Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Italy. He is best known as an artist today. One of his famous paintings is called Mona Lisa. However, Leonardo had many other natural abilities. He was also a great inventor. Many of his inventions have become important in modern daily 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 many years later.

    By watching the way birds fly, Leonardo tried to find out the secret of flying. Among his sketch (素描) we can see several objects. We consider them as modern flying machines.

    Leonardo spent many hours thinking about how to make good use of time. He developed ideas for labor-saving machines like cutting machines.

Leonardo was a strange man. He didn't eat any meat, which was very unusual in those times. He never published(发表) his ideas and scientific discoveries. He usually used mirror writing, which looks like writing in a mirror, starting from the right side of the page and moving to the left.

    We have very little of his work today. Leonardo finished only a few of his paintings. He left many unfinished because he thought they were not perfect. No one in his life time knew how great Leonardo was. We now believe, however, that he was one of the cleverest men the world has ever known.

    Some people like to collect stamps. Others prefer posters or coins. But Pinky Bhutia is different. She collects children. In her mountain village, in Sikkim, she is known as the wonderful young woman who adopts(领养) all the children she can.

    Pinky was 14 when she adopted her first child, a Nepali baby girl, whose patents passed away. Pinky's parents did not mind. Pinky left school and started working full time because she had a baby to feed. Today , she has twelve adopted children, and two sons from her marriage.

    Pinky is about 30 years old and she comes from a common family. If you passed her on the street, you wouldn't give her a second look. She lives in a brown mud-washed(泥刷的) house. There is a vegetable garden outside. Red hens with noisy chicks run all over the garden looking for food.

    If you ask her why she provides a home for so many kids, she smiles shyly. But her eyes are serious. "I know what it is to be poor and hungry." As a child, her only dream was to eat a full meal, and her favorite amusement was watching people with shoes and imagining what it felt like. By adopting poor and homeless children she is making sure that they never feel that hopeless.

    Pinky feels very proud when she sees her children happy and bright, her oldest baby, Aarita Rai, is now 20 years old, Then, there is 19-year-old Nimbe who came to Pinky because her mother was unable to look after her. She started to work in a government office two years ago. Ten-year-old Bhim and 14-year-old Kumar came to Pinky five years ago, after their father's death. They started living on a patch of land given by Pinky and grew vegetables for sale.

    "I like children. It's not one more mouth to feed but one more soul saved," Pinky says.

    What could a poem writer and a film director share? More than you think！Langston Hughes began writing poems in high school and soon became one of America's greatest writers. Most of his writing is about his experiences as an African American. He wrote poems about people who worked hard through life but still found things to be happy about. He wrote plays and books about justice(正义)for all people, and he wrote kids' books, too. The Sweet and Sour Animal Book is a book of his animal poems. Pictures and photos were used in the book." Hold fast to dreams" is a line in a famous Hughes poem. That's exactly what he did throughout his life.

    When Steven Spielberg was in middle school, he wanted to make a film. He had an idea for a film, but no money. He started a tree-planting business and made his film with the money he earned. Spielberg never stopped making films, even after many film schools refused him. Today he is one of the most popular and important filmmakers in the world. His films are about people who are adventurous(爱冒险的), brave, kind. His characters often fight for what is good. Some of his films are about his Jewish background, such as Schindler's List. Spielberg once said, "I don't dream that much at night because I dream for a living." In different ways, both Hughes and Spielberg have encouraged people of all ages to reach for their dreams.

    Jim gets up very early and he finds some changes in his house. He looks around carefully and he sees that:

    The big tree is on the right side of the house, but now it's on the left.

    There is a dog house in the corner of the yard, but now it's gone. Where is the dog house?

    The green clock in his bedroom changes into a yellow one.

    "Mom! Mom! An alien(外星人)changes our house!" Jim runs to his mom and says. Mom is cleaning the living room. She's not surprised(惊讶的)at all. "Oh, it's your dad. He thinks our house is too boring and he wants to have some changes. What do you think of the changes? Do you like them?"