Wang Shu, a Chinese architect(建筑师), has been working hard at designing buildings with old materials. His buildings are like a history book. Visitors will feel like they are in old times. He was given the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize(普利兹克建筑奖). The award is regarded as the Nobel Prize in architecture. It is given to a living architect, who has made great achievement in this field. Mr. Wang is the first Chinese citizen to win the prize and the fourth-youngest.

    The prize was founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, Cindy. It includes a $100, 000 check and a medal. The prize was given to Mr. Wang at a ceremony in Beijing on May 25.

    Mr. Wang's major projects, all in China, include two in Ningbo, a city near the sea. One is the Ningbo Modern Art Museum. It was built up in 2005. The other one is the Ningbo Historic Museum, and it was finished in 2008.

The museums reused materials from the destroyed buildings. They are wonderful to be in photos. You will feel even more exciting if you travel in them. The Ningbo Historic Museum is a city symbol and is like a history book which tells you what life was in the past.   

  “Everywhere you can see, they don't care about the materials, ”  Mr. Wang said in an interview. “They just want new buildings. I think the material is not just about materials. They have people's experience, memory—many things inside. ”

      A few years ago, the company I worked for sent my wife and me to live in New York for a year. I've always loved running, so I was happy when I found out the house we lived in was next to Central Park. This means I could go to the park to run every morning before I went to work.

      A lot of people had told me to be careful of robbers in the park, so usually I didn't take any money with me. But one morning, my wife gave me a $10 bill and asked me to buy some bread on the way.

      While I was running through the park, another runner knocked into me. Just as I was wondering what was happening, he said sorry to me and went on running. I thought it was kind of strange, and suddenly I thought of my money, so I checked my pocket and found that my money was missing. Without thinking twice, I ran after that runner. The minute I held him by the arm, I shouted, “Give my money back! Now!” I'm not usually a hot-headed person, but I got really angry this time. He seemed to be afraid and he took out the money and gave it to me. Then he ran away as quickly as he could.

      I bought the bread and went home. As soon as I got home, I began to tell my wife my story. “You won't believe what happened to me.” I started. She immediately stopped me, “I know, you left the money for the bread on the kitchen table.”

    Life is full of surprises and you never know how things will turn out.

    Sir John Gurdon is a good example of this. As a boy, he was told he was hopeless at science and was at bottom of his class. Now, aged 79，the very same Gurdon shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Japanese stem cell (干细胞) researcher Shinya Yamanaka.

    Like so many scientists, Gurdon shows us where the power of curiosity and perseverance(坚持) can lead.

    When he was 15 in 1948，Gurdon ranked last out of the 250 boys at his high school in biology and every other science subject. Gurdon's high school science teacher even said that his dream of becoming a scientist was "quite ridiculous".

In spite of his teacher's criticisms(批评), Gurdon followed his curiosity and kept working hard. He went to the lab early and left later than anyone else. He experienced thousands of failures.

     "My own belief is that we will, in the end，understand everything about how cells actually work，"Gurdon said.

    In 1962, Gurdon took a cell from an adult frog and moved its genetic (基因的) information into an egg cell. The egg cell then grew into a clone of the adult frog. This technique later helped to create the sheep Dolly in 1996，the first cloned mammal(哺乳动物) in the world.In 2006，Gurdon's work was developed by Yamanaka to show that a sample(样本) of a person's skin can be used to create stem cells. Using this technique, doctors can repair a patient's heart after a heart attack."Luck favors the prepared mind," Gurdon told the Nobel Prize Organization. "Ninety percent of the time things don't work, but when they do, you have to seize(抓住) the chance.

    There was a time when no one knew the name Harry Potter. Now the adventures of this extraordinary student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are read in over 45 languages, including Russian, Thai, and even ancient Greek. No one can explain the Harry Potter phenomenon (现象) – not even J.K. Rowling, his creator.

    J.K. Rowling was born in England in 1965. From a young age, she knew she wanted to be a writer. When she was 6, she wrote her first story—about a rabbit that gets sick. At school, she used to make up stories to tell her friends.

    After graduation from college, she worked as a secretary. But she didn't give up her dream.She spent her lunch hour writing stories, mainly for adults. Then in 1990, on a train trip to London,she got the idea from the boy wizard. She says he just appeared in her head. She soon created many other characters to help Harry fight the forces of darkness.

    She kept working on the story while she was teaching English in Portugal, where she married, had her first child, and divorced (与……离婚) a year later. When she returned to England, she brought back a box of Harry Potter stories.

    After returning home, she was broke and living in a small house. She continued writing, and in 1995, finished the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was published (出版) in 1997 and became an unexpected bestseller.

    Rowling's life has changed a lot. She has become internationally famous and now earns around $40 million a year. She remarried, had a second child and lives in Scotland now.

    "You have saved my horse." Queen Olivia told the young boy standing before her. "Now you shall get a gift for what you did." Peter nervously ran his fingers through his brown hair. That day when he was working in the field，the shocked horse ran past him. Without thinking，he rushed out and controlled it. He didn't know it was the Queen's horse and never expected to get a gift. But he still felt happy for getting one.

    Two of the queen's men appeared. One carried a mirror. Red jewels(珠宝)shone on top of the mirror's silver frame(框架). The other carried a wooden cage with a chicken inside it.

    "Only one gift call be yours," the queen said. "Choose wisely." "That's easy," Peter said. "I'll take the chicken." Some of the queen's men laughed. It was clear that they thought he had made a foolish choice.

    "And why did you choose the chicken?" the queen asked. "Well, I don't know much about jewels," Peter answered. "But I do know about chickens. The chicken will provide eggs for my family for a long while."

    Queen Olivia smiled. "Then you did make a wise choice," she said. "That minor may look beautiful. But the jewels you see are only colored glass, and the frame is painted silver. The chicken is much more valuable." Peter took the chicken and bowed. "Thank you, your majesty."

    "You are a smart child." the queen added. "I could use a smart boy to help take care of my horses. Would you like to take the job?" Peter smiled. "Thank you very much!" he said excitedly. A job at the castle paid well. Now his family wouldn't worry about their food any more--all because he was kind to help others and smart enough to make the right choice!

    Mrs Green sees an ad(广告)in a newspaper for a nice bed in a shop. It costs 100 dollars. Mrs Green likes it, so she goes to the shop. The shopkeeper shows one to her. Mrs Green has a look at it and says, "There aren't any beautiful pillows(枕头)on this bed, but there are many on the bed in your ad. "

    "Yes, madam, that is an ad," answers the shopkeeper. "If you want a bed the same as the one in the ad, you need to pay lo dollars more."

    Mrs Green isn't happy. Then she says, "That's dishonest."

    "Well, madam," answers the shopkeeper. "Look, there is a girl on a bike in an ad in your newspaper too, but can you buy the bike with the girl?"