My father was a self-taught mandolin（曼陀林琴）player. He was one of the best players in our town. He could not 1 music, but if he heard a tune（曲子）a few times, he could play it. When he was young, he was a2 of a small country music band. They played at local dances and the radio station.

    At home, Dad often got out his mandolin and played for the family. We three children sang along. 3 played the mandolin like my father. He could 4 your heart with the music that came out of that old mandolin. He seemed to shine when he was playing. You could see his 5 in his ability to play so well for his family.

    But Dad had to find another 6 in a factory later because the money he made atthe band wasn't enough to7 the family. Unluckily he had an 8 one day and lost one finger. He couldn't play as 9 as before. From then on, every time we asked him to play, he would make up reasons to 10 down our request. However, we missed his performance so much. 11 , he agreed and said “Okay, but remember, I can't hold down on the strings（琴弦）the way I 12 to”. When he played the old mandolin, it carried us back to a 13,happy time in our lives.

    Dad was that kind of man. 14 was what he was doing all his life. If he could give 15 to others, he would, especially his family. He was always there, sacrificing（牺牲）his time to see that his family had enough in their life.

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.

    Mark lived in a mountain village far away. One day he became very 1 and everyone thought he would die soon. They sent for a   2. Two days later the doctor came and looked over the sick man. The doctor asked for a 3 and some paper to write down the name of the medicine. But there was no pen or paper in the village, because 4 could write. The doctor picked up a piece of burnt wood from the fire and 5 the name of the medicine on the door of the house. " 6 this medicine for him," he said." and he will soon get 7 " Mark's family and friends did not know 8 to do. They could not read the strange words. Then a young man had an/a 9. He took off the door of the house, put it on his carriage(马车) and drove to the nearest  10. He bought the medicine there, and Mark was soon well again.

    One day a small boy was walking along the street in London. His name was Tom. It was a cold winter day in 1900. That day he could have no breakfast 1lunch. He wanted to buy bread, but he didn't2any money.

    His father died when he was very young. His mother was often very ill, so she could not 3Tom and his brother, Mike. They had to work to help their sick mother.

    He was small 4 his dream was very big. His wish was to be a great man in the world of film. So he worked very hard on singing and dancing. Then, one day a man came to him and asked, "5 for my film?" "Certainly," he answered. And he did his 6in it. Many people said, "We have never seen  7 interesting film."

    Thirty years 8 , this same boy was among the most famous people in the world. He made many good 9. A lot of people liked 10.

    My name is Helen. I am 13. My1is on October 25th. I 2in America with my parents and my brother Frank. I 3 in a middle school with Frank. My favourite 4are music and art. I like listening 5music and talking with my friends when I am 6. I don't like history because it's 7.

    I always have meals at school. I have good eating 8. For breakfast, I 9to have two pieces of bread and a glass of milk. And for lunch, I like to eat chicken, rice10vegetables. I think they are 11and can make me strong. For dinner, I 12eat a small bowl of tomato and egg noodles. 13are delicious.

    To keep fit, I always 14some time playing sports. I often 15early in the morning to run in the park. And in the afternoon, I often play ping-pong with my classmates after school.

    Ben would hear strong winds outside his home in Alabama Black clouds were making the s{#blank#}1{#/blank#} very dark. The winds strongly b{#blank#}2{#/blank#} and beat against the house. With no l{#blank#}3{#/blank#} outside, it felt like midnight. The news on TV r{#blank#}4{#/blank#} that a heavy rainstorm was in the area.

    Everyone in the neighborhood was b{#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Dad was putting pieces of wood over the windows while Mom was making sure the lights and radio were {#blank#}6{#/blank#}. Ben was helping his mom make dinner when the rain began. After dinner, they tried to play a card game, b{#blank#}7{#/blank#} it was hard to have fun with a serious storm happening outside.

    Ben could not s{#blank#}8{#/blank#} first. He finally fell asleep when the wind was dying down.

When he w{#blank#}9{#/blank#} up, the sun was rising. He went outside with his family and found the neighborhood in a mess. Fallen trees, broken windows and rubbish were everywhere.

    They joined the neighbors to clean up the neighborhood.

    Although the storm broke many things apart it brought families and neighbors c{#blank#}10{#/blank#} together.