Thomas Alva Edison is one of the greatest inventors of all times. One of his most famous achievements is the electric light. He tried thousands of times to make a long lasting light bulb. Although the light bulb is not his invention, he is the only one to have made such a successful light bulb. Many people remember him for the invention of the electric light. He held a lot of patents (专利权) worldwide. Many of them were approved(批准) in America.

    We can find his inventions in many fields. In fact, many of the advanced inventions were based on his ideas. He invented a phonograph (留声机),a film picture camera, a ticket recorder and so on.  

    Edison was not a good student at school. But he loved to do new experiments. When he was still a child, he built his first lab to perform his experiments.

      An amazing story of Edison's childhood is that he almost made his servant die. Edison used to think that birds ate insects and these insects might make them fly. So he collected these insects and blended (混合) them to make juice. He then let his servant drink the juice. After drinking the juice, the girl lost her sense. But luckily, she was saved.

    A young woman was walking through a supermarket to pick up a few things when she noticed an old man following her around．Thinking nothing of it，she ignored him and went on shopping．After she got what she wanted，she went to checkout line，but the old man got in front of her．

    “Pardon me!” he said，“I'm sorry if my staring（盯）at you has made you feel uncomfortable（不舒服的)，it's just because you look like my granddaughter，who just died recently．And I miss her very much．”

    “I'm very sorry，”said the young woman．“Is there anything I can do for you?”

    “Yes．” the old man said．“As I'm leaving，can you say ‘Good-bye，grandpa' to me? It would make me feel so much better．”

    “Sure，”answered the young woman．

    As the old man was leaving，she called out．“Bye-bye，grandpa!”

    When she stepped(迈步) up to the checkout counter（收银台），she saw that her total was $178.50．

    “How can that be?” she asked．“I only bought a few things!”

    “Your grandpa said you would pay for him，” said the clerk.

Ten-year-old Barack Obama was one of the only three black students at his school in Hawaii, US. He felt very different from most other students. White girls wanted to touch his hair. ①A white boy asked him whether his father ate people.“I lied (说谎) to them that my father was a Kenyan prince. But I kept asking myself who I am," said Obama. However, 37 years later, the boy made history—Obama became the first black president in the history of the US.

    Obama was born in 1961, to an African father and a white American woman in a small town in the US. He grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii. ②This unusual background made him want to know who he was. He once drank much wine to help forget this question.

    With the help of his friends, Obama finally went to college. His hard work made him a star at Harvard. Later, he became the third black senator (参议员) in the history of the US. During his race to the highest post in the US. Obama talked about his background. He called for a United America, rather than a white America or a black America.

    Obama's success has made Martin Luther King's dream come true. That is: A man should not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.

    A man has a cat. He likes her very much. At mealtime (吃饭时间) the cat sits at the table with him. The man eats with a knife and a fork, but the cat eats from her plate (盘子). Sometimes, when she finishes her dish, her master will give her a bit of his food. He shares his meal with her. One day the cat is not at the table at mealtime.

    “Ah! Where is my cat?” asks the man.

    His wife says, “Can't you eat without her?”

    So the meal begins without the cat. Before lunch is over, the cat rushes into the room and jumps onto the chair quickly. She has two mice in her mouth, and before anyone can stop her, she drops(扔下) one into her own plate, and the other into her master's plate.

    “Dear me!” cries the woman, “A mouse is in your plate!”

    “Hush(安静)!” says her husband. “This shows that she is a nice cat. She knows what friendship is. She wishes me to share her dinner as I often share mine with her, I am not so unhappy.”

    One weekend, Taylor, an eight-year-old girl, went shopping with her parents. She asked her parents to buy a toy she wanted. Instead of giving her money to buy the toy, Taylor's father encouraged her to make money by herself. "How can I make money?" Taylor thought for a while and had an idea, "Why not make cakes and sell them at church to raise money to buy the toy?"

    The next day, Taylor started her plan. She first needed some money for tools and materials. So she borrowed $40 from her parents and promised to pay it back. Then she began to make cakes by herself. To her parents' surprise, she made $175 by selling the cakes that Sunday.

    Everyone thought Taylor would buy the toy she wanted. She certainly had made enough money for it, but she didn't. Instead, Taylor decided to buy business cards and had her father's phone number on them. Then she began handing the cards out. More people knew Taylor and came to buy her cakes. Even large companies began to try buying her delicious cakes.

    Though Taylor has made a lot of money, she still works hard at school. She also likes to take part in other activities. So Taylor must carefully manage her time. For example, instead of watching TV after school, Taylor might have to bake (烘焙) a lot of cakes for customers. When she has dance lessons on some days, she needs to get her baking done on time so she isn't late for class.

    Making cakes may take time and be hard work, but Taylor sees the fun in it. "I think making cakes is mostly my hobby," she says. She also decorates the boxes that are used to pack the cakes. Taylor uses all kinds of decorations to make sure each box looks special for her customers. People love the extra feeling Taylor gives them by decorating the boxes, so more and more people come for her cakes.

    Taylor's cakes are becoming very popular. She achieves a sweet success.