A man in Pakistan is now working to help children get an education. When he was a child, he did not go to school because he was too poor.

    It is reported that Pakistan has 25 million children who do not go to school. That is the second ­highest number in the world. Only Nigeria has more. Many Pakistani children must work to support their families.

    Mohammad Ayub was once one of those children. He is now a firefighter. He also manages a small school. VOA recently visited the school in the capital Islamabad.

    Ayub started with just one student in 1982. He saw a boy cleaning cars for days. He asked him, "Why don't you go to school?" The boy answered that his parents were dead and he had to work to help support his five brothers and three sisters.

    Ayub was also an orphan and he, too, had to work to help support his five brothers and three sisters. He said, "When my father died, everyone who came to the funeral said they were sorry, but no one helped." He sold newspapers and did other work to earn enough money to pay school fees for his brothers and sisters.

    Ayub wanted to help the young boy who washed cars, but he did not have enough money to pay the boy's school fees.

    Today, Ayub teaches many children at his school in a public park. Some of the children attend other schools in the morning, but come to Ayub in the afternoon to get help with their homework.

    Ayub has helped a large number of poor children since he began teaching. Many of them come from very poor areas near the park.

    Ayub said," I used to argue with kids who worked ' Why are you washing someone's dishes or their clothes? Why don't you study? ' "

    One of the children he advised to attend classes was Farhat Abbas. Ayub found him working with his friends about 12 years ago. "He followed us back home. He told our parents he wanted to teach us and asked them to send us to his school, "Abbas said.

    Today, Abbas is taking classes at a college and is helping Ayub.

    Many children are out of school, and those who do attend classes often get a poor education. Information gathered by an organization shows half of all Pakistani children in the 5th grade do not understand basic mathematics and cannot read a story in their language.

    A group in Islamabad reports Pakistan spends less on education than any other country in South Asia.

    Robert De Niro is an American actor. He has acted in a lot of famous films. He is one of the greatest actors in film history.

    Robert De Niro was born in 1943 in New York City. He left high school at the age of sixteen. He wanted to have a career in acting. He dreamt of appearing in Hollywood films.

    His first major film role came in 1973. It was in the film Bang the Drum Slowly. Later, he got a role in the film The Godfather Part Ⅱ. The film is one of the greatest films in history. He won his first Oscar (奥斯卡金像奖) for this role. It was the start of a great career. After this, he got many other important film roles.

    On his way to career success, he became good friends with Martin Scorsese. Scorsese is a famous director (导演). They began to work together often. Their first film together was Mean Streets in 1973. It was a big Success. In 1980, he acted in the film Raging Bull. Scorsese was the director again. And for this role. Robert De Niro won his second Oscar.

    His acting career continued. In 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, he kept acting in a lot of films. Robert De Niro is a really great actor. If you are interested, you can see his films on the Internet!

    I sat down to read under an old tree in the park. I felt my life was hopeless, I didn't take an interest in anything. I thought that my whole world was dark.

    A young boy ran up to me, out of breath. He stood right before me with his head down and said excitedly, "Look what I found!" in his hand was a flower, and what a poor sight! The flower was dry and dead. I gave him a small smile and then turned my eyes away so that he could take his dry flower and go off to play. I didn't want to talk with him at all.

However, he sat next to my side and placed the flower to his nose and said in surprise, "It smells sweet and it's beautiful, too. That's why I picked it. Here, it's for you." The flower before me was dead. But I knew I must accept it, or he might never leave. So I accepted the flower, and replied, "This is just what I want, thank you." Just then, for the first time I noticed that the boy could not see — he was blind.

    Tears came down my face as I thanked him for picking the best one. "You're welcome." he smiled, and then ran off to play. I sat there and wondered how he was able to learn about my pain.

    Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see the problem was not with the world; the problem was me. And for all those years I myself had been blind. In fact I never found there is always something beautiful around me in life. I decided to see the beauty of life, and enjoy every second of my life. And then I held that dry flower up to my nose and breathed in the smell of a beautiful rose.

    Birds live in trees. Squirrels(松鼠) live in trees. But do you know that some frogs（青蛙） live in trees, too?

    The tree frogs are hard to find. They can change color. On green leaves, they stay green. On a branch, they keep brown. Some tree frogs can change from green to gold or blue.

    Tree frogs have legs and wide feet. They have sticky pads (肉趾) at the end of their toes（脚趾）. These sticky toe pads keep the tree frogs from falling off.

    Tree frogs have different colors and markings on their skins(皮肤). Their eyes are different, too. Some have green eyes, some gray. Some frogs' eyes are gold, and some are bright red.

    The sounds they made in spring and summer are different, too. One frog makes a sound like a dog barking(狗叫). Another frog makes a loud noise like a snore（打呼噜）. There is even a frog that whistles（吹口哨）!

    An old man was fishing in the bank of a river. A girl came to see him fishing. The old man was really good at fishing and it didn't take long for him to catch a full basket of fish. The old man saw that the girl was very cute, and he wanted to give her a whole basket of fish. But the girl shook her head. The old man was surprised and asked "Why don't you want the fish?"

    The girl replied, "I want the fishing rod（竿）in your hands.”

    The old man asked, "Why do you want the rod?"

    "It doesn't take long to eat all the fish in a basket. But if I have the fishing rod, I can go fishing by myself and I won't be afraid of not having any more fish to eat."

    I think you will certainly say that the girl is very smart. Wrong! If she doesn't know how to fish, she can not have fish to eat, even though she has the fishing rod. It's useless to only have a fishing rod. Fishing skills are the most important, not the fishing rod.

    Too many people think that if they have a "fishing rod" in their life, they will no longer fear the wind and rain. They are just like the girl, who thought that if she had a fishing rod, she would have fish to eat.