This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. As I searched the name, I found that there were two famous people having the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts（花生）, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice: let the coin decide. I flipped(掷) a coin and Ah! Tails (背面)! My report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.

    Weeks later, I stood in front of the classroom and proudly read my homework. But things started to get strange. I looked around the room, only to find my classmates with big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes and my stone-faced teacher. I was completely lost. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”

    Oh well, I dropped the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American War of Independence.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that my teacher meant that George Washington?

    Of course, my subject result was awful. Sad but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to the headmaster Miss Lancelot, but she said firmly(坚决地): No re-dos; no new score. I felt that it was not fair, and I believed I should have a second chance. So I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, I sat in the headmaster's office again, but this time a completely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the terrible moment at the beginning of the year when the headmaster told me I was good enough to skip(跳过) the 6th grade and started the 7th grade next term.

    A young man couldn't sleep well every night. He was very worried. One day he went to see the doctor. The doctor looked him over carefully. But nothing wrong with him. The doctor told him to count from 1 to 10 again and again. “Keep doing it until you fall asleep,” the doctor said.

    After a few days, the young man came to the doctor again. But to his surprise, the doctor found the young man was even worse than before! “Didn't you count as I told you?” the doctor asked. “Yes, I did,” the young man answered. “But every time when I reached eight, I couldn't help jumping from bed.”

    “But why?” the doctor wanted to know. The young man said, “I am a boxer.”(拳击运动员)

根据短文内容完成下列句子。

    Mr. Smith is a teacher. He is near-sighted（近视的）. But he doesn't wear glasses. One day, he is walking in a street. He is thinking something. Suddenly a strong wind blows his cap off his head. Mr. Smith runs after it.

    He wants to catch it but he can't. At this time, an old woman from a door of the house says to him,

    "Hi! What are you doing, sir?"

    "Running after my cap."

    "Your cap? Aha… that's my black cat," she says.

    "Your cat? Sorry, but where is my cap?"

    Homeless people face a lot of challenges, - such as not having enough to eat and no job opportunities. Some of the most basic challenges, - however, -are not having clean water and toiletries (卫生用品)-a big problem for homeless teens. That encouraged a young researcher to invent a multi-purpose product to help these teens.

    "I was born into a life of volunteering," said 13-year-old Leia Gluckman. And that's true. Her mom is a president of an organization providing help for homeless teens. Leia and her brother have volunteered there for years. When she was a young girl, Leia helped serve food where teens were eating. Now she's a teenager herself, and she's managing the toiletry and clothing work there.

    From her work at the center, Leia noticed that teens asked for some toiletries more than others. What they needed most often were toothpaste, body powder (粉)and shampoo(洗发水).Leia wondered whether she could create a product to serve all three purposes.

    It would need to take away dirt and oil from skin and hair. It would need to clean teeth. Also, it would need to kill bacteria (病菌)without being harmful to people. She wanted her ingredients (产品成分)to be natural, to be able to break down easily and to taste and smell pleasant. Moreover, this product had to be low﹣cost and have a long shelf life.

    Leia started by going to stores and looking at the ingredient lists for toiletries. Then she tried eight different ways. She tested each way to see how well it worked.

    Not all of them worked well. But she finally decided on three. Each includes salt and baking powder. Salt helps clean teeth and skin; baking powder helps take in bad smells. She also has some other recipes which include some special materials that give her products different tastes and smells, which would let teens choose a product based on personal preferences.

    It wasn't easy, but Leia came up with some model products. She presented them at the finals of Broadcom MASTERS science competition.

    Leia wants to develop her products further. "Could it possibly be used to drive away mosquitoes (蚊子)?" she wonders.

    "Science offers a way to go about solving problems and helping people," says Leia. And she thinks her products could benefit a great number of people, not just the homeless. Anyone in an area with little or no chance to get clean water could find her products useful, maybe refugees (难民) and soldiers who are sent to places without running water.