Henry Ford was born on a farm on July 30th, 1863. The farm was near the city of Detroit.

    Henry was always interested in machines. He enjoyed fixing clocks.And he helped repair farm equipment. When Henry was sixteen years old, he left the family farm and went to Detroit to learn more about machines. Henry used what he learned from work to develop engines. In 1903, he was ready to start building cars for the public. On July 15th, 1903, a man named Doctor Pfenning bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company.

    The sale to Doctor Pfenning was the beginning of a huge number of requests for Ford cars.By the end of March, 1904, almost 600 Ford cars had been sold. At the start of 1905, the Ford Motor Company was producing 25 cars each day.

    Henry Ford was sure the future of the automobile industry was in a low-priced car for the general public. He said then, and many times after,“I want to make a car that anybody can buy.”

    In 1907, Henry Ford said: "I will build a motor car for the great mass of people. 1t will be large enough for the family, but small enough for one person to operate and care for. It will be built of the best materials. It will be built by the best men to be employed. And it will be built with the simplest plans that modern engineering can produce. It will be so low in price that no man making good money will be unable to own one.”

    When 19-year-old Sophia Giorgi said she was thinking of volunteering to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation (基金会)，nobody understood what she was talking about. But Sophia knew just how important Make – A –Wish could be because this special organization had helped to make a dream come true for one her best friends. We were interested in finding out more, so we went along to meet Sophia listen to what she had to say.

    Sophia told us that Make – A –Wish is a worldwide organization that started in the United States in 1980. ” It's a charity(慈善机构)that helps children who have got very serious illnesses. Make – A –Wish help children feel happy even though they are sick, by making their wishes and dreams come true, ” Sophia explained.

We asked Sophia how Make – A –Wish had first started. She said it had all begun with a very sick young boy called Chris, who had been dreaming for a long time of becoming a policeman. Sophia said lots of people had wanted to find a way to make Chris's dream come true —-so, with everybody's help, Chris, only seven years old at the time, had been a “policeman” for a day. ” when people saw how delighted Chris was when his dream came true, they decided to try and help other sick children too , and that was the beginning of Make – A –Wish, ” explained Sophia.

    Sophia also told us the Foundation tries to give children and their families a special, happy time. A Make-A-Wish volunteer visits the families and asks the children what they would wish for if they could have anything in the world. Sophia said the volunteers were important because they were the ones who helped to make the wishes come true. They do this either by providing things that are necessary, or by raising money or helping out in whatever way they can.

    When Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, his unmarried mother decided to put him for adoption because she wanted a girl. So in the middle of the night, his mother called a lawyer named Paul Jobs and said, “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” But his mother told his future parents to promise that they would send Jobs to college. After Steve Jobs graduated from high school, he went to college but decided to drop out because it was so expensive that he had to sleep on the floor in his friends' rooms.

At 20, he and a friend started a company in a garage on April 1, 1976. Jobs named their company —-Apple in memory of a happy summer he had spent as an orchard (果园) in Oregon.

    After 10 years of hard time and failures, starting from two kids working in a garage, Apple computer eventually grew into a big company with over 4,000 employees.

    At 30, Jobs , however, was fired from the company he co-founded. But after he had to leave the company, Apple was under heavy pressure from rival (对手) Microsoft and in 1996 posted billions of dollars in losses. Apple needed Steve Jobs and he was appointed as Apple' CEO in1997. Under his leadership, Apple returned to profitability and introduced new products such as the iPhone and the iPad.

    Steve Jobs once said, “Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick, Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.

    People who do not get enough vitamin A in their diet may develop night blindness. But in the developing world, a lack of vitamin A causes much more serious harm to children. The world Health Organization links the lack of vitamin A to as many as 250,000 child deaths every year.

    One excellent source of vitamin A is found in newly developed sweet potatoes with orange flesh. Orange sweet potatoes contain high levels of beta-carotene, which the body changes into vitamin A. Experts say orange sweet potatoes could help the Africans who are lacking in vitamin A. But, first, more people will need to be persuaded to eat them. Sweet potatoes need a better image in Africa. Jan Low with the International Potato Center says, “We do have an image problem with sweet potatoes. In many African countries, they are seen as a crop of the poor.”

    Ms. Low explains that sweet potatoes are mainly grown by poor women to feed their families in case another crop fails. The sweet potatoes commonly grown in Africa have white or yellow flesh. But they are low in vitamin A.

    Jan Low took part in a project to study how to market orange sweet potatoes to Africans best. She worked on an information campaign(活动) in Mozambique and Uganda. The campaign included radio messages about the nutritional(营养的) benefits of the orange sweet potato. They advertised its ability to “fight diseases, make you strong, clear you skin and make you look healthy”. In areas without radio, the campaigners spread the message through theater. The performances included singing, dancing and storytelling. And everywhere they went, the campaigners wore orange T-shirts and hats. They even drove orange cars.

    Dan Gustafson heads the Washington office of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He mentions the efforts in the past to increase the popularity of other nutritious crops. He says most of these efforts failed because organizers of the campaigns did not consider what people wanted to eat. People want to eat what they are familiar with. But Mr. Gustafson sees a better chance for the efforts to increase the popularity of the orange sweet potato in Africa. Except for the color, the orange sweet potato is almost the same as what people already eat. Dan Gustafson says, “I think this time the campaigners will succeed, because they have made enough advertisements and the difference between the vegetable they have advertised and what people already eat is not a radical one.”

    Pakistan should be everyone's tourist destination for 2018, but what if you already live there? Then perhaps you should consider visiting these five must-visit places for this year.

    Lake Saiful Muluk

    At an altitude of 3, 224m, surrounded by snowy mountains, the lake rewards those that make the three-hour uphill walk from Naran. You will find the pathway just above the free market, but the best choice is to get a jeep and share the costs with some other tourists; expect to pay about 700 rupees, worth it to view this natural beauty.

    Deosai National Park

    As another high point in Pakistan, it has an average altitude of 4,114m－the Deosai Plains are one of the highest plateaus (高原) in the world. If you make it to the park, you expect to find rich plants and wild animals. The breathtaking scenery on show at the plains is enough to make 2018 a memorable year.

    Naltar Valley

    Accessible via a 2.5-hour drive from Gilgit, well worth visiting. Covered with pine trees and other plants, it has a dreamlike feel about it. Various colors all year around make you fall in love.

    Shangrila Resort

    Right in the north of Pakistan in the central valley of Gilgit Baltistan. Locals call this a paradise (乐园), and that's what it feels like. No visit is complete without checking out the restaurant which is built in the structure of an aircraft.

    Rama Meadow (牧场)

    Doesn't feel like Pakistan at all, more like somewhere in Minnesota. Watch the sheep and cows feeding while clear water flows in streams from high in the mountains. Against Chongra's ice-covered peak, this little meadow is a piece of art.

    During the past Spring Festival, many children may have received red packets from their families. But Xing Pu, a 40-year-old economist, is asking the government to give red packets to every Chinese citizen.

    Xing suggested the government give out 1,000 yuan to each Chinese since the government income has increased rapidly in recent years. He said his suggestion would allow everyone to directly enjoy the fruits of the country's economic success, help the lower-income groups deal with rising prices and increase consumption around the country.

    Recent years have seen the government carry out a series of pro-poor (扶贫) and pro-rural (惠农) policies, including increasing spending on public health-care and cutting down the agricultural tax. But the lower-income group still needs more help.

    Xing said he has borrowed many ideas from practices in countries like the United States and Singapore. Earlier this year, the governments of the two nations offered cash handouts (救济) to their citizens. As for in China, 'We can even encourage the rich to donate their 1,000 yuan red packet to the poor,' said Xing.

    Although Xing's suggestion has gained wide support among ordinary Chinese on the Internet, many other economists criticized it as unpractical. 'To better use the increase of money, handing out money is not a solution that holds good for all time. It could be better to improve the public service or cut the price of energy use in daily life,' said Qiao Xinsheng, an economic professor.