Joseph was born in an English family. When he was 2 years and 7 months old, his mother started to1him to read every day. And he was very2to learn that.

    When he was three years old, he3tell some stories.

    At that time, he4the level (水平) of a five-grade student. When he was four years old, he began to5books by himself without his mother's help. He often read lots of stories to his parents and his grandparents.

    When he was six, he could tell more than 3,000 stories.

To our6, he could recite (背诵) the stories7once he read them one time. His memory (记忆力) was8good that many reporters can't believe it.

On January 25th, 2015, one reporter let him read an article (文章) 9three hundred words in it and he then recited it freely and he didn't make a mistake. What a10boy he is!

    Now he is called "a child prodigy (天才；奇才) "in the UK.

An old farmer lived with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was always up early to read. One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa! What good does reading do?"

Grandpa quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket to the river and bring me back a basket of water."

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out(漏出) before he got back home. Grandpa laughed, "You'll have to move a little faster next time." This time the boy ran faster, but again the same took place. It was an impossible task.

The old man said, "You're just not trying hard enough." So the boy tried a third time and failed. He said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!"

"So you think it is useless? Look at the basket."

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had turned from a dirty coal basket into a clean one inside and outside.

"You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read, you will be changed, inside and outside."

One afternoon, Mrs. Stone decided to visit her friend Mrs. King. Mrs. King lived in a nice house with a large garden far from the city center. Mrs. Stone took her dog with her. While the women were having coffee outside the house, the dog was running around in the garden. The two friends were very unpleasantly surprised when the dog appeared after some time with a dead rabbit in his mouth. Mrs. King began to feel sick because she knew that her neighbor kept rabbits in a hutch（笼子） in his garden. As the dog and the rabbit were both covered with earth and dirt, the women took the rabbit and carefully cleaned it in the bathroom. When it got dark, they went quietly through the trees into the neighbor's garden and put the dead rabbit into the hutch.

The next afternoon Mrs. King's neighbor, the one with the rabbit, found her in the garden, called her over. She walked towards the neighbor and she felt very afraid because she knew that she did something wrong. "You know what?" her neighbor said. "Yesterday morning I found one of my rabbits dead in the hutch. So I put it in the ground in the garden and this morning," he started to whisper, "it's back to the hutch! I'm going to take it to a right pet cemetery."

Leonardo da Vinci was a famous artist who was born in Italy. He was also a great inventor. Many of his inventions have become important in modern life. Although Leonardo hated war. he invented many different machines used for war. His most special invention was the machine gun, which was produced and used in war. Besides, Leonardo spent days thinking about how to save time. He developed ideas for something like cutting machines.

Leonardo was a strange man. He never ate meat. That was very unusual in those times. He never published(发表) discoveries about science. He usually used mirror writing, which looks like usual writing in a mirror, starting from the right side of the page and moving to the left side。

Only a few of his paintings are left today. Many paintings were not finished because he thought they were not perfect.

Leonardo was talented and creative. He was regarded as one of the most intelligent men in the world.

Jack's friend Sally isn't fine these days.

One day she asks Jack for help. And she tells(告诉)Jack about her food. For breakfast. She always eats some bread. For lunch, she always has some chicken. She likes eating ice-cream and a hamburger in the evening. 

"They're not healthy for you, Sally," Jack says. "I know, but I like them," Sally says. "What about vegetables? Do you like eating carrots?" Jack asks. "No, I don't," Sally says.

"Sally, don't eat ice-cream. You must eat some vegetables and fruit. They are healthy food," Jack says. "I think you're right," Sally says.

In the next days, Sally always eats vegetables and fruit. And she is well now.