Set your imaginationfree. Children's imagination is amazing. They can always create things thatsurprise everyone. To1 children's imagination ,NewYork City will hold an activity called the Inventgenuity Festival (创意发明节) for children.

The Inventgenuity Festival is all about thinking and2things.It's held for childrenaged from seven to sixteen. Parents are also able to3thefestival.

   There will be many different kinds of workshopsin the festival. Children are4to create things in those workshops. Forexample, they can make things5funny hand-made T-shirts or cartoon toydolls. No one will tell them6to make these things. They create everythingwith their imagination. Besides making things, children can see a wonderful moviecalledA trip to the Sunin a7duringthe festival.

   In thefestival, children are asked to do most of the work by themselves.8,if the work is too difficult for them, they can ask their parents for9 .

   To takepart in the festival, children need to register (注册) first , and then10theworkshops they like on the website. One child can take part in two workshops ata time.

There are some computer programs outthere for creating art, such as Photoshop or Microsoft Paint. But you probablywouldn't guess that Microsoft Excel is one of them.

For many of us, Excel is just a type ofoffice software. But for Tatsuo Horiuchi, an 80 year –old Japanese, it is hispaints, his water colours and his canvas (画布)。About 20 years ago, shortly before retiring (退休), the artist thought that he needed a new challenge in his life. Sohe bought a computer and began making beautiful works of art with Excel.

"I didn't use Excel at work before, butI saw other people using Excel to draw pretty graphs (图表). So I thought, I could probably draw with that," Horiuchisays, "Graphics software is expensive but Excel can store on most computers.Besides, it has more functions and is easier to use than Microsoft Paint."

Horiuchi also tried using Word but waslimited (限制) to the paper sizing. Thereis far more freedom for the artist to produce his painting in Excel. Horiuchi'scolourful Excel art deeply describes the richness of traditional Japanesepaintings. It often shows highly- detailed sights, along with people, plantsand animals.

"I set a goal(目标), "Horiuchi says, "that is, in 10 years, I would be ableto paint something excellent enough to show to people. "And he hascertainly achieved that goal.

Since his discovery of Excel's artisticfunctions and his ability. to use. them, Horiuchi has got worldwide praise. He hasgone on to win competitions with his works. Not surprisingly, he took firstprize at the Excel Auto shape Art Contest in 2006. Having made quite a name forhimself, the elderly Japanese artist was given a new name-"the Michelangeloof Excel".

I am a plastic bottle. A week ago, I was on a supermarket shelf. I had a normal life, the same as all my brothers and sisters--other bottles full 1 water. I felt really happy.

Then a tall woman 2 me up and put me in her basket! The woman took me home and put me in the 3 . It was cold, but I soon made friends with the cans and bottles in it. 4 , only a few hours later, she took me out of the fridge and drank the water inside me. Then she threw me into the dustbin. I never felt so 5 and alone in my life.

Early the next morning, a man took me out of the dustbin. He threw me and the other rubbish into the back of a truck. There were so many horrible smells. Then I was pushed together with the rest of the rubbish. Soon I was 6 flat (扁平). I can't believe how thin I became.

I slept for a while. Then I 7 , I found myself in a terrible place. Everything around me was ugly and had horrible smells. I felt afraid. I kept hoping that I would be moved 8 else. Then huge trucks came and covered us with some soil.

I asked 9 bottle what would happen to us. He said that we would never leave this horrible crowded place, but would have to stay here for thousands of years.

"Why can't they reuse or 10 us?" I cried.

An old woman has an old cat. The cat can't run quickly or bite（咬）. The old woman doesn't take the old cat out for a walk or give it good food. The old cat always lies under the chair and doesn't want to move. 

Suddenly the cat sees a mouse（老鼠）in the house. So it jumps and catches the mouse. But it can't kill（杀死）the mouse because its teeth are bad. So the mouse runs away quickly. The old woman sees that and becomes angry. She begins to hit the cat and shouts，"Get out!Get out!"The cat doesn't go away but says to the old woman"Don't hit me. I have worked for you for many years. Now I still work for you. But I'm old and can't kill the mouse like before. Don't be rude（粗鲁的）to the old. Think about how much I did for you when I was young. "

I was on a train in Switzerland. The train came to a stop and a man said something, but I didn't know the language. Everyone started to get out of the train. An old woman saw me still sitting there. She could speak a little English and told me what the man said. She asked me where I was going. Then she talked with some other people, then came back, and told me that we had to take other trains to get there.

I was really lucky to meet the old woman. because I knew I couldn't take the right train by myself. Then we went from one train station to the next. The old woman was really kind. When we got to the last station, we left and said goodbye. Luckily, I got on my train to Rome in time. The old woman told me she also had to catch another train. I found that she needed to spend two hours going back home.

I was moved(感动) that day. An old woman spent so much time on trains just to help out a stranger.

Now, let me tell you more about astronauts. More than 500 people have been in space. The first man in space was Yuri Gagarin. He flew into space in 1961. His spaceship was just big enough for one person. John Glenn went to space again in 1998 at the age of 77. He was the oldest man to fly in space. Space isn't just for men. The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova. The first moon landing was made by Neil Armstrong in 1969. He said, "One small step for a man, one giant leap (跨越) for mankind."

Would you like to be an astronaut when you finish school? First, you must be healthy. Then you have to take tests. After. you pass the tests, you are still not an astronaut. You need more training(训练) for new skills. There are many jobs to do in space. An astronaut must be ready for anything.