SHANGHAI'S biggest lottery prize winner is also China's most charitablelotterywinner.

The man, identified only as Shen to protect his safety, claimed his prize - 259 million yuan (US$38 million) - yesterday at the Shanghai Welfare Lottery Center.

It was the second biggest prize in the history of the Two-Tone Ball welfarelottery in China, trailing only the 359 million yuan won by a man from Henan Province last year.

Shen, who turned up six days after the prize was drawn, said he would donate 10.3 million yuan to the Shanghai Citizen Mutual-Aid Foundation. Of that, 5.16 million will be given to Zhouqu, Gansu Province, where fatal mudslides have killed at least 1,270 people and left 474 missing. The other 5.16 million is expected to help Shanghai needy people.

The foundationyesterday issued a donation certificate for him.

Shen will also have to pay tax of almost 50 million yuan, the lottery center said.

Shen said "516" was his lucky number, and he wished he could pass his good luck onto mudslide survivors and Shanghai citizens, according to center officials.

Center officials, determined to preserve Shen's privacy, refused to disclose personal details such as his age and occupation, and kept the media away from him.

"All the claiming procedures were carried out as usual," said Li Hong, director of the center. "Shen didn't ask for any special service, thus we just treated him as a common lottery buyer."

"Anyway, we were grateful he was such a standingsupporter of the welfarelottery," Li said.

Shen came in plain clothes, without covering his face, as people had imagined. Officials checked Shen's lottery ticket carefully and repeatedly and all of the officials on the scene signed a privacy commitment, Li said.

Shen bought the ticket at a lottery stall on Dalian Road. The batch of tickets cost him 200 yuan.

The stall became so hot after he won the big prize that the stall owner, Sun Zhimin, set off firecrackers last week in celebration.

Not every lotterywinner was celebrating yesterday.

A winner in Jiangsu Province was perhaps the unluckiest person in the country, because he or she failed to claim a 10 million yuan prize before it expired yesterday.

It's the largest unclaimed prize in the history of the welfarelottery on the Chinese mainland.

The mysterious ticket buyer in Kunshan City bought only one number, spending 2 yuan on June 16. The winning number was published on June 17 but the lucky playerapparently had no idea of the windfall.

The owner of the lottery stall where the ticket was sold said the winner was not a regular buyer. Some steady lottery buyers suspect the winner might have bought the 2 yuan ticket only to break a 100-yuan note.

Local media put out several notices for the missingwinner over the last two months. The local lottery authority even offered a 100,000 yuan award for any information.

The lottery authority said the 10 million yuan will enter social charity accounts.

• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• welfare [´welfeə] n.福利(事业) (初中英语单词)
• province [´prɔvins] n.省；领域；范围 (初中英语单词)
• foundation [faun´deiʃən] n.建立；基金；地基 (初中英语单词)
• missing [´misiŋ] a.缺掉的；失踪的 (初中英语单词)
• preserve [pri´zə:v] v.保藏 n.保藏物 (初中英语单词)
• occupation [,ɔkju´peiʃən] a.职业的；军事占领的 (初中英语单词)
• director [di´rektə] n.指导者；....长；导演 (初中英语单词)
• grateful [´greitful] a.感谢的；令人愉快的 (初中英语单词)
• standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
• mysterious [mi´stiəriəs] a.神秘的；难以理解的 (初中英语单词)
• player [´pleiə] n.游戏的人；选手 (初中英语单词)
• suspect [´sʌspekt, sə´spekt] v.怀疑；觉得 n.嫌疑犯 (初中英语单词)
• donate [dəu´neit] vt.捐赠 (高中英语单词)
• certificate [sə´tifikət] n.执照；文凭 vt.批准 (高中英语单词)
• disclose [dis´kləuz] vt.揭露；透露；泄露 (高中英语单词)
• celebration [,seli´breiʃən] n.庆祝(会)；庆典 (高中英语单词)
• apparently [ə´pærəntli] ad.显然，表面上地 (高中英语单词)
• charity [´tʃæriti] n.施舍；慈悲；博爱 (高中英语单词)
• winner [´winə] n.胜利者，得奖者 (英语四级单词)
• charitable [´tʃæritəbəl] a.仁爱的；慈善的 (英语四级单词)
• privacy [´praivəsi, -pri] n.隐退；独处；秘密 (英语四级单词)
• supporter [sə´pɔ:tə] n.支持者，援助者 (英语四级单词)
• repeatedly [ri´pi:tidli] ad.反复地；再三地 (英语四级单词)
• mainland [´meinlənd] n.大陆；本土 (英语四级单词)
• winning [´winiŋ] n.&a.胜利(的) (英语四级单词)
• lottery [´lɔtəri] n.抽彩，抓阄，彩票 (英语六级单词)