program that educated people on marine（海洋的） biology. Later, she became a marine biologist and chief editor of publications for the Fish and Wildlife Service. In addition to her work at the Fish and Wildlife Service, Rachel wrote articles for magazines about the ocean. In 1941, she published her first book called Under the Sea Wind. However, her second book, The Sea Around Us, made her famous. The Sea Around Us was published in 1951 and was on the New York Times bestseller list for 39 weeks. With the success of the book, Rachel quit her job at the Fish and Wildlife Service and concentrated on writing full-time.

After World WarⅡ, farmers began to use pesticides (农药) such as DDT on their crops. Rachel was concerned about the effects that large-scale spraying of DDT may have on the health of people as well as the environment. Rachel began to gather research material on pesticides and write a book about the subject.

Rachel spent four years gathering research material and writing the book. She named it Silent Spring referring to bird death due to pesticides and the spring being silent without their songs. Published in 1962, the book became very popular and brought the environmental issues of pesticides to the general public.

On April 14th, 1964, she died of breast cancer in her home in Maryland.