question: When a tornado touched down in a small town nearby, many families were left completely destroyed. Afterward all the local newspapers carried many human-interest stories featuring some of the families who suffered the hardest.

One Sunday, a particular picture especially touched me. A young woman stood in front of an entirely shattered mobile home, a depressed expression twisting her features. A young boy, seven or eight years old, stood at her side, eyes downcast. Clutching at her skirt was a tiny girl who stared into the camera, eyes wide with confusion and fear.

The article that went with the picture gave the clothing sizes of each family member. With growing interest, I noticed that their sizes closely matched ours. This would be a good opportunity to teach my children to help those less fortunate than themselves. I taped the picture of the young family to our refrigerator, explaining their difficulty to my seven-year-old twins, Brad and Brett, and to three- year-old Meghan.

" We have so much. And these poor people now have nothing," I said."We'll share what we have with them."

I brought three large boxes down from the room upstairs and placed them on the living room floor. Meghan watched seriously, as the boys and I filled one of the boxes with canned goods and foods.

While I sorted through our clothes, I encouraged the boys to go through their toys and donate some of their less favorite things. Meghan watched quietly as the boys piled up discarded toys and games.

"I'll help you find something for the little girl when I'm done with this," I said.

The boys placed the toys they had chosen to donate into one of the boxes while I filled the third box with clothes. Meghan walked up with Lucy, her worn, faded, much-loved rag doll hugged tightly to her chest. She paused in front of the box that held the toys, pressed her round little face into Lucy's flat, painted-on-face, gave her a final kiss, then laid her gently on top of the other toys.

"Oh, Honey," I said."You don't have to give Lucy. You love her so much."

Meghan nodded seriously, eyes glistening with held-back tears. '"Lucy makes me happy, Mommy. Maybe she'll make that other little girl happy, too."

_ , I stared at Meghan for a long moment, wondering how I could teach the boys the lesson she had just taught me. For I suddenly realized that anyone can give their cast-offs away. True generosity is giving that which you value most.

Honest benevolence is a three-year-old offering a valuable, though shabby, doll to a little girl she doesn't know with the hope that it will bring this child as much pleasure as it brought her. I, who had wanted to teach, had been taught.

The boys had watched, open-mouthed, as their baby sister placed her favorite doll in the box. Without a word, Brad rose and went to his room. He came back carrying one of his favorite action figures. He hesitated briefly, clutching the toy, then looked over at Meghan and placed it in the box next to Lucy.

A slow smile spread across Brett's face. Then he jumped up, eyes twinkling as he ran to fetch some of his prized Matchbox cars.

Astonished, I realized that the boys had also recognized what little Meghan's gesture meant. Swallowing back tears, I pulled all three of them into my arms.

Taking the cue from my little one, I removed my old jacket from the box of clothes. I replaced it with the new hunter green jacket that I had found on sale last week. I hoped the young woman in the picture would love it as much as I did.

It's easy to give that which we don't want any more, but harder to let go of things we cherish, isn't it? However, _
1. What type of natural disaster happened?
2. Who stared at the camera?
3. What was the picture on the fridge of?
4. Who did she have to explain their difficulty to?
5. Who else?
6. What was her name?
7. What were the twins' names?
8. What did they donate?
9. What else?
10. What did the girl donate?
11. What did the woman donate?
****
answer: 1. tornado
2. unknown
3. young family
4. seven-year-old twins
5. three- year-old
6. Meghan
7. Brad and Brett
8. canned goods and foods
9. clothes,toys less favorite things, games.
10. Lucy
11. clothes

question: Houston, Texas (CNN) -- Alexander Reyes' boyhood dream of a military career ended when he was hit by an improvised explosive device during a patrol two years ago in Baghdad.

"Laying in that hospital bed ... sometimes I felt I'd rather [have] died," Reyes said. "My life came to a complete halt."

Reyes sustained severe blast injuries that led to his medical discharge; he's on 100 percent medical disability. Like many soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, Reyes, now 24, found the transition to civilian life difficult.

But he and a handful of other injured veterans are getting help from what may seem an unlikely source: a custom home builder in Houston, Texas.

Dan Wallrath recently presented Reyes and his wife with an unexpected gift: a home built especially for them, mortgage-free.

"Thank you. That's all I can say," Elizabeth Reyes said, sobbing and clutching her stunned husband's arm as Wallrath surprised them with the house.

For Wallrath, giving wounded veterans a place to call home is his way of saying thanks. Since 2005, his organization has built four houses. Five more are under construction, and he's expanding his idea into a national campaign called Operation Finally Home.

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2010 CNN Heroes

Wallrath spent 30 years making upscale clients' dream houses a reality. But he found a new mission in 2005 when he met with Steve Schulz about a very different type of project.

Schulz's 20-year old son, a U.S. Marine, had been gravely injured in Iraq. Schulz desperately needed to remodel his house to accommodate his son's wheelchair.
1. who was injured by an explosive device?
2. who helped him?
3. how?
4. how long has he been doing that?
5. where does he reside?
6. how did Reyes feel after the injury?
7. where was he injured?
8. is he on medical disablity?
9. how did Elizabeth feel about the gift?
10. who is she?
11. does Wallrath have other plans?
12. what is one of them?
13. any others?
14. did he make different types of projects?
15. what was it?
16. for whom?
17. what happened to him?
****
answer: 1. Alexander Reyes
2. Dan Wallrath
3. gave him a free home
4. Since 2005
5. Houston
6. he'd rather have died
7. Baghdad
8. yes
9. thankful
10. Alexander's wife
11. yes
12. Operation Finally Home
13. building five more homes
14. yes
15. making a home wheelchair accessible
16. a 20-year old Marine
17. injured in Iraq

question: One day a young boy went to visit a toy store. In the toy store the young boy found many fun toys. One toy that the boy really liked was a small blue toy truck. The small blue toy truck was a lot of fun to play with, and made a lot of funny noises. The young boy played with the toy truck for a long time, and then another little boy showed up and began to play with a little red car. The two boys ended up becoming friends and played with the toys for a long time. They ended up becoming good friends and had many play dates together over the months ahead. On one play date the two boys built a large tree house and called it the tree castle. They played for hours in the tree castle and always found something fun to do when they played together. They were glad that they met in the toy store and became life-long friends.
1. Who visits a toy store?
2. Was he the only one?
3. What kinds of toys did the two boys play with?
4. Was that the only toy?
5. Did they like each other?
6. How long were they friends?
7. Did they do other things besides playing with toys
8. Like what?
9. Did they name it?
10. What was it?
11. How long would their play dates last?
12. Were they friends before they played cars in the toy store?
****
answer:
1. a young boy
2. no
3. a little red car.
4. a toy truck
5. yes
6. for life
7. yes
8. they built a tree house
9. yes
10. the tree castle.
11. for hours
12. no