Pablo Picasso was born in Spain in 1881. His father was a painter and art teacher who gave his son the first lesson in drawing. He won a prize— Science and Charity”for his first important painting when he was only fifteen. He studied in several cities in Spain. But there was no one to teach him all that he wanted to know. When he was nineteen, he visited Paris.

    Paris was then the center of the world for artists. Everything that was new and exciting in the world of paintings seemed to happen there. When he was twenty-three, Picasso moved there to live and lived in France for the rest of his life.

 When he was over ninety, this great painter still lived his life like a young man. He was still looking for new ideas and new ways to use his artistic materials.

    When he died in 1973, he was ninety-one years old.

A Mystery (神秘的) Artist

    The first time I saw Suzy Khan, I knew I had to help her. All I knew was that she was an orphan, who had no parents, from Africa. She had just been adopted (收养) by a family, and they thought that the best way for her to learn American ways of life is to be with American kids.

    Suzy was really small for her age of 12. The boys in my class often laughed at her. She would open a book, pretending to read, with tears dropping on the open page. I looked down at this small girl and promised myself that I must help her.

    But how could I help her fit in with us? There had to be a way.

    One day, when I went into the classroom, I saw that Suzy had opened her geography book to a picture of a train, and in her notebook, she had made a perfect copy.

    I was surprised and thought that she could do something in the coming talent show. So, I took her to see the art teacher, Miss Parker, and showed her what Suzy had drawn. “Why, it's wonderful,” said Miss Parker, and then showed us a poster she had painted for the talent show. “I need more of these, but I just don't have enough time. Could you help me, Suzy?”

    On the day of the talent show, Suzy's posters were everywhere — all over the hall and all over the school, each one different.

    “And finally,” said Mr. Brown, the schoolmaster, at the end of the show, “We have a special award. I'm sure you've all noticed the wonderful posters.” Everyone nodded. “One of our own students painted them.”

    I could hear everyone whispering. “Who in our school could draw that well?”

    Mr. Brown waited for a while before saying, “Since this student worked so hard on the posters, she deserves a prize, too. Our mystery artist is our new student — Suzy Khan!”

    Mr. Brown thanked her for all the wonderful posters and gave her a professional artist's set. “Thank you,” she cried.

    I realized, at that time when I was looking at her excited face, she had probably never owned anything in her whole life.

    Everyone started to clap their hands. Suzy Khan gave them a shy smile. I knew then Suzy was going to be all right.

    Last Tuesday, Mr. Chen was reading a book in his office after school. To his surprise, a ball flew in suddenly and hit him on the head. He took the ball to the window, but he only saw a group of boy students running away quickly and they disappeared in a minute. He sat down again and went on with his reading.

    After about two hours, it got dark. Mr. Chen decided to leave for home. Looking at the ball, he wanted to know what to do with it. He knew the owner（主人） of the ball must want to get it back. He got out of his office and walked to the playground. He put the ball at the center of the playground with a piece of paper on it. He wrote on the paper, "Be careful next time, my boy!" Then he walked away.

    The next morning, when Mr. Chen opened his office, he found the same piece of paper on the floor. Some words were behind it, "Thank you for your kindness （好意）, sir. You are a great man."

    There is an old man in a house. In the house there are many mice. The old man has a cat. Every day the cat catches the mice and eats them.

    One day, the old mouse says, "All mice must come to my room this evening. We must find a way to deal with (对付) the cat."

    All the mice come. Many mice speak, but they don't know what to do. At last, a young mouse stands up and says, "We must put a bell (铃) on the cat. When the cat comes near, we can hear the bell and run away. So the cat can't catch us." "Who can put the bell on the cat?" asks the old mouse. But no one answers.

    Mulin is a boy from Hubei. He is a(n) 1 boy. His parents divorced（离婚）when he was two years old. He lived with his 2 and grandmother. 3 the age of 5, his father died of heart disease. He had to live with his grandmother. Unfortunately, there was 4 wrong with his grandmother's head. He 5 his grandmother well. At the same time, he got 6 grades at school. When he was ten, he took his grandmother to see a 7 in Wuhan with some people's help. They lived in Wuhan for a month. He had 8 time to go out because he had to look after his grandmother.

    He called 9 a "Sunshine Boy". He 10 happy every day. But when the reporter asked him 11 he was really so happy，he said he wasn't. He didn't want to show his unhappiness to his grandmother. He told the 12 that when he was unhappy，he wrote the unhappy things on the paper with which he folded a model 13.When the plane flew away, he felt relaxed.

    When the reporter asked him if he felt sorry to 14 so many lessons because of going to Wuhan, he said the lessons he missed could be learned later, but if his grandmother missed the best time to cure, there would be nothing to get the chance 15.

What a good boy! We should learn from him.