It's Sunday morning. There are many people in Garden Shopping Mall. Mrs. Green and her son, Jim, are also in the shopping mall.

      It is Mr. Green's birthday next Thursday. Mrs. Green wants to buy a new shirt for him. Soon she finds a good one. She thinks it matches Mr. Green's black suit very well. It's $45. But Mrs. Green takes it at a 20% discount (折扣) at last.

      Jim likes sports and he is a member of the school football team. His school will have a football match next Friday, so Mrs. Green buys a pair of new sports shoes for him. Jim's sister, Kate, is busy at school with her dancing lessons. She is going to dance at New Year's party. Mrs. Green buys a pink dress for her because Mrs. Green thinks her daughter (女儿) looks pretty in pink. She also buys some pink hair clips for Kate. She thinks they match Kate's new dress well.

      As for(至于) Mrs. Green, she buys some nice food for herself because she is a food lover.

    Leonardo da Vinci (莱奥纳多·达多奇) was a famous artist who was born in Italy. He was also a great inventor. Many of his inventions have become important in modern life. Although Leonardo hated war, he invented many different machines used for war. His most special invention was the machine gun, which was produced and used in war. Besides, Leonardo spent days thinking about how to save time. He developed ideas for something like cutting machines.

    Leonard was a strange man. He never ate meat. That was very unusual in those times ( 时代). He never published (发表) scientific discoveries. He usually used mirror writing, which looks like usual writing in a mirror, starting from the right side of the page and moving to the left side.

    Only a few of his paintings are left today. Many paintings were not finished because he thought they were not perfect.

    Leonardo was talented and creative. He was regarded as one of the most intelligent men in the world.

Give water, save lives

A bottle of water may not seem like much to you, but thousands of bottles will be of great help for people who live in drought-hit(遭受旱灾) areas in China.

Since last autumn, there has been very little rain in Southwest China. Some places, especially in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, have experienced a serious drought. Crops (庄稼) died, the land cracked(裂开), and wells (井) and rivers dried up. More than 20 million people are having difficulty in finding safe drinking water.

After learning about the drought, many people around the country helped by giving water, money and other things.

Last week, every member of the Communist Youth League (共青团员) and Young Pioneers(少先队员) were encouraged to give one bottle of water to the drought-hit areas. Students in primary schools and middle schools quickly joined the activity. In Yuhua Primary School in Xi' an, 900 students bought over 1,000 bottles of water with their pocket money. They also wrote their wishes on the bottles.

The serious drought has also made students realize the importance of saving water. Students from Nanshan Middle School in Huizhou, Guangdong went on the street to tell people to take part in water-saving activities.

"I've heard that some children in drought-hit areas don't have enough drinking water. They have to drink muddy ( 含有泥土的 ) water. I feel really sad about that," said one student. "I decide to take a shower twice a week instead of every day to save water," he said.