The Hubble telescope was launched into space by NASA on April 20,1990 at a cost of over a
billion dollars. Right from the start there was trouble with the Hubble. The pictures it s
ent us were very disappointing because its main mirror was faulty! NASA is now going to pu
t the telescope right, so it will soon be sending up four astronauts to repair it. The shu
ttle Endeavour will be taking the astronauts to the Hubble. A robot-arm from the Endeavour
will grab the telescope and hold it while the astronauts make the necessary repairs. Of c
ourse, the Hubble is above the earth's atmosphere, so it will soon be sending us the clear
est pictures of the stars and distant galaxies that we have ever seen. The Hubble will tel
l us a great deal about the age and size of the universe. By the time you read this, the H
ubble's eagle eye will have sent us thousands and thousands of wonderful pictures.When you
visit London, one of the first things you will see is Big Ben, the famous clock which can
be heard all over the world on the B.B.C. If the Houses of Parliament had hot been burned
down in 1834, the great clock would never have been erected. Big Ben takes its name from
Sir Benjamin Hall who was responsible for the making of the clock when the new Houses of P
arliament were being built. It is not only of immense size, but is extremely accurate as w
ell. Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day. On the B.B.C
. you can hear the clock when it is actually striking because microphones are connected to
the clock tower. Big Ben has rarely gone wrong. Once, however, it failed to give the corr
ect time. A painter who had been working on the tower hung a pot of paint on one of the ha
nds and slowed it down !I have just received a letter from my old school, informing me tha
t my former headmaster, Mr. Stuart Page, will be retiring next week. Pupils of the school,
old and new, will be sending him a present to mark the occasion. All those who have contr
ibuted towards the gift will sign their names in a large album which will be sent to the h
eadmaster's home. We shall all remember Mr. Page for his patience and understanding and fo
r the kindly encouragement he gave us when we went so unwillingly to school. A great many
former pupils will be attending a farewell dinner in his honour next Thursday. It is a cur
ious coincidence that the day before his retirement, Mr. Page will have been teaching for
a total of forty years. After he has retired, he will devote himself to gardening. For him
, this will be an entirely new hobby. But this does not matter, for, as he has often remar
ked, one is never too old to learn.One of the most famous monuments in the world, the Stat
ue of Liberty, was presented to the United States of America in the nineteenth century by
the people of France. The great statue, which was designed by the sculptor Auguste Barthol
di, took ten years to complete. The actual figure was made of copper supported by a metal
framework which had been especially constructed by Eiffel. Before it could be transported
to the United States, a site had to be found for it and a pedestal had to be built. The si
te chosen was an island at the entrance of New York Harbour. By 1884, a statue which was 1
51 feet tall had been erected in Paris. The following year, it was taken to pieces and sen
t to America. By the end of October 1886, the statue had been put together again and it wa
s officially presented to the American people by Bartholdi. Ever since then, the great mon
ument has been a symbol of liberty for the millions of people who have passed through New
York Harbour to make their homes in America.