A great French writer has said that we should help everyone as much as we can because we often need help ourselves. The small even can help the great. About this, he told the following story.
An ant was drinking at a small river and fell in. she tried her best to reach the side, but she couldn’t move at all. The poor ant got too tired but was still doing her best when a big bird saw her. With a pity, the bird threw a piece of wood. With it the ant reached the bank again. While she was resting and drying herself in grass she heard a man coming up. He was walking without shoes on his feet and carrying a gun in his hand. As soon as he saw the bird, he wished to kill her, and he would certainly do so, but the ant bit(咬) him in one of his feet and at that moment the bird flew away at once. It was an animal much weaker and smaller than the bird herself that had saved her life.
【小题1】 According to the French writer, we often need help from others, so we should _____ .

D
“Wanted by the FBI.” To the murderer, or the bank robber, these are the most frightening words in the world. When the criminal hears them，he knows that six thousand trained persons are after him.
Why should he be so afraid? There are thousands of cities and villages where he can hide，and forests and deserts, as well. Besides, he’s usually rich with stolen money.
Money can make it easier to hide. With money, the criminal can even pay a doctor to operate on his face and make him hard to recognize. But the criminals know that as public enemies, they can be found by the FBI no matter where they hide.
They know every trick the criminal knows and many more. If he makes just one mistake，they’ll get him. That’s why the man who is wanted can’t sleep. That’s why he becomes nervous, why he jumps at every sound.
The FBI began on May 10th, 1924. General Harlan Stone chose Edgar Hoover, a young lawyer, to head the new agency . “What we need is a wholly new kind of police force,” he said. “Criminals today are smart．They use stolen cars and even planes to make their gateways. They have learned to open any lock，using advanced technology. We can’t beat them with old methods. We have to train officers to work scientifically.”
Edgar Hoover quietly went ahead with his plans. He picked his men carefully. They had to be between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five. He wanted only men with good manners and good character. When working as his officers, they would have to meet all kinds of people. Hoover wanted men who could handle a teacup as well as a gun. But the FBI cannot help in every police problem. It can look into only certain crimes against the government. Solving all other crimes is the duty of local police forces．   
68．A man wanted by the FBI will find that money is ________.
A．not at all useful              B．very helpful for a while
C．necessary for his crime         D．everything for him
69．Before he worked with the FBI，Edgar Hoover was a ____________.
A．policeman     B．lawyer    C．teacher     D．general
70．The FBI was begun in order to____.
A．reduce crimes            B．bring younger men into police work
C．fight crimes scientifically   D．offer jobs
71．A man who can “handle a teacup as well as a gun” has both ____________.
A．courage and manners         B．strength and kindness
C．wisdom and energy          D．ability and humor

B

C
　　Once upon a time，there was a wonderful old man who loved everything on the land——animals and plants.
　　One day while walking through the woods，the old man found a cocoon of a butterfly. He took it home. A few days later，a small opening appeared；he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly，so he took a pair of scissors and cut the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then came out easily.
　　But it had a swollen body and small，shriveled（枯萎的）wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that，at any moment，the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body，or they would be smaller. Neither happened! In fact，the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
　　What the man in his kindness and hurry did not understand was that the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening was nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
　　Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed to go through our life without any difficulties，it would cripple（使无能）us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.
59．The old man cut the cocoon in order to__________.
A．kill the butterfly
B．play with the butterfly
C．make the butterfly come out easily
D．have the butterfly
60．The reason why the butterfly could not fly is that__________.
A．the old man broke its wings
B．it was too small
C．newly born butterflies can’t fly
D．it came out of its cocoon without enough struggle
61．What can we know from the passage？
A．That old man was fond of everything except the butterfly.
B．It was the old man that stopped the butterfly flying.
C．The old man realized his mistake.
D．It’s not hard for the butterfly to come out of the cocoon.
62．What does the author want to tell us by writing the passage？
A．We should help others.
B．Without others help we can still succeed.
C．Struggles in our life can make us stronger.
D．Butterflies can fly without people’s help.

A serious problem for today’s society is who should be responsible for our elderly and how to improve their lives. It is not only a financial problem but also a question of the system we want for our society. I would like to suggest several possible solutions to this problem.
First, employers should take the responsibility for their retired employees. To make this possible, a percentage of profits should be set aside for this purpose. But when a company must take life-long responsibility for its employees, it may suffer from a commercial disadvantage due to higher employee costs.
Another way of solving the problem is to return the responsibility to the individual. This means each person must save during his working years to pay for his years of retirement. This does not seem a very fair model since some people have enough trouble paying for their daily life without trying to earn extra to cover their retirement years. This means the government might have to step in to care for the poor.
In addition, the government could take responsibility for the care of the elderly. This could be financed through government taxes to increase the level of pensions(养老金). Furthermore, some in-situations should be created for senior citizens, which can help provide a comfortable life for them. Unfortunately, as the present situation in our country shows, this is not a truly viable answer. The government can seldom afford to care for the elderly, particularly when it is busy trying to care for the young.
One further solution is that the government or social organizations establish some working places especially for the elderly where they are independent.
To sum up, all these options(选择) have advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that some combination of these options may be needed to provide the care we hope to give to our elderly generations.
【小题1】According to the passage, how can the government help to improve the lives of retired people?