The Man of Many Secrets — Harry Houdini — was one of the greatest American entertainers(表演者) in the theater. He was a man famous for his escapes（逃走；逃生） — from prison cells（囚室）, from wooden boxes floating（漂浮） in rivers, from locked tanks full of water. He appeared in theaters all over Europe and America. Crowds came to see the great Houdini and his “magic” tricks.

    Of course, his secret was not magic, or supernatural powers. It was simply strength. He had the ability to move his toes as well as his fingers. He could move his body into almost any position he wanted.

    Houdini started working in the entertainment world when he was 17, in 1891. He and his brother Theo performed card tricks in club in New York. They called themselves the Houdini Brothers. When Harry married in 1894, he and his wife Bess worked together as magician and assistant. But for a long time they were not very successful. Then Harry performed his first prison （监狱）escape in Chicago in 1898. Harry persuaded（说服） a detective（侦探） which to let him try to escape from the prison, and he invited the local newspapermen to watch.

    It was the publicity(宣传) that came from this that started Harry Houdini's success. Harry had fingers trained to escape from handcuffs(手铐) and toes trained to escape ankle chains. But his biggest secret was how he unlocked the prison doors. Every time he went into the prison cell, Bess gave him a kiss for good luck — and a small skeleton key, which is a key that fits many locks, pass quickly from her mouth to his.

    Harry used these prison escapes to build his fame. He arranged to escape from the local prison of every town he visited. In the afternoon, the people of the town would read about it in their local newspapers, and in the evening every seat in the local theater would be full. What was the result? Worldwide fame, and a name remembered today.

    Stephen Hawking was one of the most famous scientists in this century. He was born in 1942. He's a world well-known on space and time. Stephen is researching some very big questions, such as: How did the universe begin? How will it end?

Stephen was a student at Oxford University. He studied math and science. Then, at the age of twenty, he became sick. He was so young, but the doctors said to his family, “He has only two more years to live.” As a matter of fact, the doctors were wrong—- he didn't die. He can't walk now but he uses a wheelchair(轮椅). He can't feed himself and get in or out of bed himself. But he refused to give in to the condition. He talks with the help of a computer. After Oxford, Stephen went to Cambridge University. Three years later, in 1965, he became a doctor of philosophy(哲学).

    Because of his serious health problems, it was difficult for him to draw diagrams(图表)or to write. So he started to think in pictures. With this new way of thinking, he became one of the most famous scientists in the world. In 1991, he met the Pope(教皇) in Rome. They talked about his ideas. Then in 1998, he wrote his first important book, A Brief History of Time. It sold more than 5.5 million copies in 33 different languages. He was once invited to China, he impressed us with his self-confidence, humorous and witty(风趣的) conversation.

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    My name is Lin Tao. I am a Chinese boy. Now I'm studying in America. There are many kinds of clubs here. When I first come here, I don't know anything about clubs. I'm a shy boy, so I can't speak English well. In my first year in America, I don't like to speak to others. In my second year I have to change (改变) myself by doing some new things. I realize that school is not just about getting good grades (成绩), it's also about being part of a club. One day, when I go to the Media Center with my classmate Jim, he tells me something about the club. It's interesting, so I join it. I am in many clubs now. It's good to be part of a club. These clubs help me to make new friends.

    When the three children arrived at the tunnel, they looked up at the trees above it.

    "What's happening?" Peter said. "Look at the trees. They're moving."

    He was right. The trees were sliding down the hill.

    "It's a landslide," Roberta said. "There has been a lot of rain. The earth is soft. It is moving and bringing the trees with it."

    "They are going to fall on the railway line," Phyllis said. "There'll be an accident if the train hits them. We must stop the next train."

    "How do we do that?" Peter said. "The next train is arriving at 11:29. That's in five minutes. And the train is only about fifteen kilometers away."

    "We can run towards the train and wave to the driver," Phyllis said.

    "He won't think there is anything wrong," Roberta said. "We always wave to him."

    "We need something red to wave,"Peter said."Red is for danger."

    "My skirtis red,"Phyllis said."I'll tear pieces off."

    "Mother will be angry if you do that,"Roberta said."Skirts are expensive."

    "People may die if there is an accident,"Peter said."Skirts aren't important."

    Phyllis tore strips(条)from the bottom of her skirt.

    "We need sticks to tie the strips to,"Peter said.

    The children ran to a nearby tree. With his knife, Peter cut off three thin branches. He tied each of the strips of red skirt to one of the branches.

    "Now we have red flags," he said. "When we wave these, the engine driver will know something is wrong. He will stop the train and ask us what the matter is."

    The children ran through the tunnel and waited at the other side for the train to come. They had to wait for a long time. Peter thought the watch must be wrong, but it was the train that was late. Then, the train arrived. The children waved their flags. Roberta was so excited that she fainted(晕).

    The engine driver saw the red flags and the children. He knew something was wrong. He stopped the train. Peter and Phyllis ran towards the engine. They shouted to the driver that there were trees on the line. The engine driver climbed down from his engine. He hurried to where Roberta was lying on the ground in a faint. He picked her up and carried her to the train and put her in a comfortable carriage.

    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.

    What's that in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Hello Kitty.

That's how Lauren Rojas, 12, from the US thought of her science project. She sent her Hello Kitty doll into the sky early this month. She wanted to find out how altitude(高度) changed air pressure(气压) and temperature, according to New York Daily News.

    Rojas put the doll and a small computer into a rocket model, and then sent it up with a weather balloon(气球). The computer recorded the height, air pressure and temperature. Rojas also put in a video camera to record the trip.

    "It took about two or three weeks to put it all together," said Rojas. "I think people will think it (the video) is really cool."

    The balloon got to 28.5km above the Earth. At that height, the doll could see the blue curves(曲线) of our planet. The air was very thin up there, and soon the balloon broke up (爆炸). The doll fell from the sky and at last it ended up in a tree. It was 76km from the place where it had started its journey.