Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy, in 1564. His father taught music while his mother cared for kids at home. The family was not wealthy, but Galileo's parents paid for him to go to school.
At first Galileo planned to become a doctor, but he changed his mind. He liked a different kind of science—physics. In Galileo's time, not much was known about how objects moved. Centuries earlier, a Greek (希腊人) named Aristotle had written down his ideas about movements, and everyone seemed to believe them. Galileo questioned those ideas and did experiments (实验) that showed how things really worked. For example, Aristotle thought that a heavier object would fall faster than a lighter one of the same size and shape. No one had ever really tested this idea. It just seemed to be true. Then Galileo came along, dropped two balls from a high tower, and discovered that they hit the ground at the same time!
In later years, Galileo became interested in how the stars and planets move. He watched the sky with a telescope (望远镜) he built himself. Once again, he saw things no one had ever seen before. For example, he saw that the moon was not smooth. Then he noticed that the sun had spots (斑点) that seemed to move. Galileo realized from his observations (观察) that the earth was moving around the sun. A Polish (波兰的) scientist named Copernicus had said this recently, but no one believed him. Galileo knew that Copernicus was right. Unluckily, Galileo's announcement got him into trouble with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church said that the earth was at the center of the universe (宇宙) with the sun traveling around it. This was what people had long believed, but Galileo said it was untrue. So he was sent to jail (监狱) . He was soon set free, but for the rest of his life he had to stay in his house and yard
Galileo died in 1642, but his work helped to change the world. He is sometimes called the "father of modern science" because he showed us how important it is to look carefully at things and to test out ideas with experiments.
The 6-year-old girl, Ruby, lived in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was supposed to go to school close Io her home. But all the students in that school were white. Ruby was black. School leaders didn't want to accept her, so they made Ruby take a hard exam and hoped she would fail. But Ruby was so smart that she passed the test easily and was finally allowed to go to the school.
Ruby was excited about her new school. Bui when she and her mom arrived on her first day, she saw a crowd of angry people shouting very cruel things at the gate. They did not want a black child to attend the school. "I had no idea what was happening, " remembered Ruby. She thought the crowd was celebrating something.
Each day. Ruby went to school with four police officers who worked for the national government to protect her. The sight of this small girl with her big bodyguards moved the artist Norman Rockwell. He created a painting of Ruby. He called it The Problem We All Live With", It became a very famous painting.
Ruby grew up to be a civil rights activist. She worked to protect the rights given to all citizens by the government. She even went to the White House to meet President Barack Obama. They looked al Mr. Rockwell's painting. It hung outside the Oval Office.
"We should never judge a person by the color of their skin, " Ruby said. " That's the lesson I learned in first grade. "
When Wang Haiyan was young, her favorite toys weren't Barbie dolls. Instead, she started learning to make shadow puppets(皮影)from her father at 13. Now 43, Wang has spent 30 years practicing and spreading the art.
Shadow puppetry is a form of theater that uses puppets made from leather(皮) or paper, accompanied(伴奏) by music and singing. It was invented during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC—AD 24). It tells us about folk tales and historical stories, passing down culture and customs over thousands of years.
Shadow puppetry is all about creating the puppets and performing with them. Wang's hometown of Hua county, Shaanxi, is known as the birthplace of the folk art.
Puppet—makers must follow 24 steps to make the puppets including washing the leather, carving(雕刻) and painting, according to Wang. Carving is the most difficult part.
"We have a special carving skill—moving the leather under the knife," Wang said. It took Wang three years to master this skill. She used a brick(砖块)to strengthen her left hand while practicing. It takes about 3,000 carves to make a shadow puppet. "The complex (复杂的) steps make it hard to hand down the folk art," she said.
But Wang has found a way to do so. In recent years, she has made shadow puppets based on some cartoon series and given a live streaming performance. She used colors like blue and purple that were hardly seen in shadow puppetry and added more sticks to the puppets to make the performance more lively. "I hope more and more young people enjoy shadow puppetry and pass it down," she said,
