Science fiction is a popular kind of writing, and many people think of Jules Verne as the father of science fiction. He was born in France in 1828. His father wanted him to become a lawyer, but from his early 20s Verne decided to; become a writer. At first he wrote plays for the theatre. Then, in 1863, he wrote a story called Five Weeks in a Balloon. The success of this book encouraged him to write more stories such as A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864)and From the Earth to the Moon(1865).

In the 19th century, many people were interested in science and inventions. Jules Verne wrote about scientific subjects in his stories and as a result, they were very popular. Verne's writing included many predictions for the 20th century and many of them came true. He described space flight, movies, and air conditioning, a long time before they appeared. These books were very successful and they made Verne rich.

    Jules Verne's books have been the subjects for many movies. 20, 000 Leagues under the Sea was a successful movie for Walt Disney. It was the first Disney movie to use real actors instead of cartoon drawings .Around the world in Eighty Days is another famous movie based on one of Verne's books. The main character is an Englishman called Phileas Fogg. For him, the most important thing is to be always on time!

While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, nor a world record broken, but a show of someone's strong determination to win.

The event was a swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them made mistake when they started, so they were kicked out. That would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is what's important.

I watch the man jump into the water and knew right away that something was wrong. Now I'm not an expert swimmer but I do know a good jump from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he was swimming, the crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.

      I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man that was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. He tried his best, but clearly he was exhausted.

       But when they saw the man keeping on trying , they stopped laughing and beginning to cheer. Some even to stand and say: “Come , you can do it!” and “ Go for it！”

       A few minutes later ,this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and he should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.

       Just a short year ago, he had never swam, let alone raced. His country had been asked to Sydney as manners.

       In a competition where players remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitors, it is nice to watch this game.

       A man that gave his all-knowing that he had no chance, but competed because of the spirit of the games.

    My friend Joan is a nurse at the People's Hospital. She worked a year ago. She is a short beautiful girl with big eyes. Joan finds the work interesting, and the hours are not very long. Every day she works in a ward(病房)from eight to twelve. She brings the patients medicine, answers their telephones, and tries to be kind to everyone. She likes people even when they are not happy. In the afternoon. Joan has a rest. Then four days a week she goes to classes. She is learning first aid(急救)and Chinese. She is not good at Chinese, but she is good at first aid work. She is a good nurse.

    It was Mother's Day, but the young mother was a little unhappy, because she was 800 miles away from her parents. In the morning she phoned her mother to wish her a happy Mother's Day, and her mother told her about the beautiful lilacs（丁香）in the garden.

    Later that day, when she told her husband about the lilacs, he said, "I know where we can find all that you want. Get the children and come on. "So they went, driving down the country roads.

    There on a small hill, they saw a lot of beautiful purple lilacs. The young woman ran quickly to enjoy the flowers. Carefully, she picked a few here and a few there. On their way home there was a smile on her face.

    When they were passing a nursing home（养老院）, the young woman saw an old granny sitting in a chair. She had no children with her. They stopped the car and the young woman walked to the old woman, put the flowers in her hands, and smiled at her. The old granny thanked her again and again. She smiled happily, too.

    When the young mother came back to her car, her children asked her, "Who is that old granny？Why did you give our flowers to her？"

    "I don't know her," their mother said. "But it's Mother's Day, and she has no children. I have all of you, and I still have my mother. Just think how much those flowers meant to her."

    Cross- country skier Man Dandan won the women's 1.4 km individual sprint here on Monday, earning China's first gold at the eighth Asian Winter Games in 2017.

    "I was in good form today," said the 28 year-old girl after winning the title in the final round with 3 minutes and 48. 29 seconds. "I didn't think much, but just focused on the games. As an old member, I want to set a good example to my younger teammates by doing my best no matter what the result is."

    Mikko Olavi Virtanen, the head coach of the Chinese cross-country skiing team, said after the game he was satisfied with Man Dandan's performance. "She is a super talented sprint skier. Her biggest problem before was to maintain the speed for four rounds of the competition. We have been working on that for the past seven months. I have been giving her advice, such as how to save the energy till the final round," he said, adding that Man is a good learner.

    He also said that the Chinese cross-country skiing team had a huge potential. "We have quite a young team. We still have five more years to Beijing Winter Olympics. I hope we can continue this good work for a long term," he said.

    Yelena Kolomina from Kazakhstan took the sliver and Ju Hyeri from South Korea got the bronze. Australia's Casey Wright finished the third in the final round but did not get a medal as a guest athlete.