Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy, in 1564. His father taught music while his mother cared for kids at home. The family was not wealthy, but Galileo's parents paid for him to go to school.

At first Galileo planned to become a doctor, but he changed his mind. He liked a different kind of science—physics. In Galileo's time, not much was known about how objects moved. Centuries earlier, a Greek (希腊人) named Aristotle had written down his ideas about movements, and everyone seemed to believe them. Galileo questioned those ideas and did experiments (实验) that showed how things really worked. For example, Aristotle thought that a heavier object would fall faster than a lighter one of the same size and shape. No one had ever really tested this idea. It just seemed to be true. Then Galileo came along, dropped two balls from a high tower, and discovered that they hit the ground at the same time!

In later years, Galileo became interested in how the stars and planets move. He watched the sky with a telescope (望远镜) he built himself. Once again, he saw things no one had ever seen before. For example, he saw that the moon was not smooth. Then he noticed that the sun had spots (斑点) that seemed to move. Galileo realized from his observations (观察) that the earth was moving around the sun. A Polish (波兰的) scientist named Copernicus had said this recently, but no one believed him. Galileo knew that Copernicus was right. Unluckily, Galileo's announcement got him into trouble with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church said that the earth was at the center of the universe (宇宙) with the sun traveling around it. This was what people had long believed, but Galileo said it was untrue. So he was sent to jail (监狱) . He was soon set free, but for the rest of his life he had to stay in his house and yard

Galileo died in 1642, but his work helped to change the world. He is sometimes called the "father of modern science" because he showed us how important it is to look carefully at things and to test out ideas with experiments.

Marianne Carus, who started Cricker (蟋蟀) magazine in1973 and served as Editor-in-Chief (总主编) until 2012, died on March 3 at the age of 92 this year.

Marianne believed that "only the best of the best is good enough for the young. "In Cicket, children would find wonderful stories with beautiful art, and be encouraged by ideas in the humanities and sciences. Marianne looked for stories from around the world to awaken admiration for different peoples and cultures. Most important, Cricker would never talk down to children.

Marianne knew that children were filled with fun, and she wanted Cricket to be, too — "humor from the heart that makes you laugh out loud. "And so. she named her literary magazines after a funny group of bugs (虫子) , such as Lady bung and Spider.

Over the years. Cricket has been read by millions of children and given many writers and artists their start Marianne kept a special box of "love letters" to the magazine. She treasured these letters from Cricket readers, including long-ago readers. They told her that their interest in reading had begun with Cricket.

  ▲  She considered other names, such as Troubadour or Taliesin, the singers and storytellers of old who traveled from one place to another to share their songs and stories. Then. one night, she was reading Isaac Bashevi Singer's memoir (回忆录) A Day of Pleasure. about his childhood in Warsaw. In it he wrote∶There was a stove in Shosha's apartment behind which there lived a cricket. It chirped the nights through all winter long I imagined the cricket was telling a story that would never end. "That's exactly what Marianne wanted her children's magazine to do—to tell stories that would never end! So the name Cricker became her best choice.

Thank you for everything, Marianne. May the stories, and the laughter, never end!

Hope Matters

    Reyes Guana, 42, grew up in a poor Mexican family. He has seven brothers and sisters. His parents always had two jobs to make ends meet.

    As a boy, Guana had a good relationship with the school cleaner. He called her "Nike" because she wore Nike shoes. The boy liked how Nike made everything clean. He told her he wanted to be a cleaner, too. "Well, it's good if you want to be a cleaner," Nike told little Guana. "But make sure you go to college."

    Guana also looked up to the principal (校长) of his school. The school leader told the boy that his job was to help students and teachers. "Wow, when I grow up, I want to do what you're doing," Guana told him. "Well, if you stick to your dream, you will," the principal replied.

    And Guana really got there. But it was quite a long journey for him. Twenty-three years ago, he followed in Nike's footsteps and was cleaning schools. He worked at three schools to pay for his college education. He held that job for four years and then worked his way up to being a school safety monitor. After that, he worked as a teacher for a few years.

    Now, as a principal, Guana never forgets where he came from. He helps students from poor families and shows respect (尊重) for every school staff member. He always invites everyone to school parties, including those who clean the floors and those who drive the school buses.