Do you think doing housework is a hard task for you? Have you ever thought of inventing something to make it __? A boy named Sam Houghton did and he __ a two-head broom (扫帚).

Sam was just three years old when he came up with his __. He saw his father sweep up (打扫) garden leaves and __ brooms while trying to gather large leaves and litter.

Now he is the poster boy for a new show at the British Library in London called “Inventing the 21st Century.” To celebrate __ and encourage new inventors, the famous __ is telling the story of the most special inventions coming out of Britain in the past 10 years. Sam’s broom is produced by big companies, and the brooms are very__ in England.

Young Sam Houghton is now eight years old and has another invention. He has made a balloon popping machine (气球爆破装置) for play centers. He said, “We don’t want children to cry because of __ bangs (爆炸声) of balloons. I used a box to __ the bangs so that they can’t scare (惊吓) the children.”

Have you ever wanted to be a great inventor? Watch __, think it over and work hard. Maybe you will be an inventor. Do you think so?

A young painter completed a painting. To get people’s opinions about his painting skills, he put his painting at a crossing on a street and put up a board that read, "Gentlemen, I have painted this work. Since I'm new, I might have made some mistakes. Please put a cross wherever you see a mistake.”

When he came back in the evening, he was shocked (震惊的) to see that the whole painting was filled with crosses. He ran to his teacher and said, useless.

The teacher said, "I’ll let you know that you are a great artist. Just paint the same painting again and give it to me.”

Then they went to the same street the next morning and put the same painting at the same place. The teacher took out another board which read, "Gentlemen, I have painted this work. I might have made some mistakes. I have put a box with colors and brushes just below. If you see a mistake, pick up the brush and correct it.” Two days later, they came back to the place. The young painter was surprised to see that there was not a single correction.

If you want to help people improve their behavior (行为), you’d better learn how to help people change their behavior. Always remember not to judge (批评) yourself by someone else’s criticism (批评), because you are the best judge to judge yourself.

It’s fun to explore new places — it feels like an adventure, even when you know you are not the first to have been there. But make sure not to get lost or waste time going round in circles.

As an English person, I can speak three languages — English, German and French, so do you think the British people are very good language learners? The fact is that they aren’t.

Some statistics (数据) from the survey done by the European Commission (欧盟委员会) showed that 62% of the British people only speak English. 38% speak at least one foreign language and 18% speak two or more. Compared with the British people, 56% of the people in other European countries speak at least one foreign language and 28% speak two or more. From this you can see that the British people are famous for not speaking foreign languages and that they are not good language learners in Europe.

And the survey also showed that English is the most widely-spoken foreign language. Many European people can have a conversation in English. That’s why many people don’t think it is necessary to learn a foreign language.

In Britain, students aren’t required to learn a foreign language. That means learning a foreign language is only a choice at school. In British schools it’s common for children to start learning a foreign language at 11 and many of them give it up at 14. So why don’t students continue learning foreign languages at school? Because they think it’s more difficult to get good marks in languages than in other subjects such as science or history.

To solve this situation, the British government is looking for different ways to improve language learning at school. One way is to start learning it at a much younger age. Another one is to give school children more choices.

Marco Polo was born in Italy in 1254. When he was 17, he travelled across Europe and Asia with his father, who wanted to do trade with the Chinese. Finally they arrived in Beijing. They were guests at the Emperor's   Palace. Although Marco Polo was young, he was very clever and could speak some foreign languages. The Emperor was impressed by him. He asked Marco Polo to serve in his court (宫廷) and sent him to do many important tasks across the country.

Marco Polo was amazed by the beautiful China. He was impressed by Beijing and the Emperor’s Palace, especially the Summer Palace which he described as “The greatest palace that ever was...” The walls were covered with gold and silver and the hall was so large that it could easily seat 6,000 people for dinner.

There were inventions and developments in China which were not used in Europe at that time. He was puzzled (困惑的) by the black stones people used to burn to produce heat. The black stones were coal, but Marco Polo had never seen coal before!

In 1295, after 17 years of service to the Emperor, Marco Polo returned to Italy. He was then a very wealthy man. A writer wrote down the stories that Marco Polo told him in a book called The Travels of Marco Polo.

Although people enjoyed reading the book, many of them thought that Marco Polo’s stories about China were too fantastic to be true. But Marco Polo always stood by his tales. Just before he died in 1324, Marco Polo was asked the question, “Were they all true?” And this was his answer, “I have only told half of what I saw!”

Most people may think that people who write computer code (代码) must be good at Maths and logical (逻辑的) thinking. However, people who write computer code say that creativity is also important for writing code.

Software developers (开发者) in the USA have created a game called Osmo Coding Jam. The game is designed to help children use the creative side of their minds when learning to code. Children can play the game on iPads.

Tanya Dodge is the mother of two children who play the game. According to her, these activities give her children important skills for the future. “It’s an analytical (分析的) skill,” said Dodge.

But the developers believe writing code is not just an analytical skill. “We want to explore the creative side of coding that I think is often not as explored,” said Felix Hu, an Osmo engineer. Hu added, “The coolest part is that we’re teaching kids how to be creative with code and that’s a really important thing that kids should get comfortable with because coding is creative.”

Hu also sees many parents who feel that software code is a second language that children need to learn to succeed in future jobs. Tanya Dodge agrees. She said, “l think you’re going to have to understand the idea of coding will work well in the future.” Hu also explains that very often kids grow up not understanding how a computer works. He says by breaking it down to a lower level, kids can understand that the computer isn’t as smart as they think it is.

I used to be strongly against telling lies. I can’t stand (忍受) lies.     71    , a white lie changed my idea.

Several days ago, I invited some friends     72    (get) together at a bar to celebrate my birthday. They promised to meet     73    at 5 p.m. When that day came, I got to     74    bar early. To my disappointment (失\望), only one friend arrived by 4:50 p.m. Did they forget my birthday? I had to keep    75    (wait) for them. Most of them said that they were     76     the way while some said they were still at home. I realized that they wouldn’t come on time. At 5 p.m., there     77    (be) just three people with me. I sat on my chair     78     (happy). How could they do this to me? They didn’t care about me! I got so angry that I decided to leave. But just at that moment, a group of my     79     (friend) came into the room with a big cake in their hands, singing “Happy birthday to you”. I was so    80    (surprise). Ever since then, I didn’t hate telling white lies anymore.