Benjamin Franklin was a famous American inventor and scientist.
One day, when it was 1 , he said to his son, "William, will you 2 me do something? I can't do it myself."
All right, but how can I help you? It's raining so hard," asked William. "3 are you working on now?"
"I'm very sure that lightning and electricity are 4 , but I need to do something to prove (证明) it."
"How can you do that?" William asked.
"If we fly a 5 in the coming thunderstorm, maybe we can see an electric spark(火花). If we do, we'll know the 6 is coming right out of the clouds."
His son 7 and both the father and the son went out in the rain. They flew their kite in the thunderstorm and put a 8 to the end of the wire. When the kite flew into a dark 9 , the key made electric sparks. This was what he hoped for. For the 10 time he showed people around that lighting and electricity are the same.
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15th, 1452 in the area of Florence, Italy. He did many things. He was a scientist, musician, inventor and mathematician. He was also an architect- he knew how to plan the construction(建筑)of buildings. He knew about animals and plants. He could do many things well.
He was famous for his paintings. He painted the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. They are his most famous paintings. Many people know about them. He started working on the Last Supper in 1495 in Milan. He finished it in 1497. He started working on the Mona Lisa in 1503 in Italy. He finished it in1506. The Mona Lisa is in France now.
Da Vinci's paintings are very good. He knew the human being's body very well. He knew how happy or sad people looked. This made his paintings look vivid (栩栩如生的).
Da Vinci had many ideas for inventions. He drew plans for a plane and a tank(坦克). He had an idea for a calculator(计算器). He also thought of making solar power. Most of his inventions were drawings on paper, and some of these drawings gave us the plan (图纸) for our modern machines.
Leonardo died in 1519.
Once upon a time, a king offered a prize to the artist who could paint the best picture of peace. The king received thousands of paintings from many artists. He studied each one carefully and finally decided upon two that he really liked. He now had to choose between them.
The first was a painting of a beautiful calm lake with clear water. It was surrounded (包围) by green forests and high mountains. Overhead, the sky was blue with clouds.
The other painting had mountains too, but these mountains were rugged (崎岖的). A huge waterfall fell down one side of the mountain. Above them was an angry sky, lit by lightning (闪电), from which heavy rain fell.
Most people agreed that the first painting clearly showed a place of perfect peace. However, when the king looked at the second painting more closely, he found a tiny bush(灌木丛) growing behind the waterfall. There, in the small bush, a mother bird had built her nest. In the middle of the rush of angry water, in the wind and the noise, the mother bird sat still on her nest—in perfect peace.
The king chose the second painting. When being asked why, he said, "Peace does not mean being in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. Peace means being in the middle of all of these things and yet still being able to stay calm and quiet in your heart, and carry on with your life. This is the true meaning for peace."
