Do you think doing housework is a hard task for you? Have you ever thought of inventing something to make it 1? A boy named Sam Houghton did and he 2 a two-head broom (扫帚).

    Sam was just three years old when he came up with his 3. He saw his father sweep up (打扫) garden leaves and 4 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 5 and encourage new inventors, the famous 6 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 very7 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 8 bangs (爆炸声) of balloons. I used a box to 9 the bangs so that they can't scare (惊吓) the children."

    Have you ever wanted to be a great inventor? Watch 10, 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.

    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^ 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 bum 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!"

    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.

—No, I don't. I didn't see any tigers at all.