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.

    It was a Friday evening. I was waiting at the bus stop after school when a car stopped and the driver opened the door. It was my 1. “Quick, get in!” he told me. I was very 2, but I did as he said.

    At first, I was worried that something 3 happened. Then, I noticed my mother. She was also 4 the car and on the back seat. There were some bags of clothes and 5 food. My father was driving the car, but he was not driving 6. He was driving out of the town. “Where are we going?” I asked.

    It was a warm evening and lots of people were walking along the road. It was the 7 day of term. Did my parents have a big surprise for me? We were going somewhere special — 8 where? The next thing I can remember is falling 9. When I woke up, I saw the sea. We were at the beach. My father was smiling. “Here we are,” he said, “the summer holiday 10 now!”

    Most kids have dogs or cats or fish as pets, but Betty has a1. The mouse's name is Augustus. She likes mice 2 they are small, easy to take care of and 3. When her friends come over to her 4, they don't like her mouse. They think a mouse is5.

    It was time to feed Augustus one day, but it was difficult to6 him. He wasn't in his little room. How did he get7? After hours of8Augustus around the house, Betty put up notices (告示) on the road. Her9 took them off. "Hey! Why did you do that? "Betty 10. "I lost my dog so I'm going to put my notice up. And11cares about a mouse," her neighbour said.

    Betty didn't let her neighbour's words discourage (使泄气) her. She kept 12"Lost Mouse" notice. Betty then heard ashout. "Oh, it's a mouse!" someone cried out13. Betty followed the shout and it led her to the14shop. She found Augustus eating in the15. She got him and held him happily.

Now more than one billion people in China speak putonghua, or Mandarin, as their first language. At the same time, dongbeihua, or northeast dialect (方言), has become more popular. The dialect makes even the most serious daily conversations sound fun.

Ms Ann, a Chinese language teacher, opened a class to teach middle school students dongbeihua in Heilongjiang Province. "I just hope to help the students learn more about the culture of their home town," said Ms Ann.

"It is important to inherit (继承) the northeast dialect in a new form,"she said. "For most students, they are speaking Mandarin or even English to adapt(适应) to society. They don't pay more attention to the dialect or the culture behind it. That's a pity. They need to pass it on."

Now there are over thirty students in her class. At first, some students believed it would not be difficult for the northeasterners to speak dongbeihua well. However, with the deepening of the class, the students could only speak some easy words and knew little about the meaning behind them. To increase students' interest, Ms Ann has been trying different ways. For example, she chose video clips from interesting cartoons for her students to dub (配音) them into dongbeihua.

Both Mandarin and dialect are the carriers (载体) of Chinese language and culture. Learning the dialect is learning our local culture and history.

Do you believe that we can have an important influence on anyone we meet？The right words at just the right time could1 someone's life. 

When I was 3 years old，my parents found I was2 . After asking many doctors and parents of other deaf children，they decided not to put me in a special school. Although I seemed outgoing（外向的）my self﹣esteem（自尊心）was quite low. On my first day at school，the other kids3 me because of my hearing aid and the way I talked. I was hurt deeply and I saw myself as a（n）4 kid. 

Mrs. Green，my5 ，changed all of that with a simple three﹣word phrase. One morning，she asked the class a question. Sitting at my desk silently，I6 her tips（哦唇） and raised my hand right away. She called on me in front of the blackboard. I took a deep breath and7 answered Mrs. Green's question. 

I will8 forget what happened next. Mrs. Green pointed directly at me. With sparkling（闪光的）eye sand a big smile she cried： "That's right，Ben!"

For the first time in my young life，my confidence rose. At that moment，I decided that no matter how many9 I may face，I can overcome（克服）them. Thanks to those three10 words，my whole life changed from that moment. 

要求：

1. 文中不能出现真实的人名、地名和校名；

2. 词数80-120, 开头已给出, 不计入总词数。

Habits

My name is Wang Lin. I have good habits and bad ones.