Have you ever wanted to achieve something really amazing in life? Well, Greg Mortenson wanted to climb a mountain, but he ended up helping thousands of people to have a better life.

 Greg's story began with failure. In 1993, he set out to climb K2, the world's second highest mountain. But Greg never made it to the top.  After five days, he stumbled(踉跄）into the village of Korphe in northern Pakistan, injured(受伤）and hungry. The kind villagers there looked after him for several days.

 Greg saw that the villagers were very poor and hungry, and some of them were ill. Also, the village school didn't have a roof(屋顶）and the children wrote on the ground with sticks. Greg knew he wanted to do something to help. " I'll build you a school,”he told the villagers. “ I promise.”

 Greg went back home to the USA to raise money for the school. He even lived in the car to save money! Finally he went back to Korphe and built the school. But this was just the beginning of something bigger! Since then, Greg's organization has built around 80 schools and runs many others in Pakistan and other countries, too.

 Greg hasn't finished yet. He does many other things to help people in poor countries. He has got many prizes, but it's the smiles of the children he has helped that makes him happy!

 Greg has just written a best-selling book about his story called Three Cups of Tea. It's an interesting and exciting book which tells us what ordinary(普通的）people can do with courage and determination(决心）!

B

    It's 14:00. The house is quiet(安静的). "Tom?" Mom says. No one answers.

    Mom comes to Tom's house. He is not in the bed. But his model plane is on the desk. "He is not in his room, and he is not in the yard(院子)," Mom thinks. Then Mom comes to his grandparents' room. Tom likes to play with Grandpa's tape player. But he is not there.

    Mom looks for(寻找) him everywhere. But where is Tom? Mom is worried. She wants to call Dad. She comes to the living room to get the phone.

    "What's that?" Mom sees something(某物) black under the sofa. Oh, it's Paul, Tom's dog. It loves sleeping(睡觉) there. But what is next to Paul? It's Tom!

    Hi, friends! What do you like to do after school? In my school, we have different things (不同的事情) to do.

    When my brother and I were children, we spent a few weeks each summer in the countryside with our uncle. He was a geologist（地质学家） and loved to go on long walks to find stones to his collection in his spare time. We often followed him.

    One day, we left early, and this time, our uncle had bought us backpacks to help him carry the sample（样本）. The whole day, we walked around the countryside, and every now and then, our uncle put stones in our bags. We were a bit surprised that he also took some stones out from our bags at times, but we thought maybe he had just found better samples than the ones we already had.

    When we reached the house in the late afternoon, we were tired out. The backpacks were so heavy that we gave a big sigh of relief when we put them on the ground.

    Yet our uncle's backpack was half-empty.

    "Why did you give us so many stones?" we asked.

    "I didn't. You did, "he said, "You did not know it, but I made you go through a little attitude（态度） test today."

    "What do you mean an 'attitude test'?" we wondered. "It is something someone once did to me. You see, I listened to every word you said. And whenever you complained about anyone or anything, I added a stone to your bags. And whenever you talked about something with an attitude of gratitude（感恩） and positive（正面的） thinking, I took out a stone. And now look at your backpacks."

    We did. They were full.

    "Your negative（负面的） thoughts are like stones. You carry them in your mind just like those stones in a backpack. The more negative thoughts you have, the heavier your mind is. So look at those bags and start paying attention to what you say and how you say things."

    This little lesson was one of the most important I ever had. And I remember my uncle with great love for teaching us one of the most important lessons in life-the power of attitude.

    Mike is a factory worker. He is often very tired after a day's work. His wife(妻子), Jenny, has no job, so she stays at home to cook the meals. Every day he can have his dinner when he gets home from his factory.

    One day, Mike came home very late because he was very busy in the factory. He was very hungry when he got home.

    He was not happy when he found his dinner was not ready. He was very angry with his wife. He shouted out, "I'm going out to eat in a restaurant." "Wait for five minutes," said his wife. "Why? Do you think that dinner will be ready in five minutes?" asked Mike.

     "Of course not," she answered. "But I can be ready to go with you in five minutes."

    One day when some government officials were rebuilding a house, they found a mouse hole in a corner and used smoke to make the mice inside the hole come out. A while later they saw mice running out, one after another, but they saw two mice didn't run away immediately. It seemed that one was trying to bite the tail of the other.

    Everyone was puzzled, so they came nearer to take a look. They realized that one of the two mice was blind, and the other was trying to allow the blind mouse to bite his tail in order to pull the blind one with him to run away.

    During the meal time, they started to talk about the two mice. One serious American said, "I think the relationship between those two mice was that of king and guard."

    A smart Frenchman said, "I think the relationship between them was that of husband and wife."

    A Japanese said, "I think the relationship between them was that of mother and son."

    At that moment, one Chinese asked, "Why did those two mice have a certain relationship?"

    Suddenly, they looked back at the Chinese. The American, the Frenchman and the Japanese who had spoken earlier all lowered their heads in shame, and didn't answer.

    In fact, the great love is not built on friendship or blood relationship. Instead, it is based on no relationship.