奇速英语

In a narrow hutong in Beijing lies a small library. It is only seven square meters in size, but thousands of books are ___1___in it. Unlike traditional libraries, this one doesn’t require its readers to ___2___ the books. Instead, it encourages them to pass those books on to someone else when they’ve finished reading.

This library was ___3___ by Mr. Xu, a businessman, in 2010. The idea took shape when Xu recommended books online to students, but found it ___4___ for them to get the books from their school libraries. So, Xu bought and ___5___ nearly 1,000 books in the following year. The students who received the books were very thankful. Their thank-you letters got Xu to turn his book-gifting effort into a physical space.

Xu’s library might be the smallest in the world, but in another sense, it’s also the biggest because its books keep ___6___. Once, a reader took home an English book on Chinese history. A week later, he passed it on to a neighbor. ___7___, the book traveled all the way abroad and ended up in Germany. “The ___8___ of the book is a wonder. Many wonders like this keep the culture of reading alive,” Xu tells the newspaper.

Xu says he will continue this work although the library is now faced with the ___9___ of e-books. “This is the most ___10___ thing I’ve done in my life,” he says. “I hope that the library can stay open forever.”