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.

    A young and successful man was driving down a street in his new Jaguar (捷豹汽车). He was going too fast. As his car passed, a brick (砖块) knocked into the Jaguar's side door. He was very angry and drove the car back to the place where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver jumped out of the car and stopped the nearest kid, shouting, "Who are you? What are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do that?"

    The young boy was apologetic. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do," he said. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop."

    With tears dropping down his face, the young boy pointed to a place just around a parked car. "It's my brother," he said, "he fell out of his wheelchair (轮椅) and I can't lift him up."

    Crying, the boy asked the man, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me." Moved deeply, the driver hurriedly lifted the disabled boy into the wheelchair.

    "Thank you and God bless you," the thankful child told the man. And the man simply watched the little boy push his brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

    It was a long and slow walk back to the Jaguar. The dent (凹痕) was very noticeable, but the driver didn't want to repair the side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.

    God speaks to our hearts every day. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, he has to throw a brick at us.

A man was walking through a forest. There {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (be) a few caps in his hands. There were lots of monkeys in {#blank#}2{#/blank#} forest. It was very hot{#blank#}3{#/blank#} he was very tired. So he{#blank#}4{#/blank#} (decide) to have a rest under a tree. Soon he was{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (sleep) with a cap on his head. When he woke up, he couldn't find his caps. He looked for them everywhere. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (final) he found some monkeys in the tree, and each had a cap on its head. He    {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (point) to the monkeys and shouted to {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (they). He wanted to get his caps back. But the    {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (monkey) didn't understand him. Then he had an idea. He took off his own cap and threw it on the ground. The monkeys did the same thing. The man picked{#blank#}10{#/blank#} all the caps and went away.

My pen friend is Lily. She lives in New Zealand. It's next to Australia. She is a smart girl. She likes football. She wants to be a football coach( 教 练 ). She goes to school on foot. She has a brother. His name is Jill. He is only five. He likes singing. Her father is a baseball player. Her mother is a reporter(记者). She works in a TV station(电视台). She is 40 years old She likes using computers. They both go to work by car. They are very happy. 

Hangzhou is a city full of landscapes, culture and history. It {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (welcome) visitors from all over the world.

Hangzhou is famous {#blank#}2{#/blank#} its landscapes. The West Lake is one of {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (they). People can visit it anytime {#blank#}4{#/blank#} the West Lake is beautiful all year round. Visitors can walk, bike or boat around the West Lake. They can always feel {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (exciting)!

Hangzhou is {#blank#}6{#/blank#} great place to learn about Chinese culture and history. It {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (be) one of the ancient capitals of China. Here you can visit many great {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (museum). You can also take a boat trip along the Grand Canal (大运河).

It is {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (wonder) to visit Meijiawu Tea Village in Hangzhou on weekends. There people {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (usual) pick (采摘) Longjing tea leaves by hand in the morning. It is believed that Longjing from Hangzhou is the most delicious green tea in China.