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.

    I got out of the train station with my father. A woman came to him and said that her money had been stolen(偷). She asked if he could1her some money to go back home. My father gave her what she asked for and told her not to worry about paying it back. I was2. How could my father be so silly? Anyone could see that she was telling a lie(谎言), staying at the station all day long3for money.

    "She was lying!" I said."4did you give her the money?"

    My father looked at me. He was a bit angry. "And what would you like me to do?" he said.

    "Should I tell her that I am a college professor and I can see through her scam(骗局）？" I did not5his meaning at all, and then he told me something that I have6forgotten. "First, she would not do this7she didn't need the money. Second, I made her day, because now she thinks that she's8than me. It is more important to9than the money. but I don't mind this."

    A week later, we were at the same station, and the same woman came to my father with the same story. "Not this time," my father told her. "In your business, you should learn to recognize(认出) people. Try another10on me next week."

    A man stopped at a gas station and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to 1 and he watched a couple of men 2 along the roadside.

    One man would dig a hole two or three feet 3 and then move on. 4man came along behind to fill in the hole. While one was digging a new hole, the other was about 25 feet behind 5 in the old hole.

    The man with a soft drink was confused. "I can't stand this," said the man walking toward the men. "Stop it," he said to t e men. "Can you tell me what's 6 here?"

    "Well, we work for the county government," one of the men said.

    "But one of you is digging a hole and the other is filling 7up. You're not accomplishing anything. Aren't you 8 the county's money?"

    "You don't understand," one of the men said.

    "Normally (通常地) there are 9 of us: I Rodney and Mike. I dig the hole Rodney sticks in the tree and Mike here puts earth 10."

    "Yeah," said Mike. "Today Rodney is sick. But that doesn't mean we can't work, does it?"

    Muller was a butcher（屠夫）. He worked in his father's shop for many years. His father1working when he was very old，and Muller worked2. He had to work harder.

    Muller worked five and a half3a week. His shop closed at one o'clock on Thursday，and it was closed the whole of Sunday. Saturdays were the4days.

    One Thursday a young woman came into the shop at five minutes to one. "I'm5. I'm late. "She said, "Some friends called me just now. They wanted to come to6tonight and I need some more meat. "

    Muller had only one piece of good meat in the shop. He had sold all the rest7 in the day. He took the piece out and said to the woman, ""This is six pounds."

    "It's too 8, "the woman answered." Have you got anything bigger?"

    Muller went into the room behind his shop, opened the fridge, put the piece of meat into it, took it out again and closed the fridge with a lot of9. Then he brought the piece of meat back to the woman and said, "This piece is bigger and more expensive. It's 8 pounds. "

    "Good, "the woman answered with a smile." Give me10, please."

    I'm sure many great people think about how they can make a difference in the world. In fact, sometimes little things can make a really big difference. I learned this 1 one day five years ago with my father, when I was just acting like myself—a nine-year-old kid.

    Papa came home late from work after 9 p.m. and he looked even more tired than usual. His eyes were already half-closed. I followed him to his bedroom. Papa 2 up the stairs, slowly lifting his feet one after the other. I was afraid that I would have to start pushing him. Fortunately, he 3 it to the bedroom on his own.

    Papa sat down on the bed and started removing his shoes and socks. "How was work?" I asked cheerfully.

    "Oh, it was OK," he replied. "It's just that I'm tired." "Oh, um……you want me to leave?"

    Papa gave me a tired 4 that made me more comfortable. I made me feel like he wasn't going to scold me, as he often did when I made some 5.

    "No," he said kindly, "of course I don't want you to leave."

    I opened my mouth and started 6 out the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch. Papa always loved it when I did that, and he started laughing loudly. I was happy that I had made my father laugh so much.

    "Did you like it?" I asked. "Of course I did," he said. "Did you know that 7you make me laugh, you make me feel a lot better?"

    I was  8that I could really do a thing like that.