Once, a circle lost a piece of its own. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went around, looking for its   41   piece. But because it was not complete, it could only roll (滚) very slowly. It enjoyed the flowers and the sunshine   42   the way. It talked with worms. It found lots of different pieces, but   43   of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on   44   for the lost piece. Then one day the circle found a piece that fit   45  . The circle put the piece into   46   . It could be whole with nothing lost. It was so happy and began to roll. As it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to see flowers or talk to worms. It realized how different the world was when it rolled so quickly. It felt so sad   47   it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled very slowly.

         Sometimes we are perfect when we lose something. A man who   48   everything is poor in some ways. He will never have hopes, dreams or something   49  . He will never know someone loves him or someone is giving him something he has always wanted or never had.

         We couldn’t be perfect. But we must be brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, kind enough to share   50   with others and clever enough to know there is enough love  around us and then we can always have a wonderful time in our life.

1.A. miss                               B. lose                                   C. missing           D. losing

2.A. at                                             B. of                             C. in                              D. along

3.A. none                             B. all                             C. every one               D. each

4.A. look                               B. looking                    C. to look                     D. looked

5.A. perfectly                      B. perfect                             C. part                          D. partly

6.A. it                                             B. itself                                  C. them                        D. themselves

7.A. which                                     B. whether                           C. that                          D. what

8.A. own                               B. has                                    C. owned                     D. have

9.A. bad                                B. worse                               C. good                        D. better

10.A. kindness                     B. sadness                            C. happiness               D. illness

Like many lovers of books, Mary and her husband, Richard Goldman, seldom walked past a bookstore without stopping to look inside. They often talked of opening their own store one day.

When Mary was in hospital with heart trouble in 1989, they decided it was time to get serious. Richard, who worked for a business company, wanted to work for himself, and Mary needed to slow down from her job.

They started by talking to bookstore owners and researching(调查) the industry. “We knew it had to be a specialty store because we couldn’t match the big chains dollar for dollar,” says Mary. One figure caught her attention: She’d read somewhere that roughly 20 percent of books sold were mysteries(推理小说), and many buyers spent more than $300 a year on books. She and Richard were themselves mystery readers.

On Halloween 1992, they opened the Mystery Lovers Bookshop and Café near their home. With three children in college, the couple could not spend all the family’s money to start a shop. To cover the whole $ 100, 000 cost, they drew some of their savings, borrowed from relatives and from a bank.

The store broke even in its first year, with only $ 120,000 in sales. But Mary was always coming up with new ways to attract customers. The shop had a coffee bar and it offered gifts to mystery lovers and served dinners for book clubs that met in the store. She also invited dozens of writers to discuss their stories.

Today Mystery Lovers makes sales of about $ 420,000 a year. After paying taxes, business costs and the six part-time sales clerks, Richard and Mary together earn about $ 34,000.

“The job you love may not go hand in hand with a million-dollar income,” says Richard. “This has always been about an enjoyable life for ourselves, not about making a lot of money.”

1. After Mary got well from her illness they began _________.

A. to study industrial management (工业管理)

B. to buy and read more mystery books

C. to do market research on book business

D. to work harder to save money for the bookstore

2. How did their bookstore do in the first year?

A. They had to borrow money to keep it going.

B. They made just enough to cover all the costs.

C. They succeeded in earning a lot of money.

D. They failed though they worked hard.

3.According to Richard, the main purpose(目的) of running the bookstore is _________.

A. to pay for children’s education

B. to get to know more writers

C. to set up more bookstores

D. to do what they like to do

Students these days often have a lot of worries. Sometimes they have problems with their schoolwork, and sometimes with their friends.      Some people think the worst thing is to do nothing. Laura Mills, a teenager from Washington, agrees. “Problems and worries are normal in life,” says Laura. “But I think talking to someone helps a lot. If we don’t talk to someone, we’ll certainly feel worse.”

Laura once lost her purse, and worried for days. She was afraid to tell her parents shout it. She even walked three miles to school each day because she didn’t have any money. She just kept thinking. “If I tell my parents, they’ll be angry!” But in the end, she talked to her parents and they were really understanding. Her dad said he sometimes made careless mistakes himself. They got her a new purse and asked her to be more careful. “I will always remember to share my problems in the future!” Laura says.

Robert Hunt advises students about common problems. He feels the same way as Laura. “It is best not to avoid our problems. We should always try to solve (解决) them.” He thinks that you can first find someone to talk to. This person doesn’t need to be an expert (专家) like himself. Students often forget that their parents have more experience than them, and are always there to help them.

In English, we say that sharing a problem is like cutting it in half. So you’re halfway to solving a problem if you talk to someone about it!

1.Which of the following can be put in the blank in Paragraph One?

A．What can they do about this?

B．Where do the problems come from?

C．When did they have these problems?

D．Why do they have so many problems?

2.In Paragraph 2, the writer used the story of Laura to ______.

A．answer a question                       B．give an example

C．introduce his friend                     D．share his experience

3.According to the passage Robert Hunt might be ______.

A．Laura’s teacher                       B．the writer of the passage

C．a person with a problem                  D．an expert on students’problems

4.What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Few children are careful with their money.

B．Parents are more experienced than children

C．Talking to someone helps to solve problems.

D．Students often have a lot of worries at school

Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus. Finally, there was only one family between the ticket office and us. This family made a big impression on me.

         There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12. You could tell they didn’t have a lot of money. Their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean. The children talked excitedly about the clowns. It was clearly a very important day out for them. The father and mother seemed happy as they could be.

         The tickets lady asked how many tickets the father wanted, he proudly answered, “Please let me buy eight children’s tickets and two adults’ tickets, so I can take my family to the circus.”

         The ticket lady told him the price.

         The man’s wife lowered her head. There was no longer a smile on the man’s face. He quietly asked, “How much did you say?”

         The ticket lady again told him the price.

         The man obviously didn’t have enough money. But how could he tell his kids the bad news?

         Seeing what was happening, my dad took a $20 note from his pocket and dropped in on the ground. (We were not rich ourselves at all!) He then tapped the man on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, sir, you dropped this.”

         The man understood my father was helping him. He picked up the money, looked straight into my dad’s eyes, and in tears replied. “Thank you. This really means a lot to me and my family.”

         Although we did not go to the circus that night, we didn’t go without.

1.Why does the writer say “Their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean” ( Paragraph 2)?

A. To show the children were well looked after.

B. To show cheap clothes could be popular.

C. To show how hard the mother worked.

D. To show how rich the family were.

2.Why was the poor man unhappy after he spoke with the ticket lady?

A. He had lost his money.                     B. His children were noisy.

C. The tickets were sold out.                        D. The tickets were too expensive.

3.Who did the $20 note belong to?

A. The poor man                .                           B. The writer’s father.

C. The poor man’s wife.                                 D. The ticket lady.

4.Why was the poor man in tears at the end of the story?

A. He found the money he lost.                   B. He wanted others to help him.

C. He made his children unhappy.               D. He was thankful for the kindness.

5.Which of the following statements is probably true according to the passage?

A. The poor mans saw the circus that night.

B. The two families became close friends.

C. The writer’s father earned some money.

D. The writer saw the circs that night.