An unemployed man is desperate to support his family. His wife watches TV all day and his three teenage kids have dropped out of high school to hang around with the local toughs. He applies for a cleaner’s job at a large firm and easily passes an aptitude test. The human resources manager tells him, “You will be hired at minimum wage, $5.15 an hour. Let me have your e-mail address so that we can contact you easily. Our system will automatically e-mail you all the forms and advise you when to start and where to report on your first day.” Greatly surprised, the man protests that he has neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this, the manager replies, “You must understand that to a company like ours that means you virtually do not exist. Without an e-mail address you can hardly expect to be employed by a high tech firm. Good day.”

Unable to believe what he heard, the man leaves. Not knowing where to turn and having $10 in his wallet, he walks past a farmers’ market and sees a stand selling beautiful tomatoes. He buys a crate (柳条箱), carries it to a busy corner and displays the tomatoes. In less than two hours he sells all the tomatoes and makes 100% profit. From that day on, he repeats the tomato business and becomes increasingly successful as time goes on. By the end of the fifth year he owns a fleet of nice trucks and a warehouse. The tomato company has put hundreds of homeless and jobless people to work and the business grossed a million dollars.

Planning for the future, he decides to buy some life insurance. The insurance adviser asks him for his e-mail address in order to send the final documents electronically. When the man replies that he doesn’t have time to mess with a computer and has no e-mail address, the insurance salesman is surprised, “ No computer? No Internet? Just think where you would be if you’d had all of that five years ago!” “Ha! If I’d had all of that five years ago, I would be sweeping floors at Microsoft and making $5.15 an hour!” the man replies.

1. The man’s kids drop out of school because ______.

   A. they want to hang around with the local toughs

   B. their mother watches TV all day

   C. their father is only a cleaner

   D. their family is very poor

2. The man applies for a cleaner’s job ______.

   A. but he can’t accept it because the pay is too low

   B. and he gets it though the pay is only $5.15 an hour

   C. but he was turned down because he doesn’t have an e-mail address

   D. but he misses the chance because they fail to contact him

3. The man’s tomatoes sell well because ______.

   A. the tomatoes look very beautiful

   B. he has chosen the right place to sell them

   C. many jobless people help him

   D. the tomatoes are contained in beautiful crates

4. From the conversation between the man and the insurance salesman in the last paragraph we can infer that ______.

   A. the man will buy a computer soon

   B. it’s very easy to do tomato business

   C. one does not necessarily have an e-mail address to be successful

   D. the man is not able to buy any life insurance without an e-mail address

An unemployed man is desperate to support his family. His wife watches TV all day and his three teenage kids have dropped out of high school to hang around with the local toughs. He applies for a cleaner’s job at a large firm and easily passes an aptitude test. The human resources manager tells him, “You will be hired at minimum wage, $5.15 an hour. Let me have your e-mail address so that we can contact you easily. Our system will automatically e-mail you all the forms and advise you when to start and where to report on your first day.” Greatly surprised, the man protests that he has neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this, the manager replies, “You must understand that to a company like ours that means you virtually do not exist. Without an e-mail address you can hardly expect to be employed by a high tech firm. Good day.”

Unable to believe what he heard, the man leaves. Not knowing where to turn and having $10 in his wallet, he walks past a farmers’ market and sees a stand selling beautiful tomatoes. He buys a crate (柳条箱), carries it to a busy corner and displays the tomatoes. In less than two hours he sells all the tomatoes and makes 100% profit. From that day on, he repeats the tomato business and becomes increasingly successful as time goes on. By the end of the fifth year he owns a fleet of nice trucks and a warehouse. The tomato company has put hundreds of homeless and jobless people to work and the business grossed a million dollars.

Planning for the future, he decides to buy some life insurance. The insurance adviser asks him for his e-mail address in order to send the final documents electronically. When the man replies that he doesn’t have time to mess with a computer and has no e-mail address, the insurance salesman is surprised, “ No computer? No Internet? Just think where you would be if you’d had all of that five years ago!” “Ha! If I’d had all of that five years ago, I would be sweeping floors at Microsoft and making $5.15 an hour!” the man replies.

41. The man’s kids drop out of school because ______.

   A. they want to hang around with the local toughs

   B. their mother watches TV all day

   C. their father is only a cleaner

   D. their family is very poor

42. The man applies for a cleaner’s job ______.

   A. but he can’t accept it because the pay is too low

   B. and he gets it though the pay is only $5.15 an hour

   C. but he was turned down because he doesn’t have an e-mail address

   D. but he misses the chance because they fail to contact him

43. The man’s tomatoes sell well because ______.

   A. the tomatoes look very beautiful

   B. he has chosen the right place to sell them

   C. many jobless people help him

   D. the tomatoes are contained in beautiful crates

44. From the conversation between the man and the insurance salesman in the last paragraph we can infer that ______.

   A. the man will buy a computer soon

   B. it’s very easy to do tomato business

   C. one does not necessarily have an e-mail address to be successful

   D. the man is not able to buy any life insurance without an e-mail address

      Mr. King was over sixty and lived by himself a long way from town. He nearly hadn’t left his home. But one day he went into town to buy things. After he bought them, he went into a restaurant and sat down at a table by himself. When he looked around, he saw several old people put glasses on before they read their newspapers. So after lunch he decided to go to a shop to buy himself a pair of glasses, too. He walked along the street and soon found a shop.

The man in the shop helped him try on many pairs of glasses, but Mr. King always said, “No, I cannot read with them.”

The man became more and more puzzled and in the end ha said, “Excuse me, but can you read?”

“No, of course not!” Mr. King said angrily. “If I can read, why have I come here?”

55. Mr. King lived ________

A. alone                B. with several old people

C. with his family        D. with his wife

56. What did the old people in the restaurant do before they read?

A. they drank something.

B. they took out their newspaper.

C. they took their glasses off.

D. they put their glasses on.

57. What mistake did Mr. King make?

A. He didn’t try on all the glasses in the shop.

B. He thought that he would be able to read with glasses even if he couldn’t read.

C. He went to the wrong shop.

    D. He didn’t know how to choose glasses.

John Fisher, a builder, and his wife Elizabeth wanted more living space, so they left their small flat for an old 40-metter-high castle tower. They have spent five years turning it into a beautiful home with six floors, winning three architectural prizes.

“I love the space, and being private,” Elizabeth says. “You feel separated from the world. If I am in the kitchen, which is 25 meters above the ground floor, and the doorbell rings, I don’t have to answer it because visitors can’t see I am in!”

There are 142 steps to the top so if I go up and down five or six times a day, it’s very good exercise! But having to carry heavy things to the top is terrible, so I never buy more than two bags of shopping from the supermarket at a time. Apart from that, it’s a brilliant place to live.

“When we first saw the place, I asked my father’s advice about buying it, because we couldn’t decide. After paying for it, we were a bit worried because it looked awful. But we really loved it, and knew how we wanted it to look.”

“Living here can be difficult-yesterday I climbed a four-meter ladder to clean the windows. But  when you stand on the roof you can see all the way out to sea on a clear day, and that’s a wonderful experience. I am really glad we moved. ”

1．What is the writer trying to do in the text?

      A．describe how to turn an old tower into a house.

       B．recommend a particular builder

       C．describe what it is like to live in a tower

       D．explain how to win prizes for building work

2．From the text, a reader can find out

       A．Why visitors are not welcome at John and Elizabeth’s house.

       B．Why Elizabeth asked her father to buy the tower

       C．Why Elizabeth exercises every day

       D．Why John and Elizabeth left their flat.

3．Which of the following best describes Elizabeth’s feelings about the tower?

       A．she wanted it as soon as she saw it

       B．she likes most things about it

       C．she ha been worried since they paid for it

       D．she finds it unsuitable to live in

4．What problem does Elizabeth have with living in such a tall building?

      A．Her visitors find it hard to see if she is at home

       B．She feels separated from others

       C．She cannot bring home lots of shopping at once

       D．It is impossible to clean any of the windows.

5．How will John and Elizabeth advertise their tower if they sell it?

A

B

C

D