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）!

    Miss Bailey taught me English in Junior school. She cycled to school, and then when entering the school gate, she would gave her bicycle to anyone of us to park it for her. It was a privilege（特别恩典）when Miss Bailey gave her bicycle to you. One day Shankar stood at the gate, Shankar was a hunchback（驼背的人）.

    We laughed and said, “Move out of the way, Shankar! Miss Bailey is going to enter!” Miss Bailey drove in and we all rushed to offer our hands to her. But Miss Bailey looked past us all. “Will you park it for me?” she asked. We looked back to see who it was and were surprised to see it was towards Shankar. “I don't think so, Miss Bailey!” stammered （结结巴巴地说）Shankar. “Why! You lazy fellow!” said Miss Bailey playfully. “You don't want to help your teacher, do you?” “ Of course I want to, Miss Bailey!” whispered Shankar. “But I might drop your cycle!” “ If you drop it ,you pick it up!” said the teacher with a smile.

    With that she gave her cycle to Shankar and didn't look to see how he'd manage. Pretending she had confidence in his abilities, Miss Bailey turned and walked to class. We watched Shankar as he held her bike, we held our breath as we thought it was going to fall. Dines rushed to help. “Leave it!” Shankar said, and we all stopped. It seemed that his hump（驼背）disappeared as he drew himself up to his full height, and then with growing confidence, he pushed Miss Bailey's cycle to the parking lot. The school bell rang, and we rushed to class. Shankar was the last to enter, but we were surprised; it was a different boy who walked in.

    Miss Bailey didn't even look at him as he walked to her and handed her the key. From that day on, Shankar was ready to answer the questions in class, his grades went up and a smile appeared on his face.

    Do you have a vegetable garden? Have you ever watched a seed sprout(发芽) and grow fruit until it became the tomato on your plate? If you go to school in the USA, there is a good chance you have.

    At the moment, nearly 20 percent of schools in the USA have their own vegetable gardens that are planted and cared for by students. Next year, even more schools will have gardens and more USA kids will know the pleasure of growing their own food.

    Much of the growing interest in planting comes from the First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" project, which started in 2010. The First Lady wants to improve children's nutrition(营养) in the USA--and she began her project by planting a garden at the White House with the help of some local kids. The kids were more interested in eating the vegetables from their garden than in eating fast food. This gave the First Lady an idea.

    Because so many USA kids eat breakfast and lunch at school, the food should be healthy and good. Why not let kids grow the food for their own cafeterias (自助食堂)? Mrs Obama's project gives money to schools to start their own gardens, and more school gardens are sprouting up every day.

    Students also use the information from their gardens to study science and math, and they paint pictures of their gardens in art class. Many students choose to work in the garden instead of playing on the playground during their noon break. Sound like fun? Ask your teacher if there's room for a garden at your school, too.

    In the state of Qin (秦国), there was a man called Shang Yang (商鞅). He was a statesman (政治家) and worked out many reforms(改革) for the state, like paying more attention to farming and giving rewards (报酬) to soldiers who were successful when at war.

    But these reforms were not easily carried out (执行) at first. Most people didn't trust Shang

    Yang. In order to solve this problem, Shang Yang came up wiIh an idea. He put a thin wooden pole at the south gate of the Qin capital. Many people came to see him and the pole.

    Then, in front of the crowd, Shang Yang said loudly, "The man who takes this pole to the north gate will get 10 gold pieces."

    It was a sample job and the reward was so large. However, some time passed and no one stepped forward. They all thought Shang Yang was making a joke.

    Hearing no answer, Shang Yang stepped forward and said, "The reward now goes to 50 gold pieces."

    This reward was unbelievably large. Finally, a man from the crowd came forward. He put the pole on his shoulders and walked to the north gate. True to his word, Shang Yang gave the man 50 gold pieces.

    After that, the people of Qin were all talking about what Shang Yang did about the pole. They believed he was a man of his word. So when Shang Yang began carrying out his reforms, the people followed him.

    Under these great reforms, Qin grew stronger and stronger. Al last, Qin made all the seven states into one empire (帝国).

    Long ago in a small village, there was a place called the House of 1,000 Mirrors(镜子).A small, happy little dog learned about this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he jumped happily up the stairs and to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway. His ears lifted up, and his tail wagged as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself looking at 1,000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile and he found 1,000 great smiles that were just as warm and friendly. As he left the house, he thought to himself," This is a wonderful place. I will come back to visit often."

    In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the other one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung (垂下) his head low as he looked into the doorway. When he saw the 1,000 unfriendly-looking dogs looking back at him, he growled (吼叫) at them. He was afraid when he saw 1,000 little dogs barking back. As he left, he thought to himself," That is a terrible place. I will never go back there again."

    All the faces in the world are mirrors of you. What kind of reflections (反映) do you see in the faces of people you meet?

    Last Friday a storm swept through two villages in the New Territories, destroying(摧毁) fourteen homes. Seven others were so badly damaged (破坏) that their owners had to leave them, and fifteen others had broken windows or broken roofs. One person was killed, several were badly hurt and taken to hospital, and a number of other people received smaller hurt. Altogether over two hundred people were homeless after the storm.

    A farmer, Mr. Tan, said that the storm began early in the morning and lasted for over an hour. "I was eating with my wife and children," he said, "when we heard a loud noise. A few minutes later our house fell down on top of us. We tried our best to climb out but then I saw that one of my children was missing. I went back inside and found him, safe but very frightened."

    Mrs. Woo Mei Fong said that her husband had just left for work when she felt that her house was moving. She ran outside at once with her children. "There was no time to take anything," she said." A few minutes later, the roof came down."

    Soldiers helped to take people out of the flooded (水淹的) area and the welfare department (福利机构) brought them food, clothes and shelter.