At the age of nineteen, Xiliu married Gao Sheng, who had just lost his wife and had a son named Changfu. A year later Xiliu gave birth to a boy Changhu. Before long, Gao Sheng died of illness.

Seeing Changfu didn't often go to school, Xiliu sent him to work with the poor boys as punishment. Changfu could not stand and wanted to return to school. Xiliu refused, and Changfu, like a beggar (乞丐)， huddled(蜷缩) himself up with cold. Xiliu said to Changfu, "If you are ready to take a beating of 100 strokes, I'll take you back." Changfu decided that he would take the beating. Aware of Changfu's regrets for his mistakes, Xiliu did not beat him and asked him to continue his studies.

      Changhu was a slow-minded child, so Xiliu asked him to quit school and work in the fields.

      But Changhu was so lazy that he often ran away from work. Xiliu then asked him to do business, but he used up all his money in gambling(赌博)． At last, Xiliu sent him to Luoyang to sell goods, where he was put into prison for using fake (假的) silver. In prison he suffered a lot. Xiliu told Changfu, "I gave the fake silver to your brother on purpose, intending to make him suffer. Now you go and get him out." Back home, Changhu knelt before his mother and finally gave up bad and returned to good.

C

    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 run 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 make him happy!

    Greg has just written a best­selling book about his story called ThreeCupsofTea. It's an interesting and exciting book which tells us what ordinary (普通的) people can do with courage and determination (决心)!

    This is' a story of a man who worked in a big factory. I got to know him many years ago, but I never paid any attention to him. He always wore an old red hat and carried a rubbish bag. He usually spent his break time and lunchtime walking around in that old big factory to collect the unused tins.

    Today, I was fixing one machine in the factory when this "tin man" came with his bag. As usual, he picked up the tins. My manager was standing there to watch me. He asked the "tin man" what he was going to do with those tins. I never thought about this question, because I always thought that he'd sell those tins for money.

    The "tin man" answered, "I will give these tins to my neighbour. He is ill and he cannot work." I was so surprised to hear that, so I asked him, "You collect all those tins just to help your neighbour? I know this does not help much," he said. "But I will try my best to help him."

    At that time, I found myself standing in front of a great man. This "tin man" only wore a T shirt and an old red hat and carried a rubbish bag, but he was a great man.

    We shouldn't judge a man by his appearance(外表). We should look at his heart.

Long ago, a young man often said that he was very poor and had nothing. One day, an old man walked past. He heard the young man's words and said, "Hello, young man! What are you talking about? You have nothing? That's not true! You have the most expensive things in the world, so you are a rich person." The young man was very surprised and asked, "Why do you say that? You can see I have nothing. What are these expensive things?" Then the old man said, "If you sell your eyes to a rich blind(盲的) man, you'll make a lot of money and can get everything you want. Would you like to sell them?" The young man didn't want to be blind, so he said, "No." The old man asked again, "Then what about selling your hands for some gold(金子)?" The your and shook his head for the second time. At last, the old man said, "Now you understand. You have the most expensive things in the world." So the old man taught both the young man and us a lesson—-health is the most important for us.