There are manyquestions about William Shakespeare that have been puzzling literary circles. Shakespeare usedmore than 20,000 words in his plays. But where did he learn all these words?Shakespeare never went to any school or university. ___36___ He couldn ’ t even read many books because in histime books were rare. Shakespeare neverwent abroad. ___37___ So how did Shakespeare know about the places, mountains,directions and even roads of a foreign country without ever going there? Hecould not have learned all this from maps which in his time were veryelementary. Still anotherpuzzling fact is that there was no mention of Shakespeare in the first playsthat he is said to have written. His name appeared for the first time on Love ’ s Labour Lost in 1598, five years after his first workcame out. ___38___ 18 plays ofShakespeare came out only after his death. ___39___ Does the silence ofShakespeare about these plays mean that they were not his at all? And if thatwas so, who wrote them? There are no clear answers to the riddle ofShakespeare. ___40___ There were many knowledgeable, widely travelled and greatliterary figures of the day; and such people might have had a reason forwriting under an assumed name( 化名 ). So what is the truth about Shakespeare?Nobody knows for certain. The debate is still going on.