At Bookmark, we want every child to read. According to a survey, 8 children in the average class in the UK are ________ to read well when they leave primary school. We need more reading volunteers to help us change this. Volunteering is a great outlet for self-improvement while ________ others, and with Bookmark, everyone can truly make a ________ to the futures of the primary school students.

Sally joined Bookmark as a volunteer in 2019. As a freelance writer and editor, she wanted to share her love of books with children who may have not discovered ________. Before volunteering with Bookmark, she had ________ worked with children, so beginning the sessions was truly a step out of her comfort zone. Sally began ________ with Zach in person at a local school. At the beginning of their program, Zach asked Sally about the ________ why people need to read. Seeing this as an opportunity, she highlighted to him that reading makes one’s life meaningful and interesting. She told Zach that there were books out there on all his favorite hobbies and encouraged him to see reading as ________.

As their ________ continued, Sally noticed a ________ on Zach. When packing up in their final session, Zach spotted a book that was a more ________ level than those he’d been reading, but he exclaimed that he was happy and confident to give it a go ________. At this moment, Sally felt a real connection to Bookmark’s mission and knew the challenge would ________.

Sally’s experience as a Bookmark volunteer taught her more than she had ________ “Volunteering has made me feel more content. I feel I am helpful. I get huge ________ from engaging with children via Bookmark and making them laugh as we read in funny voices and play games.” she said, “All the ________ I have read with so far have been eager to learn and their ________ has been contagious (有感染力的).”

As well as finding pleasure in her time as a reading volunteer, Sally tells us that through her experience she ________ the true extent of the importance of literacy-being able to read is a fundamental life ________ and not being able to read can have far reaching consequences. Literacy is important for everyone. Literacy can help ________ inequality and lead to empowerment.

During the 2006 World Cup in Germany I worked as a volunteer in an information booth(问讯处). It was great fun, and all the visiting fans were really _______, including the English. We were very _______ about the result since before that we had been _______ to be careful of English football hooligans (足球流氓).

Some of the England fans had come by car and _______ in the city instead of out by the stadium. A few of them _______ at our booth because they couldn’t find their cars after the _______. They were quite _______, though, that they had written down the name of the _______ they had parked on. They showed us a piece of paper that had “Einbahnstraße” written on it. We then had to _______ that this wasn’t a street name, but a(n) __________, saying “One-Way Street”. We did __________ to find their cars, though.

Two days after the England game, a young man ran into our booth. He was __________ because he had gotten so drunk after the game that he had fallen asleep in a bush and __________ his plane back home. Since he didn’t have any money, we called his mum and then booked him a flight. His mum sent us a thank-you letter for __________ her son.

All of them were absolutely lovely. It just goes to show that one bad apple doesn’t __________ the whole bunch.

After a powerful wind storm struck Iowa in August, the city of Mount Vernon was left covered in fallen trees.

That's when 12-year-old Tommy Rhomberg stepped up to the plate. Using fallen _______, Tommy designed and carved more than 200 baseball bats, which he sold to _______money for victims of the widespread wind storm. For each bat sold for $100, he _______   $20 to the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation Disaster Relief Fund.

Tommy_______the idea on the day of the storm, which_______ to be his best friend's birthday. Knowing his best friend's _______for baseball-and surrounded by _________ trees from the storm -Tommy decided to gift his friend a hand-carved bat. He woke up at 6 a.m. to_______it over the course of a few days until it was perfect. When seeing it, his friend was amazed by Tommy's thoughtful gift: “I didn't _______anything for my birthday, but when Tommy brought me the bat that he made me, I was so excited and__________”。

Tommy made the bat using his grandfather's__________   and sand paper, and that he worked until his hands were covered in blisters.

After Amanda Rhomberg, Tommy's mom,__________ photos of the bat on Facebook, the post went __________ and hundreds of people asked if Tommy could make them bats.

The bats, which are about 30 inches long, can't be used to play__________, as the fallen wood will crack as the wood dries over time. But people can__________them as “a little souvenir from the storm". “I don't know how his__________hands can do so much,” Amanda said. “He has put in hundreds of hours into making these bats. I am so__________ of him for teaching himself a new skill and starting a __________while doing so much good. He shows that you can make a__________in your corner of the world by doing what you can with __________you have.”