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 day life. Although Leonardo hated war, he invented many different machines used for wars. 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 f lying. Among his sketches 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 unusual in those times. He never published 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.

    When Jim was young, he liked watches very much. When he was 18 years old, he joined the army, and after a year, he began to teach himself to mend watches. A lot of his friends brought him their watches with problems and asked for mending. Jim was always glad to help.

    Jim's captain(土校) heard about this, and one day he brought Jim a watch and said, "My watch doesn't work, can you mend it for me?" "Yes, sir. I can. " Jim answered. A few days later, he brought the watch back to the captain. "How much shall I pay?" the captain asked. "Nothing, sir." Jim said. He took out a small box and gave it to the captain and said, "In the box are three wheels from your watch, I couldn't find any places for them when I put everything back."

W: Did you go shopping in town yesterday, Jim? 

M: {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 

W: Did you go to the computer shop called "IT Sky" in Puguo Road?

M: Yeah. It was crowded yesterday. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} 

W: Did you buy any books? 

M: Yes, I chose five or six books. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} 

W: Where did you go after that? 

M: I went to Dream Clothes in Chaoyang Street. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} It was 800 yuan. 

W: Oh, that was expensive. Do you always buy clothes there? 

M: Yes. The clothes last a long time and they look smart. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}