Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Italy. He is best known as an artist today. One of his famous paintings is called Mona Lisa. However, Leonardo had many other natural abilities. He was also a great inventor. Many of his inventions have become important in modern day 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 many years later.

      By watching the way birds fly, Leonardo tried to find out the secret of flying. Among his sketches(素描)we can see several objects. We consider them as modern flying machines.

      Leonardo spent many hours thinking about how to make good use of time. He developed ideas for labor-saving machines like cutting machines.

Leonardo was a strange man. He didn't eat any meat, which was very unusual in those times. He never published (发表) his ideas and scientific discoveries. He usually used mirror writing, which looks like writing in a mirror, starting from the right side of the page and moving to the left.

      We have very little of his work today. Leonardo finished only a few of his paintings. He left many unfinished because he thought they were not perfect. No one in his life time knew how great Leonardo was. We now believe, however, that he was one of the cleverest men the world has ever known.

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    Once upon a time, there was a lazy, 1 man living in a small house with spider webs (蜘蛛网) on the walls and mice running around. People 2 coming into such a dirty place and the man was lonely and sad every day. He thought it was poorness that 3his unhappy life.

    One day, the poor man dropped in on a wise old man and asked him for 4 about changing his life. The old man gave him a beautiful vase (花瓶) and said: "This is a magic vase that will bring you 5."

    The man looked at the vase with 6 . Why would he need 7 in his poor house? However, he didn't want to 8 such a beautiful vase, so he brought it home and put it on the table.

     "It's not right for something so beautiful to be 9 ." The poor man looked at the vase and thought. Then he 10 some wild flowers and put them into it, making it even more beautiful. 11 he was still not satisfied. "It is not good for such a beautiful thing 12 next to a spider web." Then he started to do some cleaning in the house and painted the walls. His house quickly turned into a  13 place. The poor man 14.    

    He suddenly realized that in the past it was his laziness that made him poor and unhappy. 15, he worked hard and his life got better and better.

    One day, my lite daughter Annie came to me with a difficult problem. "Helen hates me!" she cried. "She wants me only to be her 1.You tell Helen that I want to be her friend, but I can have other friends, too!"

    Oh! I looked at her for a few 2wondering what to do, when suddenly an idea came to me.

    I picked up two 3from the living room. I put the small basket inside the big one and said. "When everyone is born, he or she has a little basket. The lite one is 4.The big one is mine. Your little basket is inside mine.5do you think that is?"

    She looked at me 6and said nothing

    I continued, "Your little basket is in mine because when you were born, there were too many things you couldn't do for yourself. I fed you, bathed you and I7 everything else you couldn't do on your own.8 I put your basket in mine. As you grew older, when you learnt to tie your shoes, that went in your basket You 9want me to tie your shoes now, right?"

    She said softly, "No, I can tie my own shoes."

    As you grow older, there will be 10things you must do by yourself." As I spoke, I took her basket out of mine and handed it to her." You will finally 11 your own basket with things only you can do, like deciding who you want to be friends with, what college you will go to, who you will marry."

    She 12it for a while and said," I understand. There are some things that I have to do for myself because they are in my basket."

    I hugged her and continued, "One day when I become 13, you will take things out of my basket and place them into your basket. Finally, you'll take my basket. Just like I do for my mom and grandmother now." I gently 14my basket with hers.

    Life is a 15. As she watched the little basket in my hand and smiled, she understood

    A bird went to look for its happiness in a faraway place. It flew and flew when it suddenly saw a little dying (垂死的) flower, whose face was full of smile. Not knowing why, the bird asked the little flower, "You're going to die. Why are you still so1?" "Because I will achieve (实现) my dream," said the little flower. "2 is your dream?" "To produce (产出) sweet fruit. "Then the little bird saw it Happiness is a3 in the heart.

    The bird continued flying and saw a lame (瘸的) duck help a little duck find the way back home.4 it was disabled, it had a smiling face. "I'm happy because I can help5 ,"said the lame duck. So the bird saw it: happiness is a love in the heart.

    The bird kept flying and suddenly saw a spider climbing up a wall. The spider fell of the wall halfway, 6 it kept climbing again and fell off again. Even So, the spider didn't7. The little bird asked the spider in surprise, "you8 again and again, why don't you have pain (痛苦) but happiness on your face?" "As long as I keep making my efforts (努力)，I'm able to climb up it.9 this, I'm so happy," said the spider. The little bird saw it: happiness is a faith (信念) in the heart.

    So the little bird10 looked for happiness because it had seen the truth: happiness is not in the faraway place but in your own heart.

    Everyone has a place which he remembers most from his childhood (童年), and so do I. One of the places I remember from my childhood is a 1 in the country. It belonged to my parents. I spent my summers in that place 2 I was a teenager(青少年), and now I begin to miss the farm again.

    It was lovely to 3 there. There were a lot of lot of 4— cows, sheep, hens, dogs and cats. My sister and I 5 helped to work on the farm. We helped people graze(放牧) sheep or make bread or cheese. I can still remember that on Tuesdays we 6 the bread and on Thursdays, the cheese.

    I love that farm because I 7 to love animals and not to be afraid of them there. We saw a sheep give birth to its baby there, and we enjoyed staying there to see how lovely the 8 sheep was.

    Now my sister and her son are 9 this place. My nephew is 10 with the place. I hope that he has a good time there and when he is older, he will remember the place as I do.

    Grandfather was a wise man. No matter how badly-behaved I had been, I could tell Grandpa anything and my 1 were safe. He loved me and would never give them away.

    I remember a time when a group of us were playing baseball behind Mrs. Brown's house. I hit one pitch(投球) just right and …slam! It ended up breaking Mrs. Brown's kitchen window! We all 2!

    After I got home, I 3 Grandpa about it. He knew we had been warned many times about the dangers of playing where we shouldn't. 4 he just listened.

    "I was 5," I told him, with my head down. "I hate myself for what I did. Is there a way out?" "Well," he said, "Mrs. Brown has a problem, just like you. If she knew you cared and you were afraid of her, she would be sad. I'll bet she wishes you would give her a 6 to be understanding. It's 7 decision. Are you planning to pretend(假装) nothing happened? Just keep quiet and hide what you're not proud of?"

    "I don't know," I sighed(叹息). "Things might get worse…" "Let's think it through," he said finally. "If you were Mrs. Brown, what would you do?" I didn't know 8 she might do. I had been afraid that Mrs. Brown would stay mad at me, so I ran. On the way home I 9 that she was a mean witch(女巫) running after me.

    "Well," I said, taking a deep breath, "One way is to tell Mrs. Brown I'm sorry and offer to fix her 10. "

    "If you call her," asked Grandpa, "What's the worst that can happen?" I had to think for a moment. I realized that even if she did not 11 my apology(道歉), it could not be any worse than seeing the disappointment(失望) on Mom and Dad's 12.

    Grandpa smiled when he knew I had figured it out(明白). "Doing what's right is not always easy," he said, handing me the phone. "I'm proud of you." Grandpa did not make me do it. It was always my 13. As it turned out, Mrs. Brown was very kind and we 14 became really close friends.

    Grandpa passed away a year ago and I miss him so much. He gave me the tools to fix many problems and most of all he showed me I was 15.