On March 14, one of science's brightest stars went dark, Stephen Hawking, the world-famous British scientist, died at 76 in Cambridge, UK.

    Hawking is considered by many to be the greatest scientist in history since Albert Einstein. He came up with the theory that the universe began with the Big bang and will end in black holes. His theories became the base for a lot of later research. He also wrote books to help common people understand the universe. His most famous book is A Brief History of Time, which has sold more than 1o million copies around the world, according to CNN. Besides his scientific achievements, Hawking was also someone who had a strong will. when he was 21, he got a serious illness that stopped him from walking and talking Later in life, he had to sit in a wheelchair and speak using a computerized voice. But this didn't stop him from living a meaningful and colorful life

    He celebrated his 60th birthday by going up in a hot-air balloon; when he was 65, he took part in a zero-gravity (=Ee flight to experience weightlessness. He hoped to travel into space one day. In 2015, Hawking spoke about how he felt life was unfair when he first knew about his illness. But now, 50 years later, I can be quietly satisfied with my life, he said

Elephants are big, but Teensy was the smallest of them. Teensy tried everything she could think of to help herself grow. She ate a lot. However, nothing seemed to 1 .

One day Teensy went with the elephants to have lunch. They stopped in front of some trees and found their favourite green leaves. Teensy raised her nose and tried again and again, but she couldn't reach the branches. Not even the 2 ones!

At the end of the day, Teensy was with the rest of the elephants watching the 3 . But Teensy couldn't see very much. "Excuse me," said Teensy politely, "I'd like to see more than your knees, if you please." But the elephants didn't hear little Teensy. They were too 4 enjoying the sunset. She knew she was too little to walk away by herself, so she sat and imagined what the sunset must look like. "Oh, I guess it is too pretty for words!" she sighed. Teensy was very sad. "Oh, woe is me，" she said. Suddenly, Teensy heard a tiny voice. "What is woe?" the voice said. Teensy looked down and saw a mouse. "Woe means sad," said Teensy. She told the mouse about seeing only elephant5 instead of the sunset. 

"I'm too little," she said. 

"Why? You're not little at all," said the mouse. 

"Do you think so?" replied Teensy, "I'm sorry you're so small. I know how it feels." "Don't be sorry," said the mouse. "I like being small! I can always fit into corners."

"Wow," said Teensy, "so being 6 CAN be good." 

Jessica stopped to look at the poster in the hallway (走廊) at school. There was a competition from CNSA, one lucky student would have the chance to do his or her experiment in space. But it was just in four weeks, Jessica felt worried and she didn't even get an idea for the project.

Jessica had a biology class next period, and she stayed for a while to talk to her biology teacher, Ms. Li.

"Do you have any idea what I can do for the competition, Ms. Li?" Ms. Li looked at Jessica thoughtfully. "Well, Jessica, I can't tell you exactly what to do, but maybe you could think of an experiment that will be good for people's health. Many plants in China are used in medical treatments. You could consider doing an experiment using one of them." Answered Ms. Li. Jessica smiled and said, "Thank you, Ms. Li, you've given me a seed (种子) of a thought!" Jessica walked away and headed straight to the library. She asked the librarian to help her find books about plant science. After looking through many books, her eyes were drawn to the picture of foxglove (毛地黄), a plant which was in her grandparents' garden.

Then, Jessica did further reading about this plant. She found that it was often used to treat the irregular heartbeats. She was excited about her discovery and believed that her experiment would find out if foxglove would grow more rapidly in space. In the next few weeks, Jessica designed an experiment that tested how different light, soil and water can affect the growth of foxglove plants. A week before the competition, Jessica completed her project, made a few changes her teacher suggested and mailed it to CNSA.

A break one day, Jessica told Ms. Li, "My work is done. The next step is...space!"