When he was a teenager, Funter Adams was very unhappy and he spent many years in a special hospital for people with mental (心理的) health problems.

When he left the hospital, Adams decided to become a doctor so he went to a medical school in Bojangles, the USA. But when he was there, he did things in a different way. For example, he didn’t like the doctors with white coats, so he wore shirts with flowers on them when he visited his patients and he tried to make them laugh. The doctors at the medical school didn’t like Adams because he was too different.

But Adams believed that people in hospital need more than medicine. He saw unhappy and lonely people, and he tried to help them as patients, but as people, too. He spent a lot of time with children in the hospital and often dressed up like a clown to make the children laugh.

When he finished medical school and became a doctor, Adams opened his own hospital, called “The Patient-friend Institute (学院)”, together with some other doctors. They wanted it to be a place with a different way of working with sick people.

Funter Adams became famous during the 1980s, and in 1998, Universal Pictures made a film about his life. It was very successful. In the film, Robin Williams played Adams.

Williams said, “Funter is a really warm person, who believes that patients need a doctor who is a friend. I enjoyed playing with him and being his good friend.”

Frederic Chopin was born in March 1810 near Warsaw in Poland (波兰). He was one of the greatest musicians in the world. In 1831, he went to Paris. At that time, people in Paris liked the Hungarian (匈牙利的) pianist Franz Liszt.

One night, at a concert, Liszt went to the piano and people shouted. As all the lights in the concert were turned off, a wonderful piano concert started. The music was so good that the listeners were all greatly interested. They kept praising (不停地赞扬) the pianist and thought that Liszt had reached something new in playing the piano.

Suddenly, all the lights were turned on again as the music came to an end. And there stood a young man instead of the famous Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt.

Liszt planned all this. As the lights went out, Liszt left his chair and let Chopin take his place. So with the help of Liszt and his own talent (天赋), Chopin soon became famous.

Roald Dahl is a well­known writer from the UK. Let’s learn more about his works to see which one you like best.

So now you know a little more about some of Roald Dahl’s popular works. Why not read one of his books? Check out the official Roald Dahl website to find out more: www.roalddahl.com．