Summary of Leonardo Da Vinci

Little is known about the life of Leonardo da Vinci. He kept copious notebooks, but these contain only sketches and speculations. Much of what we know of him comes from tax records, legal documents, and secondhand sources.
Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in the town of Vinci. His father was Ser Piero, a notary ;his mother, Caterina, came of a peasant family. They were not married. The boy's uncle Francesco may have had more of a hand in his upbringing than either of his parents. When Leonardo was about 15, he moved to the nearby city of Florence and became an apprentice to the artist Andrea del Verrocchio. He was already a promising talent. While at the studio, he aided his master with his Baptism of Christ, and eventually painted his own Annunciation. Around the age of 30, Leonardo began his own practice, starting work on the Adoration of the Magi; however, he soon abandoned it and moved to Milan in 1482.
In Milan, Leonardo sought and gained the patronage of Ludovico Sforza, and soon began work on the painting Virgin of the Rocks. After some years, he began work on a giant bronze horse, a monument to Sforza's father. Leonardo's design is grand, but the statue was never completed. Meanwhile, he was keeping scrupulous notebooks on a number of studies, including artistic drawings but also depictions of scientific subjects ranging from anatomy to hydraulics. In 1490, he took a young boy, Salai, into his household, and in 1493 a woman named Caterina (most likely his mother) also came to live with him; she died a few years later. Around 1495, Leonardo began his painting The Last Supper, which achieved immense success but began to deteriorate physically almost immediately upon completion. Around this same time, Fra Luca Pacioli, the famous mathematician, moved to Milan, befriended Leonardo, and taught him higher math. In 1499, when the French conquered Lombard, and Milan, the two left the city together, heading for Mantua.
In 1500, Leonardo arrived in Florence, where he painted the virgin and child with saint Anne. In 1502, he went to work as chief military engineer to Cesare Borgia, and also became acquainted with Niccolo Machiavelli. After a year he returned to Florence, where he contributed to the huge engineering project of diverting the course of the River Arno, and also painted a giant war mural, the Battle of Anghiari, which was never completed, largely due to problems with the paints. In 1505 Leonardo probably made his first sketches for the Mona Lisa, but it is not known when he completed the painting.
In 1506, Leonardo traveled to Milan at the summons of Charles d'Amboise, the French governor. He became court painter and engineer to Louis XII and worked on a second version of the virgin of rocks. In 1507, he returned to Florence to engage in a legal battle against his brothers for their uncle Francesco's inheritance. In this same year, he took the young aristocrat Melzi as an assistant, and for the rest of the decade he intensified his studies of anatomy and hydraulics. In 1513, he moved to Rome, where Leo X reigned as pope. There, he worked on mirrors. In 1516, he left Italy for France, joining King Francis I in Amboise, whom he served as a wise philosopher for three years before his death in 1519.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

Synonyms & antonyms

Word Synonym Antonym

happy joyful, glad, pleased, sad, unhappy, depressed, down,

heartbroken, miserable, blue

shout scream, yell, shriek whisper

clever smart, intelligent, brilliant, bright, dull, stupid, idiotic, dumb, dim, thick,

cloddish, silly

exciting interesting, thrilling boring, dull, uninteresting


furious angry, mad, irate, enraged calm, mild, pleased

Tips on quitting smoking

Giving something up, or even cutting back on something,
let's say sweets or even coffee is difficult. When
cigarettes come into play it becomes a mountain you have to
climb seemingly without help.

Choosing to quit is in itself the great achievement because
it shows that you are ready to take on a challenge.

Nicotine increases the release of dopamine in your brain
and gives you a good feeling. To overcome this you often
need to resort to a product that gives you a small dose of
nicotine until you can slowly rid your system of noctine.
One of the greatest things about giving up smoking,
besides, obviously improving your health and saving your
own life and extending your lifespan and those around you if you smoke at home, is the fact that you will learn a great deal about yourself.

You will learn or adjust that you have used smoking as a crutch in a
way. You will come to find that you have more spare time
to do things that you have always wanted to do. Also, think
of all the money that you will save by not having to buy
any more cigarettes.
Many of these things you will find you can begin while you
are going through the quitting smoking process. Taking up
a new hobby or new sport with quitting
smoking is a good idea;exercise for example will give you
the same type of high that you get from a cigarette.

Keeping busy includes keeping your hands busy. While
smoking is hard able to control. Chewing gum or sucking on a piece of candy can alleviate these cravings.

Trip to Niah

In 1980 Mr. Hedley and his family visited Malaysia. They travelled from Brunei to the Niah Caves in Sarawak, East Malaysia.

They started with their journey from Bandar Seri Begawan, which is the capital of Brunei. They crossed two large rivers on the ferry. Mr. Hedley had his lunch in Miri then continued his journey to the Niah Caves
which is in East Malayasia. He hired a small boat in order to cross the river and to stay in a government rest house for the night.
In the end he bunked in the forest with no air conditioning and from what I heard from what he said it was one of the most interesting
experiences he ever had. Then he continued to the Niah caves.

Mr.Hedley had quite an experience in the Niah Caves because it was the rarest event that a bunch of people came and removed the birds' nests
from the top of the cave, and they used these birds' nests to sell them in China because they believe that birds' nests will make a healthy person. Afterwards Mr. Hedley was ready to begin his journey and he was about to set off from the caves.