Ma Twain
馬克·吐溫(Mark Twain，1835—1910年)，原名塞姆·朗赫恩·克列門斯(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)，是美國的幽默大師、小說家、作家，著名演說家。他的兩部姊妹篇小說《湯姆·索亞曆險記》和《哈克貝·芬曆險記》深受世界各國讀者歡迎，被公認為美國的不朽名篇。其他作品主要有《王子與貧兒》、《赤道漫遊記》、《傻瓜威爾遜》等等。雖然他並不富裕，卻無損其幽默、機智與名氣，是美國最知名人士之一。他交遊廣闊，威廉·迪安·豪威爾士、布克·華盛頓、尼古拉·特斯拉、海倫·凱勒、亨利-羅傑等人，皆為其友。他曾被譽為： “美國文學史上的林肯”。
馬克·吐溫的寫作風格融幽默與諷刺一體，既富於獨特的個人機智與妙語，又不乏深刻的社會洞察與剖析，即使幽默辛辣的短篇傑作，也富有悲天憫人的嚴肅。他一生中寫了大量的作品，《百萬英鎊》《好運》《傻子出國記》等都是其代表作，下文選自《傻子出國記》。
馬克·吐溫於1910年4A 21日去世，安葬於紐約州艾瑪拉。
A fast walker could go outside the walls of Jerusalem and walk entirely around the city in an hour．I dO not know how else to make one understand how small it is．The appearance of the city is peculiar．It is as knobby with countless little domes as a prison door is with bolt-heads．Every house has from one to half a dozen of these white plastered domes of stone，broad and low，sitting in he centre of,or in a cluster upon，thefiat roof．Wherefore，when one looks down from an eminence，upon the compact mass of houses(SO closely crowded together，in fact，that there iS no appearance of streets at all，and SO the city looks solid)．he sees the knobbiest town in the world，except Constantinople．It looks as if it might be roofed，from centre to circumference，with inverted saucers．The monotony of the view is interrupted only by the great Mosque of Omar，the Tower of Hippicus，and one or two other buildings that rise into commanding prominence．
The house are generally two stories high，built strongly of masonry，whitewashed or plastered outside，and have a cage of wooden lattice—work projecting in front of every window．To reproduce a Jerusalem street，it would only be necessary to up-end a chicken——coop and hang it before each window in an alley of American houses．