Once I went to a railway station near New York. I tried to take the night train there. Crowds of people were pushing into the 1 train. I found a railway official and asked him if I could get a place in the train, but he said sharply, "No, you can't. The train is full. Don't trouble me any more."

    I was very hurt indeed. I said to the friend who was with me. "They talk to me like this2they don't know that I am a famous writer. If they knew..."But before I could finish my sentence my friend said, "Don't be foolish. How could that help you? Whoever you are, there are no empty seats on the train." I was3he was wrong, so I went up to the same official again and told him that I was Mark Twain. But all he said was," I told you not to trouble me any more."

    Just then I4a young porter in a sleeping car looking at me. He whispered something to the train conductor, and that conductor came over to me and said very politely, "Do you need help, sir?" "I5do." I answered.

    The porter took our boxes and we got on to the train. When we were comfortably seated in our places, my friend said, "I am sorry I said those things to you just now..." Just then the porter came and said, "Oh, sir, I recognized you immediately." "Really?" I Said6. "Of course," he said, "I recognized you and told the conductor that you" are Mr Smith, the mayor(市长) of New York city.

    "There is no love which is more sincere than the love of food," said Anglo Irish writer George Bernard Shaw. Like Bernard Shaw, many writers efood very much, and they say and write interesting things about it.

    British poet Owen Meredith (1831- 1891) learnt a lot about food when he lived in Paris. He famously said, "We may live without friends, we may live without books, but civilized(文明的) men cannot live without c."

    American writer Mark Twain also wrote a lot about food. "When you have twatermelon," he wrote, "you know what angels eat."

    American cookbook writer Alice May Brock has some simple rules about food from different c. "If you want to cook international food, it's easy," she wrote. "Put tomatoes on the plate and it's Italian. Use soy sauce and it's Chinese. Awine to the recipe(食谱) and it's French. Sour cream makes it Russian and lemon makes it Greek. But garlic makes it good! Cheers!" Tea and coffee are even more Ifor some people. There is a Chinese saying, "It is better to go without food for three days, than tea for one."

    The former American President Abraham Lincoln was often rude about the tea and coffee which was served to him. For example, he was in a Washington restaurant one day, and when the main meal was over, a cup of hot Iwas placed in front of him. He drank a bit and was clearly angry. "Waiter," he said, "if this is coffee, please bring me some tea; and if this is tea, please bring me some coffee."

— I'm afraid I ______________, dear. We are short of money now.