One day a young man put an ad (广告) in most of the newspapers in England. He said that his parents   1 him millions of pounds (英镑). He graduated from Oxford University. Everyone knows this university is one of  2   universities in the world. So he had got a great education there. He'd like a girl to be his3  . The girl must be like the one in the books written by Somerset Maugham,  4  Maugham was his favourite.

This ad was read and known   5 by parents and young girls all over the country. Parents went to shops to   6  the books. They bought those books for their daughters  7 presents. Girls tried to get those books   8 . They wanted to know what kind of person the writer liked so that they could marry the young man.

All the books written by Maugham 9  in a short time and the writer became famous.

Can you guess who the young man was? It was Somerset Maugham   10  ! What a clever man he was!

    Every day I can watch a little girl 1 basketball from my kitchen window. One day I asked her why she practised so 2 . She said: “I would like to go to college. The only way is 3  a scholarship(奖学金). I like basketball and I want to be the 4 player in college. My dad told me: ‘If the dream is big enough, the facts don't count.' ” She  5 changed her mind. I watched her through those junior high years and into senior high school.

    One day before she graduated 6 high school, I saw her sitting on the grass 7 . I asked her what was wrong. She told me her coach said she was such a 8 girl that she couldn't be a good basketball player, so she should  9 dreaming about going to college. She was heartbroken and it 10 made me feel sad. Then she smiled and told me her father said that coach was wrong. He did not understand the power of dream. Her father said to her: “If you really want to 11 the scholarship of a good college, nothing but you 12 can stop your dream.”

    The next year, she and her team went to a big game. She 13 by a coach of a famous college team and was offered a scholarship to the 14 basketball team of their college. She was about to get the college education that she had dreamed 15 and worked towards for all those years.

    “If the dream is big enough, the facts don't count.” It is true.

    Jadav Payeng is a forestry worker from Jorhat, India. Over the past 38 years, he has planted trees on a sandbar (沙洲) of the Brahmaputra River and has1 it into a forest. One day in 1979, 16-year-old Payeng was walking

    2 the bank of the Brahmaputra River. He saw many snakes on the sandbars. These snakes died in a few days' time

    3the heat and the absence (缺失) of trees. Payeng felt very4when he saw this. He decided to plant some trees. Single-handedly, he started planting bamboo trees, as only bamboo trees could survive (存活) in the sandbars.

    To water the trees was a difficult5for one man. With his hard work and great effort, day by day the6 bamboo trees grew into a forest. His tree planting has changed the soil (土壤). Now the sandbar is a thick forest and7 to thousands of plants and animals. A large group of around 100 elephants visit the forest every year and8 there for a few months.

    Payeng is now in9ifties. He has planted close to 1,400 acres (英亩) of forests and is 10 as the Forest Man of India. In 2015, he was honored with Padma Shri, one of the top awards (奖) in India.

    During the Warring States Period (475-22IBC), there was a man called Yue Yangzi. One day he saw a piece of gold on the road. He picked it up and 1 it home. But his wife was not 2 and said, "I hear that a great man doesn't drink a thief's water or accept alms(施舍物) .What do you think of the action of keeping others' thing for yourself?" Yue Yangzi felt sorry 3 what he had done, so he put the gold back to the place where he found it.

    The next year, Yue Yangzi decided to go to a faraway school to improve himself. A year later, he came back home 4. "Why have you returned?" asked his wife in surprise, "You've 5spent one year studying with scholars (学者们)." "I come back because I 6you very much."

    Without saying anything, his wife took a pair of scissors and went to the loom(织布机)at which she had worked. 7 the half done cloth, she said, "The cloth is woven from the best silk. Now 8 I cut it ,all my previous（先前的）work will be wasted. It's the same as your 9.You can learn a lot only by working hard. Now, you've stopped half way. Isn't it the same as cutting the cloth on the loom?"

    Yue Yangzi was moved by 10she said. He again left home to visit scholars. Several years later he became a learned man.

    Last October, I told my pupils in Pompton School about my plan. "I'd like you to do jobs to make some 1 ." I said. "Then we'll buy food for someone in need."

    I wanted them to experience that it's 2 to give than to receive. I hoped they could experience a sense of their own ability to make a change.

    Early in Thanksgiving week, the children couldn't wait to 3. Before paying for the turkey and other food we chose in the supermarket, Kristine cried.

    "Flowers!" And the group all ran toward the holiday 4.

    "You can't eat flowers!" I said 5. After all, it was helpful to buy more food.

    "But Mrs. Sherlock," came the loud 6," we want flowers."

    In the middle of the plants, there was a pot of unusually purple mums."7 will like this one," the children agreed.

    8 the address of a poor grandmother who had lived alone for years, we set off. An hour later, we stopped in front of a small house. A thin woman with a 9 face came to meet us.

    As the kids carried all the food in, the old woman oohed and ached—much to her visitors" pleasure. When Amy put the mums on the table, the woman seemed 10. "She's wishing it was a bag of food," I thought.

    11 is your close friend in the woods?" Michael asked.

    The woman brightened. "The birds. They often fly over for food 12 I share my bread with them." She said.

    Then we returned to the car. Through the window we saw her walk past the turkey, straight to the 13. She put her face in them and looked up with a big smile. She was 14 before our eyes!

    In that one short moment, the children had seen for themselves the 15 they owned to make a change. Sometimes a person needed a pot of nice purple flowers on a dark November day.

    Once there was a clever man. One day he went shopping and he found a very beautiful vase. He loved it very much. It was 400 dollars. But it was too 1for him.

   "Could you sell it at 200 dollars?" He wanted to cut down the2.
    I'm sorry I can't," the shop assistant answered.

    Then he3the shop without saying any words. He went back home and4his friends about the vase. They worked out a5. The clever man hoped the plan could work.

    The next day, one of his friends went to6and wanted to buy the vase for 350 dollars. The shop assistant didn't7.

    Shortly after the first one, the second friend went there and wanted to buy it for 300 dollars.8shook his head.

    Later, the third offered 200. The fourth offered 150. The fifth offered 100. Oh! It was too9.

    At last, the clever man went to the shop and offered 100 dollars again. This time, the plan worked and the clever man10the beautiful vase at his price.