The  cat’s  lot  was  about  to  improve. That year, one of Benjamin’s cousins, Mr.Pennington, came to visit. He was impressed with Benjamin’s drawings. When he went home, he sent Benjamin a box of paint and some brushes. He also sent six engravings(版画) by an artist. These were the first pictures and first real paint and brushes Benjamin had ever seen.

In 1747，when Benjamin was nine years old，Mr.Pennington returned for another visit. He was amazed at what Benjamin had done with his gift.He asked Benjamin’s parents if he might take the boy back to Philadelphia for a visit.

Minutes after the last movie ended yesterday at the Plaza Theater, employees were busy sweeping up popcorns and gathering coke cups. It was a scene that had been repeated many times in the theater’s 75-year history. This time, however, the cleanup was a little different. As one group of workers carried out the rubbish, another group began removing seats and other theater equipment in preparation for the building’s end.

   The film classic The Last Picture Show was the last movie shown in the old theater. Though the movie is 30 years old, most of the 250 seats were filled with teary-eyed audience wanting to say good-be to the old building. Theater owner Ed Bradford said he chose the movie because it seemed appropriate. The movie is set in a small town where the only movie theater is preparing to close down.

Bradford said that large modern theaters in the city made it impossible for the Plaza to compete. He added that the theater’s location(位置) was also a reason. “This used to be the center of town,” he said. “Now the area is mostly office buildings and warehouses.”

Last week some city officials suggested the city might be interested in turning the old theater into a museum and public meeting place. However, these plans were abandoned because of financial problems. Bradford sold the building and land to a local development firm, which plans to build a shopping complex on the land where the theater is located.

The theater audience said good-by as Bradford locked the doors for the last time. After 75 years the Plaza Theater has shown its last movie. The theater will be missed.

You probably know who Marie Curie was, but you may not have heard of Rachel Carson．Of the outstanding ladies listed below, who do you think was the most important woman of the past 100 years?

    Jane Addams (1860-1935)

    Anyone who has ever been helped by a social worker has Jane Addams to thank．Addams helped the poor and worked for peace．She encouraged a sense of community (社区) by creating shelters and promoting education and services for people in need．In 1931, Addams became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize．

    Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

    If it weren't for Rachel Carson, the environmental movement might not exist today．Her popular 1962 book Silent Spring raised awareness of the dangers of pollution and the harmful effects of chemicals on humans and on the world's lakes and oceans．

    Sandra Day O'Connor (1930-present)

    When Sandra Day O'Connor finished third in her class at Stanford Law School, in 1952, she could not find work at a law firm because she was a woman．She became an Arizona state senator (参议员) and, in 1981, the first woman to join the U.S. Supreme Court．O'Connor gave the deciding vote in many important cases during her 24 years on the top court．

    Rose Parks (1913-2005)

    On December 1, 1995, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks would not give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger．Her simple act landed Parks in prison．But it also set off the Montgomery bus boycott．It lasted for more than a year, and kicked off the civil-rights movement．"The only tired I was, was tired of giving in," said Parks．

What’s more exciting than having a fresh hot pizza delivered to your door? How about having it brought to you by a robot? Thanks to Domino’s Robotic Unit or DRU, that just became a reality! On March 8, the three-foot tall robot delivered its first pizza to some lucky residents in Brisbane, Australia.

The fully autonomous DRU is the result of a cooperation between Domino’s Pizza Australia and Sydney based startup Marathon Robotics. The 450-pound machine that travels at a maximum speed of 12.4 miles an hour can cross a distance of up to 12 miles and back, before requiring a battery recharge. LIDAR, a laser-based sensor technology similar to the one used in self-driving cars, enables DRU to detect and avoid obstacles, while traditional sensors, much like those used in vacuum robots ensure its path is safe as it heads to its destination.

The robot can fit up to ten pizzas and even has a separate cold area to accommodate drink orders. Equipped with both Google Maps and GPS guidance, DRU can navigate bike paths and sidewalks and also find the most efficient way to its destination. Since the robot does not have to deal with road traffic, it could potentially make deliveries a lot quicker than humans. To access their food, customers have to enter the unique code provided to them by the company. This not only ensures that they pick up the right pizza, but also prevents the pies from getting stolen on route.

Though Domino’s has thus far built just a single prototype（样机）, they expect additional DRU to be ready for service in their various Queensland locations within the next six months. But don’t expect these super cute robots to replace humans anytime soon. According to Domino’s the DRU still needs extensive testing, which the company believes could take up to two years.

And then there is also the problem of regulations. The public use of autonomous vehicles is still banned in most countries. But Don Meij, the CEO and Managing Director of Domino’s Pizza Australia New Zealand Ltd, is not worried. One day DRU will become an integral part of the Domino’s family." We for one cannot wait!

Mr. Knight was the manager of a hotel. One weekend all of the hotels in the city were full because there was a large meeting. On Friday, three men came into the hotel and asked for rooms. Mr. Knight said there were no rooms ready because of the meeting. The men were unhappy.

Mr. Knight wanted to help them. He remembered that Room 418, a small room, was empty. He asked them if they could share a room. The three men said they would. Mr. Knight said the room would be thirty dollars; ten dollars for each person. Each man gave him the money and then went up to the room.

Mr. Knight soon began to feel sorry. “Thirty dollars is a lot to ask as a price for that small room.” he thought. He called his assistant over and said, “Here is five dollars. Take it to the men in Room 418. I asked too much for their room.”

The assistant took the money. While he was on the way there, he started to think, “How can three men divide five dollars? I’ll give them each only one dollar and keep the two dollars for myself. The men will be happy to get something back. And Mr. Knight will never know.” So the assistant returned one dollar to each man.

Each man had at first paid ten dollars. After the assistant returned them one dollar each, each had actually (in fact) paid nine. There were three men. $9×3=$27. The assistant kept$2. $27+$2=$29. Where is the missing dollar?

Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The next building was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could see her seated by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading. 

After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, “I wonder why that woman doesn’t wash her window. It really looks terrible.”

One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window on the inside.Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible. Her window was clean!

Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?

Since then, whenever I wanted to judge someone, I asked myself first, “Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?” I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.

    B

    When Cole was born, he was blind, which made his father Frankie Moran’s heart sank. When Frankie Moran first saw his son, he could not imagine ever sharing his love of music with the boy.

But Cole was not deaf. He quickly showed an interest in music. Mr. Moran is a singer and songwriter. He says his son liked to be nearby when he was making music at home.

    When he was just one year old, Cole started playing notes(音符) of simple songs on a toy piano. “That is about the same time we discovered he had perfect sense of pitch(音高). Because when he would miss a note and hit the wrong notes in a song like ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,’ he would go back and find that note. So that’s how we realized he knew what he was hearing.”

    Cole Moran is now 12 years old. Cole plays music every day. He records his performances and listens back to the sound.

    Cole’s choice of instrument since he was four has been the harmonica(口琴), which he often plays with his dad. Last year, the father and son won second place at a Fiddler’s Convention in their hometown.

    The 12-year-old released his first CD recently. His mother, Jenny Moran, was excited. “It is wonderful that he has something that he can do for the rest of his life that he will always enjoy.”

    Cole attends Maryland School for the Blind in Baltimore. There will be lots of time for music when classes end for the summer break. Frankie Moran says he and Cole plan to do a series of Blind Wind performances around the country.

This is a true story of a mother’s sacrifice (牺牲) in an earthquake.

When the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman’s house, they saw her dead body through the cracks. Her pose was somehow strange---she knelt (跪) on the ground like a person who was worshiping (祷告)；her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supported by an object. However, the cold and stiff body told them that she had passed away for sure.

The rescuers left this house and were going to search the next collapsed (倒塌的) building. For some reason, the team leader was driven by a strange force to go back to the ruined house. Again, he knelt down to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement, “ A child! There is a child!”

The whole team worked together; carefully they removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3-month-old little boy wrapped in a blanket under his mother’s dead body. Obviously, the woman had made great sacrifice in order to save her son. When her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.

A doctor came quickly to examine the little boy. After he opened the blanket, he saw a cellphone inside the blanket. There was a text message on the screen. It said, “ If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” Everybody that read the message cried.

One day, a train was approaching the small town of Cheekyville. On the train was a young man with a big suitcase. He was called William Warbler, and he looked very common indeed. What made him most unusual, though, was the fact that whenever he needed to communicate he did it by singing opera (歌剧). It didn’t matter to William whether it was simply a matter of answering a brief greeting, like “good day”. He would clear his voice and respond, “Gooood dayyy to youuuuuuuu... toooooo!”

       No one could get a normal spoken word out of him and no one knew how he made his living. As he lived quite simply, always wearing his same old second-hand suit, people often looked down on him.

       William had been in Cheekyville for some years, when, one day, word spread round town like wildfire: William had played a role in a very important opera in the nation’s capital. Everyone in the capital went to see it, and it was a great success. Everyone in Cheekyville felt it was a surprise. But something more surprising was, when William was being interviewed by reporters, he answered their questions by speaking rather than singing. And he did it with great manners, and with a clear and pleasant voice.  

       From that day, William gave up singing at all hours. Now he did it only during his stage appearances and world tours. Some people suspected why he had changed, but others continued believing him to be somewhat mad. They wouldn’t have thought so if they had seen what William kept in his big suitcase. It was a large stone, with a hand-carved (手工雕刻的) message on it. The message said: “Practice, my boy. Practice every second, for you never know when your chance will come.”

       Little did people realize that he only got the role in the opera because the director had heard William singing while out buying a newspaper.