Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales, Britain. His father was rich but he died when Roald was very young. Roald and his mother lived a hard life. He had to leave school and went to Africa where he worked for an oil company.

    In 1939 Roald became a pilot, but he had a bad accident. It made him limp(瘸的) for the rest of his life. After this, Roald went to America where he wrote a story about his experience as a pilot. It was so good that it was put in a magazine.

Roald married an American film star. They bought a house in England and had five children. From 1960 to 1965,    ▲   : Theo, one of his children, was hit by a taxi and was seriously hurt. Olivia, one of Roald's daughters, died of a strange illness. Soon after this, his wife also had a serious illness. It took her years to get completely better.

 Gradually Roald became more and more successful. He always did his writing in an old shed(棚) at the back of his house. He always sat in the same old armchair with a wooden board on his lap.

 “One of the nice things about being a writer,” he once said, “is that all you need is what you've got in your head and a pencil and a bit of paper.”

       In 1983 Roald wona big prize for his book The BFG. During his life, Roald wrote many famous books, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox

       After he died in 1990, Roald left money to help people with serious illnesses and those with problems with reading and writing.           

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 daily 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 sketch (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.

    We often hear stories of animals rescuing people．But now someone has managed to return the favor．

    The event took place one snowy January morning Thomas Smith was walking his dog，Jack，in the park．"As I was walking，I just saw Jack running onto the ice towards the ducks in the middle，and then he fell into the water and couldn't climb out，"said Smith．He realized he had no choice but to try and save his dog．"someone else told me the lake was only one﹣meter deep，but it was at least twice that．I had to break my way through the 6﹣cm ice．Finally，I got Jack by the neck，and pulled him out．I don't think I have ever felt so cold by the time we got back to dry land．And when we got there，everyone was asking if Jack was okay﹣﹣﹣﹣﹣﹣no one was particularly worried，about me!"

    A neighbor，Julie Brown，saw it all happen．"The dog went onto an icy lake．All of a sudden，it started to go under．There were crowds of people around，and they were all shouting and screaming．Before I knew it，the owner Smith was in the water forcing his way through the ice．I can't begin to imagine how cold it was．Everyone was very nervous，but he was as cool as a cucumber﹣﹣﹣﹣﹣he just crawled back out，put the dog on its lead，and went home．"

    Many regard him as a hero，but Mr．Smith is quite laid﹣back about it．"Most dog owners are the same as me．They would do what I did without a second thought．But in the future，I'm going to make sure he's on lead near any ice ponds，Pets are members of our family．Would you do the same for them？

D

    He Jiang, a postgraduate（研究生）in biology. will become the first Chinese student to give a speech in the commencement(毕业典礼)at Harvard University on May 26, 2016.

    Given the highest honor by the university, He Jiang, who was born in a small village in Hunan province, said, "People in China often believe that it's useless to study and children from the countryside cannot be successful in the future. However, I cannot agree with them. Education can change a person's life. I hope my experience can encourage the students from the countryside to spare no effort in study and make their dreams come true."

    Different from many other families in the village, his parents never thought about finding a job in big cities and leaving their two sons at home without their care. His father was strict about their studies. He and his younger brother studied at home while the other kids in the village played in the fields. Unlike his strict father, his mother took her sons' side when her husband scolded the boys. She preferred to sit with her sons when they studied rather than chat with other women in the village.

    Getting the chance to speak at the commencement is no accident. During his first days in Harvard, it was quite difficult for him to follow the professors in class and he was speechless in campus because of his poor English. Instead of giving up, He Jiang spent all his free time on English. He also made friends with natives to improve his speaking English. One year later, he had little difficulty in class and soon became one of the top students in his class. With the encouragement from Professor Diana Eck. He Jiang decided to apply(申请）for the chance to speak at the commencement.“Few Chinese students had applied before, but I wanted to have a try. I just want to realize my idea of letting more people hear the voice from China and telling them that China is not what it used to be." said He Jiang. After beating three students from Harvard Kennedy School in the third and final round, He Jiang made it to get the chance to speak at the commencement.

    He Jiang will go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology after graduating from Harvard.

    A driver stopped his car on a street side to have a rest. As he lay down in the seat and closed his eyes, a person came up and knocked at the window to ask the time. The driver opened his eyes and looked at his watch: "It's 8:05," he said. Then he went to sleep again. But soon he was woken up again because a second person was knocking at the window. "Sir, do you know the time?" he asked. The driver looked at his watch again, and told him it was half past eight.

    In this way, the driver thought he could not have a good rest, so he wrote a short note(纸条) and stuck(贴) it on the window for all to see. It said, "I don't know the time."

    Again, he lay down in the seat for his sleep. A few minutes later, a third person came and began to knock at the window, "Hey, sir," he said. "It's a quarter to nine."

    When I was in the seventh grade, I had problems behaving. My heart was in the right place, but I couldn't always follow the rules. I played many tricks on my schoolmates. Once, I even pulled a girl's hair on the school bus to get her attention. As a result, I was repeatedly sent to the office of the headmaster. Although 1 hated going there, I did nor hate the headmaster, Mr. Smith.

    Mr. Smith was a kind, elderly man. When he punished me for putting some ants into a classmate's pencil box, it didn't hurt at all, but it did hurt my feelings. I thought so much of him and moments like that seemed to prove I was hopelessly bad.

    When I was called to Mr. Smith's office for the sixth time, I had no idea what I had done. I felt disappointed as I walked down there. I went into his office, sat down, and looked at the floor. Then he said the last thing I expected to hear. "Kevin, I've heard you've been behaving really well lately. I want you to know how proud I am of you, and I just called you down to my office to give you a peppermint."

    "Really?" I was surprised.

    "Yes. Now you can take that peppermint and go back to class."

    I carried the peppermint with me as if it was a gold coin. When I got into my classroom, I bragged(吹嘘) to my classmates about nay turn around, excitedly. I wasn't so bad after all.

    Mr. Smith was really kind. He made me realize that I was just a kid who had problems with behavior. He bought some peppermints and took the time to notice me when I got something anything-right. Mr. Smith gave me some hope by giving me some love. I will just remember him for the rest of my life.