Every year on my birthday since I was 11, a white gardenia (栀子花) was sent to my house. No card ever came with it. Calls to the flower shop were not helpful at all. After some time I stopped trying to find out the sender's name and was just pleased with the beautiful flower, in soft pink paper.

I couldn't stop imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments werespent daydreaming(幻想 )about the sender. My mother encouraged these daydreams. She'd ask me if I had been especially kind to someone. Perhaps it was one of my classmates Perhaps it was the old man who I once helped. As a girl, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy that I had met.

    A month before my high school graduation(毕业), my father died. I was so sad that I became completely uninterested in my coming graduation dance, and I didn't care whether I had a new dress or not. My mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss (过) any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved. In fact, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia: lovely, strong and perfect.

    My mother died ten years after I was married. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.

    A 15-year-old student who invented a flashlight(手电筒) getting power from the holder's body heat is going home today from California with a big prize and a chance to do further research.

    Ann Makosinski was the only Canadian among the four winners at Google's international science competition. Thousands of young scientists from around the world took part in the competition.

    Winning the science and technology competition was "a surprise". Ann said, "I think it will have a great influence on my future."

    Ann thanked her family for encouraging her interest in science and said that her first toy was a box of transistors(晶体管).

    Ann's prize includes $ 25,000 and a "once in a-lifetime expericnce" from Google for her Hollow Flashlight, which has no moving parts or batteries.

    The idea for the invention came from seeing unwanted batteries and her friend's experience. When Ann visited a friend in the Philippines, she saw the friend couldn't study when it became dark because there was no electricity or light. She saw the need for a flashlight that has no batteries - Hollow Flashlight.

    In her project, Ann wrote "I made two flashlights that do not use any batteries or harmful materials. They do not create any noise and will always work. The flashlight needs at least a 5℃ temperature difference between the holder's body and the environment around to produce light."

    A video of Ann explaining how she creatcd the flashlight has been watched more than 1.4 million times on the Internet.

    Though Ann was successful, she has not made a decision about her career path. Ann hopes that she can find a way to join her love of film and science together.

    The four winners were chosen from 15 final competitors from eight countries. The competition attracted thousands of students in 120 countries.

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian composer and pianist. Many people think he was one of the best composers of music of all time.

    Mozart was born in Austria in 1756. He was educated by his father, a very good violinist. His father started to give him piano lessons when he was 4 years old. When he was 6, he went on his first musical tour of Europe. Mozart also wrote music. When he was only about 5 years old, he started to compose music. At the age of 8, he composed his first real song. He grew up to write some of his most beautiful music ever heard. However, he died when he was only 35 years old.