1.  96421612 莊以如 Iris  96421354 張華儀 Charney  96420830 黃于君 Doreen  95421330 郭佳宜 Jeannie  95423080 陳玉薇 Vicky

2.  “Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted. During his lifetime, Twain became a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty”(Wiki).

3.  “Twain enjoyed immense public popularity. His keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature”(Wiki).

4.  “The narrator is sent on an errand to visit an old man, Simon Wheeler by a friend to find an old acquaintance of his. This is clearly a joke, because once the narrator gets there and asks about the acquaintance, Wheeler immediately begins to tell a long, droll story about Jim Smiley”(wiki).

5.  “Jim Smiley is addicted to gambling. He bets on anything from the death of Parson Walker's wife to fights between his bulldog pup, Andrew Jackson, and other dogs. One day, a stranger to the town agrees to bet on a frog jumping higher than Jim's frog, Dan'l Webster. When Jim is not looking, the stranger pours lead bullets into the frog's mouth, weighing it down so that he wins the bet”(wiki).

6.  “At this point in the story, Wheeler is called by someone on the front porch. When his attention is turned, the narrator makes his leave”(wiki).

8.  Yes. I think Mark Twain narrated the story to satirize those uneducated western people.  “The West was thought to be wild and woolly, and populated by rough, uneducated pioneers. Easterners, on the other hand, were assumed to be more educated, polite, cultured, and sophisticated — in a word, “genteel.”(Answers).”

9.  As you can see, we can find Wheeler (westerner) is rude and impolite. I think the narrator subjectively use the adjective ”monotonous” to describe him bored.

10.  “If there was a horse race, you'd find him flush, or you'd find him busted at the end of it; if there was a dogfight, he'd bet on it; if there was a cat-fight, he'd bet on it; if there was a chicken-fight, he'd bet on it; why, if there was two birds setting on a fence, he would bet you which one would fly first; or if there was a camp meeting, he would be there regular, to bet on Parson Walker, which he judged to be the best exhorter about here, and so he was, too, and a good man. If he even seen a straddlebug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get wherever he was going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddlebug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road. Lots of the boys here has seen that Smiley, and can tell you about him. Why, it never made no difference to him - he would bet on anything - the dangdest feller.

11.  The whole paragraph is describing what a stupid behavior Jim Smiley did and he bet on everything, for example, he even bet his friend’s sick wife whether she would die.  “Well, I'll risk two-and-a-half that she don't, anyway.”

12.  “Why, I’ve seen him set Dan’l Webster down here on this floor Dan’l Webster was the name of the frog and sing out.”  “And a dog might tackle him, and bullyrag him, and bite him, and throw him over his shoulder two or three times, and Andrew Jackson - which was the name of the pup …”

13.  I think it is merely a story, and Wheeler is a country man who is earnest and sincere to help the narrator.

14.  “And turning to me as he moved away, he said: "Just set where you are, stranger, and rest easy - I ain't going to be gone a second.”  “At the door I met the sociable Wheeler returning, and he buttonholed me and recommenced: Well, thish-yer Smiley had a yeller one-eyed cow that didn't have no tail, only jest a short stump like a bannanner, and —"

15. I think it is just a story. No satire. Simon Wheeler is a country man who is earnest and sincere to help the narrator. Earnest and sincere is a personality that is always impressed on the country people. They don’t have any bad ideas or thoughts for the outsiders. In the story, the narrator wanted to find Leonidas W. Smiley so the narrator asked Wheeler.

16. Wheeler would help the narrator and maybe he thought Jim Smiley and Leonidas W. Smiley had the relationship or they’re maybe the same person so Wheeler just told something special and impressed to the narrator about Jim Smiley. The last paragraph is talking about Wheeler wanted to leave. He can’t endure the story but Wheeler was still enthusiastic and still told Jim’s story. It reveals the country people’s personality-earnest.

17. In my opinion, I agree that the story is satirical, not merely a story as Iris mentioned.

18. 1. From the first sentence in this story, it shows that the narrator clearly emphasizes the difference between east and west by distinguishing from Simon Wheeler’s and Smiley’s characteristics. “ In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after my friend's friend, Leonidas W. Smiley, as requested to do, and I hereunto append the result. “

19. 2. Besides, we feel more satirical when we see the stranger who bets Smiley is actually an Easterner. It’s totally different from what the original concept Charney has said that the West was thought to be wild and woolly, and populated by rough, uneducated pioneers. Easterners, on the other hand, were assumed to be more educated, polite, cultured, and sophisticated. “Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and blockaded me there with his chair, and then sat me down and reeled off the monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph.” → Here it shows that the as a western person, Simon Wheeler is rude and impolite, not just like what Iris said “Wheeler is a country man who is earnest and sincere to help the narrator”.

20. 3. As we know, Smiley bets on anything he sees. However, finally he was still cheated by a stranger. In the beginning, Smiley was very proud of his frog, and exaggerated on describing his frog. In the end, the frog lost the competition. "It might be a parrot, or it might be a canary, may be, but it an't it's only just a frog." "He's good enough for one thing, I should judge he can outjump any frog in Calaveras county." "Why, blame my cats, if he don't weigh five pound!" and turned him upside down, and he belched out a double handful of shot. And then he see how it was, and he was the maddest man he set the frog down and took out after that feller, but he never ketchd him.