Sometimes a book can help change history. One book that certainly did was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was a book that spoke out against slavery.

As Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her book, there were over 3.5 million slaves in the United States. Slaves were usually in the cotton growing states of the South. The Northern States had ended slavery. Yet, most Northerners were not strongly against slavery. They did not mind that slavery continued in the South.

Stowe decided to make people understand that slavery was very bad. Each night after putting her six children to bed, she worked on her book. She told the story of an old slave, Tom, and Simon Legree, a slave owner. She also told how the slaves tried to run away for freedom. Uncle Tom’s Cabin first came out in 1852. Over 300,000 books were sold out in a year.

People had different ideas about the book. In the North, many people finally believed that slavery must be ended after they read the book. In the South, many people were very angry at the people in the North. By 1861 the two parts of the country were at war. The Civil War, which lasted until 1865, finally brought an end to slavery at last.

Of course, there were many things that made the Civil War happen. Yet, Uncle Tom’s Cabin surely played a part. Stowe met President Lincoln in 1862. As Lincoln took her hand, he said, “So you are the little woman who started the big war.”

As we all know, books are very important to us. They can provide us with many useful things. 【小题1】 However, how can you become a good reader? Do you know what effective ways to read are? I suggest you should follow these tips.

【小题2】 Libraries are wonderful places to find a variety of books. What’s more, you can fix your attention on the book in this quiet, comfortable place because you won’t be disturbed. You can also relax yourself in this comfortable place.

Pick out reading materials that most interest you. Finding materials that interest you is the first important step in improving your reading. 【小题3】 If you have trouble understanding what the author’s trying to say, you may not enjoy the book. If you are interested in a book, you will enjoy reading it again and again.

Know what your purpose is. If you want to learn the language, you should learn the sentence structures, the useful words and expressions that you may need to use later. 【小题4】 The more words you are exposed to, the more your vocabulary will grow. This will help you write a good composition. 【小题5】

Thanks to a rereading of Jane Austen’s fiction, I have experienced a rejuvenation (恢复) of spirit and energy that has transformed my life. Rereading for the sheer pleasure of Austen’s language and characters when I experienced some depression in my 60s initiated a process that became more serious as I continued to reread the novels in my 70s and became more and more curious about the relationship between reading, learning and the imagination.

Now I find that the processes of rereading, investigation and reflection have led me to the best time in my life. It raised issues in my mind about memory, truth telling and art. In weaving together these aspects of my own reading experiences, I discovered parts of myself that I had not previously explored.

On the one hand I felt removed sufficiently to evaluate the best and worst of times in my own life. And on the other hand, I became so deeply immersed in the reflective process that I surprisedly realized the longstanding dissatisfactions were evaporating around me.

Of course, to be worth rereading, novels must have the potential to yield new insights. For this reason, I have reread Austen’s same six novels many times. They have offered me the richness and complexity required to help me reassess where I am in my life, the quality of my relationships past and present, and the values at stake in my life choices.

When I read Pride and Prejudice at the age of 15, I read it as a domestic comedy. I loved the Bennet sisters because they were lively and, for all their bickering, they were having fun. Rereading the same novel in my 30s I put my attention elsewhere. I paid serious attention to whether I could reconcile (和解) myself to Charlotte Lucas !s view that happiness in marriage is a matter of chance.

At the age of 90, I reread, reflect and comfort myself with Elizabeth Bennet’s words, “till this moment I never knew myself’. This is the moment I have been waiting for.