Thomas Edison lit up the world with his invention of the electric light. Without him, the world might still be in the dark. However, the electric light was not his only invention. He also invented the motion picture camera and more than 1, 000 other things. About every two weeks he created something new.

    Thomas Edison was born in 1847. He attended school for only three months. His mother taught him at home, but Thomas was mostly educated. He started experimenting at a young age.

    When he was 12 years old, he became a newsboy on a train. experiments on the train in his spare time. Unluckily, his first work experience did not end well. They fired him when he accidentally set fire to the floor of the train. Then Edison worked for more than five years as a telegraph operator, but he continued spending much of his time in experimenting.

    Thomas Edison was totally deaf in one ear and hard to hear others, but he thought of his deafness as a blessing in many ways. It kept conversations of every 24 hours. Sometimes his wife had to remind him to sleep and eat.

    Thomas Edison died at the age of 84. He left a great many inventions that greatly improved the quality of people's life all over the world.

    In the 1950s, a female swimming athlete set a goal for herself. She decided to swim across the English Channel before she retired. If she could make it, she would be the first person in the world who did it.

    On that day, she jumped into the sea without any hesitation and swam towards the opposite bank.

    In the journey, she faced heavy fog, heavy rain and heavy waves. Though she was very tired, she carried on swimming.

    But in the end, she gave up. And what she didn't know at the moment she gave up was that the opposite bank was only 1 mile away.

    Later people asked her about the reason. And she said," The reason why I gave up is that I could not see the destination which I was so close to. "

    Too many stories about success have been lecturing us about courage and persistence(坚持). But they never told us where to find courage and persistence.

    You can have courage only when you know where your goal is. You can manage to persist only when you know where your goal is, and prepare yourself well mentally(心理上).

    Courage and persistence never fall from the sky. They come from weighing between input and output.

    A life without goals is like a ship without a compass. It goes nowhere. There is no courage or persistence in a life without goals.

Do you like shopping? My families like shopping very much. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}, so he always goes to shoes shops. He has many basketball shoes in his room. Daisy is my sister. She likes going shopping in the centre of the city with her friends. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} She usually buys clothes first and then eats some nice food. She thinks it's very wonderful.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Because she doesn't have lots of time to go to shops and she can buy many things in a short time. As for my father, he likes to make a shopping list before going shopping. And he usually goes to the supermarket near my home.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}and the shoppers there are helpful.

It was late and there weren't many people on the street. l guessed a lot of people were probably asleep. But I was on the way home from my office. 

There was a man riding his bike behind me. I didn't think anything of it until I turned off the highway to go home and he turned off too. Then I turned into another street and he followed me again. 

I was starting to feel a bit afraid especially when I turned into my own street and he followed me there too, I parked my bike in front of my house and he stopped in front of my house too. I was feeling quite scared by then, He was all dressed up in his bike clothes and I wanted to know what was going on. He came up to me and said my indicator (转向灯) wasn't working. He said that he was worried about me. He wanted to make sure 1 got to my home safely and knew about the problem so I could work it out. 1 thanked him for his kindness and he got back on his bike and rode off. 

l learnt an important lesson that day: Do not be so quick to judge (判断) a person. Maybe a person doesn't look like a good man, but he might have a heart of gold. 

Qian Xuesen was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province on December 11, 1911. In 1929, Qian placed third in the national college entrance examination and got a chance to attend Shanghai Jiao Tong University. There, he received a degree (学位) in mechanical engineering with an emphasis on railroad administration. In 1932, Shanghai was bombed and invaded by Japan. Qian graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1934, and the following year he left China for graduate study in the US. 

In an age before computers, Qian's ability to quickly perform complex calculations attracted a group of rocket scientists at California Institute of Technology. Qian joined them and received his PhD degree in both aerospace and mathematics three years later. After he graduated, he became a professor as well as a researcher who studied rockets and missile (导弹) theories. 

In 1949, when the news of the birth of the People's Republic of China came to the United States, Qian Xuesen and his wife decided to return to China. In 1950, when they were ready to return home, they were stopped by US officials and sent to prison. With the help of Chinese government and his friends, he finally returned home. 

When he returned to China in 1955, our country's space research was almost deserted. In 1956, he set up the first research institute of rockets and missiles. And he personally trained the first generation of China's aerospace engineers. He was a pioneer and was honored as "The father of China's Missiles". He is the pride of the Chinese people. He made important contributions to the missile and space programs in China. 

He passed away on October 31, 2009 at the age of 98, but his history still encourages Chinese youth. His devotion to our country was expressed in his saying, "My career is in China, my success is in China and my destination is in China!" When someone said he could make much more money if he stayed in the United States, he laughed and said, "My family name is Qian, but I don't like qian. "

Xi' an, the capital city of Shaanxi Province, is thought to be the most ancient（古老的）{#blank#}1{#/blank#}（luck）, I {#blank#}2{#/blank#}（get）a chance this summer. My mum agreed to take me there. 

We went to Xi' an by plane. As we know, Xi' an is famous {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Dayan Pagoda（大雁塔） , so we went there on the{#blank#}4{#/blank#} （one） day. It was fantastic!People living there told us that it was more beautiful on sunny {#blank#}5{#/blank#}（day）. But we weren't sure about that. So {#blank#}6{#/blank#} you are in Xi' an, you can enjoy the beautiful sights by yourself. 

As one of the {#blank#}7{#/blank#} （old） cities in China, Xi' an has a history of more than 2（面食故乡） and {#blank#}8{#/blank#}（it） noodles are well﹣known all over the world. So the next day we went to the old streets and{#blank#}9{#/blank#} （buy） three different kinds of noodles for lunch. We really had {#blank#}10{#/blank#} good time there. I hope to visit Xi' an again.