Clara Barton,founder of the American Red Cross , gained worldwide honour for her devotion to easing human suffering and earned the nickname“Angel of the Battlefield”.

Barton was born into a freethinking family in 1821. Her elder brothers and sisters happily educated her in math and reading, so when she entered school at three years old, she could read and spell three-syllable words. 【小题1】

Concerned about Barton's difficulty in making friends, her parents sent her to a boarding school,hoping it would make her more comfortable with her peers. 【小题2】 Barton lost her appetite（食欲）and cried constantly. After only one term, she had to be brought home. Then, Barton stayed out of school to nurse her brother through a serious injury and also volunteered to care for poor families during a smallpox （天花）outbreak.

In 1861, the Civil War broke out. The sight of wounded soldiers touched Barton deeply. She began to collect and give away food , bandages, medicines, and other supplies to the Union Army.

 【小题3】 There, with little concern for her own safety, she cooked meals, assisted surgeons, and comforted wounded soldiers.

Eventually, because of working too hard , Barton broke down finally. 【小题4】 It was there that she learned of an organization based in Switzerland called the International Committee of the Red Cross , whose work mirrored her own.

Shortly after Barton arrived back home in 1873,her sister died. 【小题5】 When recuperating（康复）at a health facility in New York, she began planning for the establishment of an American wing of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Although at first the government opposed it, her efforts finally paid off. The American Red Cross was officially organized on May 21, 1881. Her influence lives on today in the work of the organization she founded.

   Ludwig van Beethoven is the most famous classical composer of the Western world. He is known for his powerful music and for continuing to compose after he became deaf.

Born to a musical family in the small German city of Bonn in December 1770, Beethoven was an excellent pianist and violinist as a boy. He soon became the first important composer to earn a successful living without working for the church or court. Beethoven began to lose his hearing in the late 1790s and by 1819 he was totally deaf. When he heard nothing, in order to hear the notes (音符), he cut the legs off the piano so that he could feel the vibrations (震动)as he played.

Beethoven enjoyed taking long walks in the countryside. The villagers respected him a lot and would not bother him when they passed him. He was a strange man with his untidy clothes, wild hair and a bad temper.

For his last 15 years Beethoven was regarded as the world’s best composer. The four-note beginning to his Fifth Symphony is one of the most famous moments in all of music. The notes were described as “Fate knocking at the door”. He wrote the popular Moonlight Sonata in 1801.

Beethoven never married. After his death in March 1827, his friends found his letters to a lover, but they never found out who she was.

Besides lots of concerts and broadcasts, over 200 films use Beethoven’s music. Although he died many years ago, Beethoven is still influencing the music world.

   Isaac Asimov is one of the most famous science fiction（科幻小说）writers of all time. He moved from Russia to the United States in 1923.He was a teacher at Boston University and began writing science fiction stories in 1939.His most famous works are the Foundation books and the Robot stories. He died in 1992 at the age of 72.

"There are not many people who have invented a useful scientific term，and although I did it unknowingly，I am not going to let anyone in the world forget it，"said Isaac Asimov. He was talking about the word "robotics" —the study of robot behaviour.

Asimov wrote several stories about robots between 1940 and 1990.One of the special features of the robots in these stories was that they were programmed to follow the Three Laws of Robotics.

The First Law: A robot must not hurt a human being，or allow a human being to be hurt.

The Second Law: A robot must obey orders by human beings unless these orders conflict（冲突）with the First Law.

The Third Law: A robot must protect itself unless this conflicts with the First or Second Law.

In Asimov's stories，the robots must follow these laws so that they do not attack the humans that created them.

Some scientists think the Three Laws of Robotics are hard to realise in real life. On the other hand，some say that the laws are great for science fiction but completely useless in real life. For example，if the laws really worked，robots couldn't be used in wars，as this would break the First Law. Since the army is one of the biggest supporters for robotic research，it is very unlikely that an attempt to follow these rules will happen.

According to Asimov，one thing is certain："Robots are changing the world and driving it in directions we cannot clearly foresee（预见）."

The Vikings, a group of people 【小题1】 ancestors came from Scandinavia, were the first Europeans 【小题2】 (reach) America. In 982 AD, there were 10,000 Vikings 【小题3】 (live) in Iceland. According 【小题4】 the old stories, Eric the Red was forced to leave Iceland because he had committed 【小题5】 murder, for which he got into trouble. He reached Greenland and then returned to Iceland and told people about Greenland. Later, he set sail again, with 25 ships, of which only 14 made 【小题6】 to Greenland. A man called Biarni was hoping to join his father who was with Eric, but he was blown off course and found himself in an 【小题7】 (know) land that no humans seemed to have stepped on, from where he reached Greenland. In 1002, Eric the Red’s son Leif followed Biarni’s directions and sailed to what is believed to be the coast of present-day Canada. He then sailed 【小题8】 (far) south to an island now known as Newfoundland. We know about their deeds through stories which 【小题9】(write) down centuries later in Norway and Iceland. They are the first 【小题10】 (record) we have of Europeans sailing to the America.