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    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)!

    When he was a teenager, Hunter Adams was very unhappy and he spent many years in a special hospital for people with mental (心理的) health problems.

    When he left the hospital, Adams decided to become a doctor, so he went to a medical school in Virginia, USA. But when he was there, he did things in a different way. For example, he didn't like the doctor's white coats, so he wore shirts with flowers on them when he visited his patients and he tried to make them laugh. The doctors at the medical school didn't like Adams because he was too different.

    But Adams believed that people in hospital need more than medicine. He saw unhappy and lonely people, and he tried to help them as patients, but as people too. He spent a lot of time with children in the hospital and often dressed up like a clown (小丑) to make the children laugh.

    When he finished medical school and became a doctor, Adams opened his own hospital called "the Gusundheit Institute", together with some other doctors. They wanted it to be a place with a different way of working with sick people.

    Hunter Adams became famous during the 1980s, and in 1988, Universal Pictures made a film about his life. It was very successful. In the film, Robin Williams played Adams. Williams said, "Hunter is a really warm person, who believes that patients need a doctor who is a friend. I enjoyed playing him."

    Captain(船长) Nemo invited me and my friends to go hunting with him in the forests of Crespo Island. I asked him why he was so interested in Crespo Island, "I thought you preferred the sea to being on land."

    "I do," replied the captain. "But these forests are under the sea."

After going through a door, we were about ten metres under the water. The light from the sun reached us. Everything looked very colourful. We were going deeper and deeper. At 100 metres deep, we could see quite well, and Captain Nemo stopped and pointed to some dark shapes. This was the forest. The "trees" in the forest were giant seaweed(海草), and all their "branches" were vertical(垂直的).We could not stop looking at them. Fish swam around the branches like birds in a forest.

    Suddenly, I saw a large sea spider about a metre tall. It was going to attack me. Captain Nemo's man killed it with his gun, but it reminded me that the sea could be as dangerous as it was beautiful. When we reached 150 metres, it was dark. The sun's light could not reach this depth(深度). We turned on our lights. We could see about 20 metres around us. Finally, we found Crespo Island—where a steep rock wall rose in front of us.

    We could go no further, so we walked back towards the Nautilus. Suddenly, Captain Nemo stopped and shot an animal with his gun, it was a beautiful and rare sea otter(水獭). At last, we could see the Nautilus. Several large sharks swam over us. Luckily they didn't see us. We re-entered the Nautilus safely. I was tired but amazed by what I had seen.

One morning, when I was leaving for my business, a middle-aged man came up and asked me for help. He said he had no money to get food for his large family. "You look1 . Why don't you work?" I asked. "Simply because I cannot get work, sir." "If I give you work, what pay do you want?" "As long as I can get bread for my family, sir." he answered.

I decided to find out if he really meant what he said. "OK. I'll give you one pound an hour, if you 2 a brick（砖块）under your arm and walk around the square for five hours without stopping." "Thank you, sir. I will."

I found a brick and started him on his walk before I went to my 3 . I never thought he would do what he had said.

When I came back five hours later, I saw him still 4 , with the brick under his arm. I stopped him and gave him five pounds. He thanked me and told me that some people had5 to help him when they knew why he was doing all this. He said they would give him work directly, but he6 . Before leaving, he asked if I would give him the 7 , I did.

Several years later, a well-dressed man greeted me on a train. Seeing I was not sure who he was, he 8 that he was the brick man and had his own business now. "You know, I still keep that brick and always consider it as the most9 thing I have because it has brought me luck and success."

In fact, it was not the brick that made the man successful, but his faithfulness（坚定）in doing 10 a very little thing.

Pormpawee is a fan of traditional Chinese culture. She is among thousands of young people in Thailand who have learned Mandarin（普通话）. And she has been watching Mandarin in a creative way. making learning more enjoyable

In recent years, more young people in Thailand are trying to learn about China through social media, movies and TV programs, and hanfu is very popular with Pompawee's students. That's where she has got her new idea of teaching. She shares with them this latest Chinese fashion(时尚)in class, helping them learn about the culture as well as the language itself. 

Mandarin is like a key. helping me to open the door to understand China, "she said. Pormpawee developed a love for the Chinese language at the age of 13. When she was in high school, she made an important decision—learning Mandarin at college. Now35-year-oldPormpawee has taught Mandarin for over 10 years. 

Pornpawee visited China for the first time while she was in the university. She found Chinese food so great. Before travelling to China, Pornpawee had only heard of a few Chinese dishes, such as hot pot and jiaozi. She was amazed by the kinds, the tastes and the Chinese ways of cooking. "Chinese people are very kind to foreigners. During my first visit to China, my Chinese friends and their families always took good care of me and kept asking whether I was used to the life, "she recalled(回忆) . 

So far, Pormpawee has visited several Chinese cities, "China is such a large country, "she said. "My trip to China will never end and I'd like to introduce more to people of my country. "

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