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    Betty and I are best friends. Our birthdays are on the same day, so every year we have a birthday party together. But this year we had a costume party instead.

    While we were writing the invitations, my mom came in and asked, "Nancy, what about inviting John?" John had been in our class for only a few months, but he was already getting better grades in math than anyone else in our class. "Mom, he wears the same pants to school every day. How could he even afford a costume?" Mom said nothing.

    The next day, mom gave me an envelope(信封) with a shopping card in it. "I thought it would be nice for you to give this to John," Mom said. But how? We didn't want to make John embarrassed. We discussed it for a long time. Finally, Betty and I had a good idea.

    On the day of our party, John arrived, in an old sheet(床单), but still in the same brown pants as usual. Before eating the birthday cake, Betty said in a loud voice, "Now it's time for the great prize game." It was a math game. None of us were surprised when John gave the right answer first and walked off with the envelope.

    Everything went well as we planned. John wore a new pair of pants and a new shirt the next week. He felt happy. So did we.

    Laozi or Lao Tzu, who lived in the 6th century BC, was a well-known philosopher in ancient China. He was the founder of Taoism. His teachings have been passed down through centuries and today there are still many followers of Taoism.

    Famous and respected as he is. Laozi's personal life is still a mystery and there are many stories about his birth and life. The only reliable biography of him is Shiji written by historian Sima Qian of 145 BC. According to Shiji, Laozi was born in Ku County of the state of Chu, the present day Luyi County of Henan Province. His family name was "Li", and "Dan" was his designation (字).

    At first, Laozi worked as a historian at the royal court (王朝) of the Zhou Dynasty. Later, he went on a trip to the west and met the guardian of the Hangu Pass (函谷关) who asked Laozi to write a book to record his wisdom for the good of the country.

    Upon his request, Laozi began writing his famous book—Daodejing. Daode means "virtue". So the title can be translated as "Classic of the Virtue". After finishing writing the book, the wise old man left Hangu Pass. No one had seen him or known where he was ever since.

    However, because of the fact that none of the original texts about Taoism have any reference about the life and death of Laozi, today many researchers have the opinion that Daodejing was in fact not written by Laozi alone. Some even say that Laozi was never a real person but can be referred to any old wise man in ancient China who taught philosophy.

    Walt Disney was born in 1901. The Mickey Mouse created in 1927 made him very famous. He died in 1966.but his work and his dreams did not die. Now people all over the world enjoy his Mickey Mouse and other cartoons.

    Wait Disney was a man who did not give up easily. One summer, Walt wanted a job in a post office, but they told him that he was too young. He went home, drew some lines on his face, and put on his father's suit and hat. Then he went back to the same office and told them he was 18. He got the job finally.

    Later in his lire, Disney had a dream, that is, to build a new kind of amusement park. It would be clean and beautiful. There would be rides for children and nice hotels for adults. It would be fun for people of all ages. Disney drew a plan for this park. It was called Disneyland. Engineers told him it was an impossible dream His family and friends thought he was mad, but Disney did not give up his idea. In 1955, Disneyland opened to the public and it became the most successful amusement park in the USA. Walt Disney's dream came true.

    Grace Murray was born on December 9, 1906 in New York City. In 1928 she finished her education in Vassar College in Maths and Physics. Since 1931, she had been teaching at Vassar and continued her study at Yale University, where she achieved a lot in Maths in 1934.

    In 1930, Grace Murray married Vincent Foster Hopper. They were happy together for 15 years. She taught at Vassar College until 1943, when she joined the United States Navy(海军)to help her country during World War Ⅱ.Then she was given a job at the Bureau of Ships Computation Project at Harvard University, where she worked on the Mark series of computers.

    In 1945, she began to do research in Applied(应用)Physics at Harvard's Computation Laboratory. In 1949 she joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and worked with people working in it. Years later, she returned to the Navy. She retired in 1971 but continued teaching for the computer development. Brewster Academy, a school in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, the United States, gave its computer lab to her for free in 1985, calling it the Grace Murray Hopper Centre for Computer Learning. She had spent her childhood summer at a local family in Wolfeboro. She passed away in her sleep in 1992. Since her death, her workmate Elenor Briggs has been going on with her work.

    Grace Murray was a great woman and a leader in the computer development. Her work helped improve the use of computer languages. She practised her words" Dare and Do" in her lifetime.