It seemed only several minutes _______ he finished this painting .

Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers advised, “Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience.” How right they were!

       “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that helps you hang on there when the going gets tough. It is the inner voice that whispers, “I can do it!” When others shout, “No, you can’t!” It took years for the early work of Barbara Mclintock, a geneticist who won the Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn’t stop working on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.

      We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such youthful air, whatever their age. At 90, pianist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. As the music flowed through his fingers, joy would reappear in his eyes. As author and poet Samuel Ulman once wrote, “Years wrinkle(使皱) the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

     Enthusiastic people also love what they do, without being affected by money or title or power. Patricia Mellratl, retired director of the Missouri Repertory Theater in Kansas City, was once asked where she got her enthusiasm. She replied, “My father, long ago, told me, ‘I never made a penny until I stopped working for money.’”

      If we cannot do what we love as a full-time career, we can as a hobby. Elizabeth Layton was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended periods of depression that troubled her for at least 30 years and the quality of her work led one critic to say, “I am tempted into a genius.”

   We can’t afford to waste tears on “might-have-been”. We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after “what-can-be”．We need to live each moment whole-heartedly, with all our senses—finding pleasure in the sweet smell of a back-yard garden, the simple picture of a six-year-old, and the beauty of a rainbow.

The author mainly wants to say that _________

A. enthusiastic people will never get old

    B. enthusiasm can make you succeed and enjoy life

    C. enthusiasm is more important than experience

    D. enthusiasm can give people more success and fame

Which of the following can best explain the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?

    A. Enthusiasm can give you courage and strength in difficult times.

    B. If you don’t have enthusiasm, you can achieve nothing.

    C. Enthusiastic people never consider money and fame.

    D. Enthusiastic people can gain great fame and honor.

The author mentions cellist Pablo Casals in the third paragraph to show that____

    A. music can arouse people’s enthusiasm

    B. enthusiasm can give people inspiration needed to succeed

    C. enthusiasm can make people feel young

    D. enthusiasm can keep people healthy

How many examples are given in the passage to show the importance of enthusiasm?

    A. Three    B. Two    C. Four   D.  Five

  It will be a long time ______- he returns.

Three months after the government stopped issuing（发放）or renewing permits for Internet cafes because of security（安全）concerns, some café owners are having financial concerns of their own.

The permits were stopped suddenly three months ago by the government until new safeguards could be put in place to prevent misuse of the information superhighway, but for café owners it’s a business breakdown with no fix in sight.

“I heard in a request to open up an Internet café and received the conditions,” said the businessman Obeidallah. “I rented a place in the Sharafiah district at SR45,000 and prepared the place with equipment that cost me more than SR100,000. When I went to the local government after finishing everything, I was surprised to find that they’d stopped issuing permits for Internet cafes.”

Having an Internet café without Internet is much like having a coffee shop without coffee. “I’m avoiding closing the place, but it’s been more than three months with the situation ongoing as it is.” Obeidallah said. “Who will bear the losses caused by the permit issue?”

The decision took many café owners by surprise. “I asked to open an Internet café, and I was handed a list of all the things that were needed to follow through, such as a sign for the place, filling out forms,” said Hassan Al-Harbi.

“I did all that was asked and rented a place. And after the Haj vacation I went to the local government and they surprised me, saying that there are new rules that forbid the issuing of any more Internet café permits and that one can’t even renew his permit. I’ve lost more than SR80, 000,” Al-harbi added.

As for government, officials say a method to deal with it is on the way, but security concerns come before profit（盈利）.

67．The government stopped issuing or renewing permits for Internet cafes ______.

A. to prevent misuse of new safeguards in Internet cafes

B. to make café owners earn less profit from their business

C. to stop the use of the information superhighway on Internet

D. to make sure of the proper use of the information superhighway

68．The government’s decision led to the fact that many café owners _______.

A. suffered heavy financial losses           B. asked to open up Internet cafes

C. continued to operate Internet cafes        D. asked the government for payment

69．The underlined phrase in the last paragraph “on the way” means _____.

A. to be studied                                 B. to be put into practice

C. to be changed                          D. to be improved

70．The café owners found the government’s decision ______.

A. surprising and unacceptable                     B. understandable and acceptable

C. reasonable but surprising                 D. surprising but acceptable

　There is a story of a country where the rate of inflation（通货膨胀率）is so high that clever people pay for a taxi ride before the trip instead of after. This story may or may not be true. But inflation was almost that serious in Germany from July 1920 until December 1923. Prices went up so fast that by the end of 1923 they were 50 billion percent higher－a rise of almost 25000 / 40 a month.

　　There was so much paper money, and it had so little value, that people carried bags full of money around to pay for things. One woman told the story of standing outside a shop with a basket full of 500 000 mark notes（马克）. She wanted to buy just one piece of meat, and she hoped she had enough money. But when she was looking, a thief robbed（抢夺） her. He didn't take her money, though, he threw it away and took the basket in stead.

　　At first workers demanded to be paid every day. But as the situation be came worse, they had to be paid twice a day. But they had to run out and spend the money at once, or it would lose its value. People bought anything that was for sale, but food was almost impossible to find. Farm workers re fused to take money. They wanted to be paid in potatoes instead.

　　New policies（政策）ended the inflation in 1923, when the government introduced a new money. But about half of the German people lost every thing in those three and a half years.

　　1．People paid for a taxi ride before the trip because they________

　　　　A. did not want to carry so much money with them

　　　　B. had so much paper money that they wanted to spend them quickly

　　　　C. wanted to save money

　　　　D. were afraid of the taxi driver

　　2．According to the passage, in Germany the prices in 1920 were ________.

　　　　A. higher than those in 1923

　　　　B. lower than those in 1923

　　　　C. the highest in history

　　　　D. the lowest in history

　　3．The thief stole the basket instead of the money in it because he thought _________

　　　　A. he couldn't buy a piece of meat with the money

　　　　B. the basket was more valuable than the money

　　　　C. the basket was what he needed most

　　　　D. the money was of no value

　　4．The farm workers demanded to be paid in potatoes because they be lieved that _______

　　　　A. the money could not buy potatoes

　　　　B. the money might lose its value

　　　　C. the potato was too expensive

　　　　D. the potato was valuable