Nearly eight hundred million people in this world cannot read or write, most of them in developing countries. Two-thirds are women and girls.

    John Wood who started the Room to Read campaign （运动）, has opened 1650 schools and 15000 libraries in some of the world's poorest communities（社区）. He said that from the beginning, Room to Read'sgoal was to reach 10 million children around the world in the poorest countries.

    In 1998, on athree-week vacation journey in Nepal, Wood met a local headmaster who invited him to visit his schoolin a far mountain village. The experience changed Wood's life.

    "This headmaster had 450 students at the school, but he didn't have any books," Wood said. "He had a library that was empty."

    Wood promised to fill the library shelves and returned to the village one year later with some of his friends with 3000 books. And that was just the start. Later, Wood used some of his personal money to start Room to Read.  He believes that world change begins with educated children. Today, the programme can be found in 10 countries across Asia and Africa.

    Wood believes the key to the program's success is local support. While Room to Read gives away money and provides books, communities offer land and parents help build the school. Agnes, a Room to Read teacher in Zambia who also runs the library, is proud to say the literacy' at her school has improved.  Room to Read's biggest challenge is the huge need.  Hundreds of communities have asked for literacy prograrnmes. One way of Room to Read's success is that it will achieve Wood's goal of reaching 10 million kids by 2015, five years earlier than it is planned.

B

    Sam was a fifteen­year­old boy living with his little sister, Julie. Their parents passed away long ago. Sam had to take care of Julie by himself.

One day, Sam woke up at three in the morning as usual. When Julie was sleeping alone, Sam left their little house to send newspapers. When he found an old man sitting in front of their house, Sam was so surprised that he stopped to look at him closely. It was an icy morning and he looked very cold.

    The poor old man didn't have anything to cover himself with. Sam went into his house to get the old man a blanket(毯子). However, there were no extra blankets, so Sam thought hard and took his father's coat. It was the only thing of his father's that he had left. Sam wrote a short note. "Sir, I found you sleeping in front of my house. This is my father's coat. I hope it fits you well." He put the note in a pocket of the coat and covered the old man with the coat. Then he went to work. When he came back, both the man and the coat were gone. Sam thought that it was the best thing he could do with his father's coat.

    That afternoon, Sam hurried home after school because Julie was at home alone. However, Julie and the old man were standing in front of the house, and Julie shouted to Sam, "Brother! He's our grandfather!"

    The grandfather smiled and said, "Sam, thank you for giving me the coat and letting me know how good my grandson is. This coat was the one that I gave my son a long time ago!"

    A boy and his father were walking in the mountains. Suddenly the boy fell down and hurt himself, so he cried, "AAAhhhhhh!" To his surprise, he heard the voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain, "AAAhhhhhb!" Then the boy shouted back, "Who are you?" He received the answer "Who are you?" He got angry at the answer, so he shouted, "Foolish!" He received the answer, "Foolish!"

    He looked at his father and asked, "What's going on?" The father smiled and said, 'My son, listen. "And then he shouted to the mountain, "I love you!" The voice answered, "I love you!" Again the man cried, "You're the best!" The voice answered, "You're the best!" The boy was surprised, but did not understand.

    Then the father explained, "People call this 'echo', but in fact this is life. It gives you back everything you say or do. Our life is just a reflection(反映)of what we have done. If you want more love in the world, have more love in your heart. If you want to be successful, work hard. This can be used hi everything in life. Life will give you back everything you have given to it."

    One day, Susie was unhappy when she came home from school. "What's the matter, my dear?" asked her mother, drawing her to her side and smiling.

    "All our class must hand in compositions tomorrow. We must write 12 lines at least. But I can never write one. I'll have to go to school without a composition, for I won't copy one from a book, or ask you or papa to write one for me."

    "That's right," said her mother. "You'll be happier with a poor composition, if it's your own, than with a fine one written by somebody else. But cheer up. Run into the garden and play. I'll call you in half an hour. Don't think about your composition now. Just have a good time."

    It seemed just a few minutes to Susie before she heard her mother calling her. She went into the house immediately — her hands full of sweet flowers, and her face red with exercise.

    Then her mother asked her to sit by the window with a nice piece of paper and a pencil, and write something about what she could see. "Never mind your composition; do this to please me, and we'll talk about that later."

    Although Susie thought her mother's request was strange, she knew she always had a good reason for everything she did. So she did as her mother requested.

    As she looked out, she first saw the western sky and some bright, sunset clouds. "Oh, mother, what a sunset!"

    "Don't talk. Just write."

    The pencil began moving rapidly across the paper. She wrote about the sunset clouds, the look of the distant hills, the streets, the river, the garden with its flowers, and the birds flying past the window. She forgot all about the terrible composition!

    Just as she had reached the bottom of the page, her mother came in and said with a smile, "Well, Susie, how does that composition come on?"

    "Composition! You told me not to think about it, and I've never thought of it once. I've had such a nice time writing about what I could see from the window."

    Mrs. Smith took the paper and read what Susie had written. She said, "There, Susie, that's a very nice composition, really."

    "A composition! Is that a composition?" Susie asked in surprise.

    "Yes, my dear, and a very good one, too, if we find a title for it," replied her mother. Then she added, "I'm sure it will please your teacher, as it does me. You see, it's easy enough to write a composition if you have anything interesting to write about."