One dark stormy night, an elderly couple hurried into a hotel and asked whether they could be put up for the night. “I’ m very   36   ,” the clerk on night shift said politely, “we are all    37 tonight. But you could stay in my room if you don’t    38 . As I’m on duty, I’ll be staying up in the office anyway,” The young man gave the    39 _ advice.
The elderly couple    40  his offer with gratitude(感激). They    41  for the inconvenience they had caused him. The next day, the rain stopped and it cleared up. When the old gentleman went to pay his   42 , the clerk behind the counter was that same helpful young man. “The room you and your wife stayed in is not a proper guest room in this hotel,  43  you don’t need to pay,” said the clerk, with the same friendly smile.
The old gentleman nodded in    44 , “You are an employee that every boss in the hotel business would    45 . Perhaps   46  I’ll build a hotel for you. ” The clerk was amazed but, deciding that the guest must have been joking, he gave the remark no more    47 .
Two years later, the young man received a registered letter(挂号信) from the old gentleman, in which he   48 the experience of that dark stormy night. The letter also enclosed（附上） a formal    49  and a round-trip air ticket to New York, asking the young man to pay a visit.
At a street comer in Manhattan, the young man met his   50  guest. The old gentleman, pointing to a magnificent new    51  towering over the crossroads, said, “Look, that is the hotel I    52 to build for you. I hope you will manage it for me. Remember what I said then? Well, I was serious about it.”
“But…will there be any conditions, sir? Why do you choose me? And who are you?”
“My name is William Aster. There’s not any condition.   53  I told you before, you are the best employee…!”
This building was none    54 the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Starting business in 1931, this hotel has been a symbol of supreme status and honor in the city of New York. The young man who became its first    55  was George Boldt, the man who turned Waldorf into one of the most glamorous hotels in the world.

－Could I make it 14th July?

    －_______.

         A．You can manage it     B．That’s fine with me

         C．Not a bit of it               D．Go ahead with it

Net Library Is a library that lends out digital books．It treats a digital like a paperback copy．It charges libraries per book per copy and gives publishers a cut of the total income．

       From the consumer's point of view, this means that if more than, say, five people want the latest Danielle Steel romance novel, other people who request that book will get a message saying the title can't be found．

       It's a model many publishers seem to have embraced．More than 350 gave the company rights to hand out their digital works and McGraw-Hill Corporation and Houghton Mifflin Corporation have put money in the company．The California public libraries and about 1,800 others across the US are trying out the Net Library service．

       Some librarians criticize the New Library model．Stanford University librarian Michael Keller argues that the company is creating an unnatural fear of digital woks; which is contrary to the ideas of the Internet．

       Keller and some other librarians argue for the e-book vision set forth by E-Brary．E-Brary is starting a service mat lets us users read books for free．

       But it will charge about 25 cents a page when a person tries to print out material or copy and paste it into a different file or tries to download copy onto a computer．

       Christopher Warnock, chief executive of E-Brary, believes most consumers won't want to buy entire books, only the parts that interest them．

       "There's not really a lot of good m owning an electronic file and having to store it and manage it．It doesn't make sense．" he said．

1.How do publishers get money from the Net Library?

       A．They get money from selling their books to the Net Library.

       B．They share the money with the Net Library.

       C．They get money by cutting the cost of the books.

       D．They get the money from the readers.

2.The underlined word "embraced" in the 3rd paragraph means _    ___.

       A．taken something willingly                 B．held something tightly

       C．disliked something badly                   D．tried out something hard

3.From the 2nd paragraph we can see consumers       .

      A．don’t care if they are charged money

      B．enjoy the service of the Net Library

      C．don’t like other people borrowing books

      D．complain about the limited number of the new books

4.What does the last paragraph mean?

      A．Net Library is not a good way for the consumers.

      B．There is no need for consumers to have a whole book.

      C．E-Brary is not a good library for the consumers.

      D．It’s reasonable to charge the consumers money for copying some pages.

What is time? Is it a thing to be saved or spent or wasted, like money? Or is it something we have no control over, like the weather? Is it the same all over the world? That’s an easy question, you say. Wherever you go, a minute is 60 seconds, an hour is 60 minutes, a day is 24 hours, and so forth. Well, maybe. But in America, time is more than that. Americans see time as a valuable resource. Maybe that’s why they are fond of the expression, “Time is money.”

Because Americans believe time is a limited resource, they try to keep and manage it. People in the US often attend conferences or read books on time management. It seems they all want to organize their time better. Professionals carry around pocket planners(计划书) — some in electronic form — to keep track of appointments and deadlines. People do all they can to press more life out of their time.

To Americans, punctuality is a way of showing respect for other people’s time. Being more than 10 minutes late to an appointment usually calls for an apology, and maybe an explanation. People who are running late often call ahead to let others know of the delay. Of course, the less formal the situation, the less important it is to be exactly on time. At informal get-togethers, for example, people often arrive as much as 30 minutes past the appointed time. But they usually don’t try that at work.

American lifestyles show how much people respect the time of others. When people plan an event, they often set time days or weeks in advance. Once the time is fixed, it takes almost an emergency to change it. If people want to come to your house for a friendly visit, they will usually call first to make sure it is convenient. Only very close friends will just “drop by” unannounced. Also, people hesitate to call others late at night for fear they might be in bed. The time may vary, but most folks think twice about calling after 10:00 pm.

Even Americans would admit that no one can master time. Time, like money, slips all too easily through our finger. And time, like the weather, is very hard to predict. However, time is one of life’s most precious gifts.

The main idea of the passage is _______.

A. time is money                                       B. different attitude toward time in the world

C. how to save time                                   D. how Americans treat time

In the fourth paragraph, the writer mainly tells us that _________.

A. Americans respect others’ time in daily life

  B. Americans seldom call after 10:00

C. Americans inform before paying a visit to their friends               

D. when planning an event, Americans usually fix time ahead of time

The underlined phrase “think twice” (in Paragraph 4) probably means “_______ “.

A. think for a second time                   B. be careful

C. be afraid                         D. pay attention

It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A. Americans like time better than anything else     

B. generally speaking, Americans respect their time 

C. on the whole, Americans treasure their time        

D. Americans consider their time is difficult to master and predict

--- I _______ so busily recently that I ______ no time to help you with your maths.

---That’s OK. I can manage it by myself.

A. had been working; had had      B. have been working; had    

C. have been working; have        D. am working; will have