I still remember the last time when two of my children and I went to the playground. It had rained during the night and the playground was very muddy (泥泞的). They had just put on clean clothes, so I was a little worried about the pools of water on the playground. It was not long before Kathy got her beautiful skirt dirty on the playground. She dug through the rocks. I was about to blame her for getting her clothes dirty when she ran towards me with a smile on her face. When she got to me, she handed me a little heart-shaped rock and said, "Here Mom! Here is a heart for you－just because I love you! Keep it!”with tears in my eyes, I thanked her.
    Should I blame her for getting her clothes muddy? No way! I still have that little heart-shaped rock. It is one of the best gifts that I have ever received. I realize that many times it is not necessary for us adults to worry about the small things our children do. Let them do what they'd like to.
    I will spend a lot more time on the playground with my children. I'm sure I will learn a lot from the children. It reminds me of some years ago when my grandfather told me, "You would not enter the kingdom (王国) of happiness until you pretended (假装) to be a small child.”

    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.

    A man liked shooting arrows (箭). He studied it very hard for years. He thought he did it best and it was time for him to go out into the world.

One day when he walked through a forest, he saw a target (靶子) on a tree, with an arrow right in the center. He went on and found more and more trees with targets and arrows in the center. He was so surprised at this. He wanted to know who did it.

    Soon he came to a farmhouse. An old man told him that he could find the person he wanted by the river. When he got there, he saw a little girl playing with her dog on the bank.

“Are you the person who shoots the arrows?” he asked the girl.

“Yes, that's me,” she replied.

“But how can you do that?” he wondered.

    “That's easy,” said the girl happily. “First shoot an arrow.” Then draw a target.”

    There are three brothers in the pop group "The Bright Shiners"：Harold Fisher, Roger Fisher and Dove Fisher. Harold is the boy who formed the group a year ago and he is the leader now. He plays the piano. Roger plays the lead guitar and Dove is the drummer. Then there is Pete Lennox, their cousin. He is the only member of the group who has had much experience. He played the guitar and sang with "The Tower of London" for three years. Alex Clark and Clive Hicks play the trumpet(喇叭). Robert Lester is the boy who has helped the group most. He was born in Chile and he can play five different Andean instruments. Geoffrey Baker plays the harp(竖琴). Bill Blake isn't a musician, but he is an important member of the group. He looks after their electronic equipment.

    The story of Robinson Crusoe is known all over the world. The story is about the life of a real person. His name was Alexander Selkirk.

    Selkirk was born in 1676 in Scotland. His father made shoes and clothes, but Alexander didn't want to work in his father's shop. He wanted to sail a ship on the sea.

    When Selkirk was 28 years old, he was sailing on the Pacific Ocean. The ship was in a bad state. Selkirk was worried. "This ship is not safe!" he thought. He told the captain that he wanted to get off. The captain didn't like Selkirk, so he agreed. The ship took Selkirk to a small island.

    Selkirk took a few things from the ship: a gun, an axe, and a few clothes. Then the ship left, and Selkirk was alone. There were no people or houses on the island. He was more than 600 kilometres from the nearest country, Chile.

    He found a cave near the beach and this became his home for the first few months. In the day time, he had to leave the cave and find some food. He usually ate fish and other small sea animals. At night, he heard strange noises from the trees. He thought that there were wild animals on the island that could hurt him. He was afraid and didn't want to leave for the beach. He stayed in his cave. He was very lonely.

    One day, when he woke up，he saw hundreds of sea lions on the beach. He couldn't get to the sea, so he couldn't catch any fish. He had to look for food on another part of the island. He was still afraid of the wild animals, but he was hungry! He had to go out in order not to be hungry.