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.

   Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga，Spain in 1881.When he died in 1973，he was ninety-one years old. But he still took up his paints and brushes to start a new picture as if he were seeing things for the first time，which is why we have called him the youngest painter. Young people are always trying new things and new ways of doing things. They don't hesitate to attempt one thing after another. Eager to experiment, they welcome new ideas.

When he was over ninety this great painter still lived his life like a young man. He was still restlessly looking new ideas and new ways to use his artistic materials. No one knew what to expect from him next. No one could be sure what kind of picture he would produce. If he had painted a picture of you, it might have looked exactly like you. Or it might have been all lines, squares, circles and strange-colored shapes. It might not have looked like human at all.

At such times Picasso was trying to paint what he saw with his mind as well as with his eyes. He put in the side of the face as well as the front. He may have painted it flat, as though it had no depth. Sometimes he seemed to paint just as a child painted, simply for his own pleasure. He didn't imitate others.

Most painters discover a style of painting that suits themselves and stick to that, especially if people admire their pictures. But Picasso was like a man who had not yet found his own particular style of painting. He was still struggling to find perfect expression for his own uneasy spirit.

The first thing one noticed about him was the look of his large, wide-open eyes. Gertrude Stein, a famous American writer who knew him in his youth, mentioned this hungry look, and one can still see it in pictures of him today.

Picasso painted a picture of Gertrude Stein in 1906. She visited the painter's studio eighty or ninety times while he painted her picture. While Picasso painted they talked about everything in the world that interested them. Then one day Picasso wiped out the painted head on which he had worked for so long. "When I look at you I can't see you any more!" he said.

Picasso went away for the summer. When he returned he went at once to the unfinished picture in the corner of his studio. Quickly he finished the face from memory. He could see the woman's face more clearly in his mind than he could see it when she sat in the studio in front of him.

Picasso was often attacked for this new, sometimes frightening style. It produced pictures like some of our worst dreams. The camera has made it unnecessary for painters to make exact representations of what they see. A camera can reflect real life more exactly. What great paintings give us is a view of life through one man's eyes, and every man's view is different.

Christopher Reeve was born in September, 1952. He started acting while he was in college and made many successful films and TV shows. 【小题1】（fortunate）, disaster came in 1995, when he fell from his horse and 【小题2】（break）his back. The doctors did not expect him to live, saying that he was not going to pull through. However, he made 【小题3】（amaze）progress. At first, he couldn't breathe 【小题4】a machine, but he learnt to breathe on his own. He had moments of feeling sorry for 【小题5】（he）, but he never had any 【小题6】（think）of committing suicide. The second year after the accident, he returned to film making. He also raised a lot of money 【小题7】（promote）medical research into back injuries. He made speeches all over the USA about his experiences, 【小题8】 encouraged a lot of people living with all kinds of problems. Besides, he also got 【小题9】（involve）with charity work. He died on October 10,2004. But people all over the world will always remember him as 【小题10】 superhero.

Howard Carter is one of the most famous explorer the world has ever known. He was bravely and loved to visit and explore new places. During his life, he discovered much amazing things.

Howard Carter did not go to school, and learnt to draw from his father, that was an artist. He was bright and curious about the world outside her hometown. In 1891, at age of 17, he set sail for Alexandria, Egypt. By the 1920s, he had become an explorer, search for the tombs of Egyptian kings. He finds several important ones. Inside the tombs, he discovered out a great fortune in jewels and gold, along with the preserved bodies of dead kings. These preserved bodies are known as mummies.