The Touchstone

  When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for very little money.

The book wasn’t very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone”! The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold.

The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles. He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold - throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea.

The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, about mid-afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along he still threw it away.

So it is with opportunity. Unless we are careful, it’s easy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand, and it’s just as easy to throw it away.

The man bought the book because _____________.

  A. he wanted to read it            B. it was very interesting

C. there was a secret in the book     D. he wanted to find the touchstone

We can learn from the passage that the touchstone is _________.

A. pure    B. cold      C. magic      D. big

Why did the man throw the pebbles into the sea?

A. Because he didn’t want to get the same pebbles.

B. Because he didn’t want others to pick them up.

C. Because he didn’t like their ordinary looks.

D. Because he didn’t like the cold feelings.

What does the author want to tell us in the passage?

A. We should offer opportunities in our life.

B. We should seek for opportunities in the world.

C. We may seize opportunities when we are watchful.

D. We may discover opportunities when forming habits.

How many people have I met who have told me about the book that they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time? Far too many .This is Life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal（排演）and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments .

We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families, always making ourselves believe that this style of life is merely a temporary state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do. Then, at 60 or 65, we are suddenly presented with a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for Real Life to come along were in fact real life .

In America they have a saying much laughed at by the English：“Have a nice day!” They speak slowly and seriously in their shops, hotels and sandwich bars. I think it is a wonderful phrase, reminding us to enjoy the moment: to value this very day .How often do we say to ourselves, "I'll take up horse-riding（or golf, or sailing）as soon as I get a higher position," only to do none of those things when I do get the higher position .

When I first became a reporter, I knew a man who gave up a very well paid respectable job at the Daily Telegraph to go and edit a small weekly newspaper. At the time I was astonished by what appeared to me to be his completely abnormal（反常的）mental state. How could anyone turn his back on Fleet Street in central London for a small local area？I wanted to know .

Now I am a little older and possibly wiser, I see the sense in it. In Fleet Street the man was under continual pressure .He lived in an unattractive London suburb and he spent much of his life sitting on Southern Region trains .

1.The first paragraph of the passage tells us that________.         

A．we always try to find some time to write a book

B．we always make plans but seldom fulfill them

C．we always enjoy many of life's best moments

D．we always do what we really want to do

2.The man （in paragraph 6）left his first job partly because he was_________.

A．in an abnormal state                     B．under too much pressure

C．not well paid                           D．not respected

3.What is probably the best title for the passage?

A．Provide Homes For Our Family             B．Take Up Horse-riding

C．Value This Very Day                      D．Stay Alive

                                The Touchstone

    When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book, and so a poor man, who could read little, bought it for very little money.

The book wasn’t very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone”! The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold.

The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles. He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold, throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea. The days continued over a long period of time.

One day, however, about mid-afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along he still threw it away.

    So it is with opportunity. Unless we are careful, it’s easy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it’s just as easy to throw it away.

The man bought the book because ______.

  A. he wanted to read it                   B. it was very interesting

C. there was a secret in the book            D. he wanted to find the touchstone

We can learn from the passage that the touchstone is ______.

A. pure              B. cold               C. magic              D. big

What does the author want to tell us in the passage?

A. We should offer opportunities in our life.

B. We should seek for opportunities in the world.

C. We may seize opportunities when we are watchful.

D. We may discover opportunities when forming habits.

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Choosing the right job is probably one of the most important decisions we have to make in life, and it is frequently one of the hardest decisions we have to make. One important question that you might ask yourself is: “How do I get a good job?”___【小题1】___.
There are people who can answer an insignificant advertisement in the local paper and land the best job in the world; others write to all sorts of places all over the country, and never seem to get a reply at all. Still others believe that the in person, door-to-door approach is by far the best way to get a job; and then there are those who, through no active decision of their own, just seem to be in the right place at the right time. __【小题2】____. He used to spend a lot of his free time down by the sea watching the tall ships, but never thinking that he might one day sail one of them. His father was a farmer, and being a sailor could never be anything for the boy but an idle dream. One day, on his usual wandering, he heard the captain of the ship complaining that he could not sail because one member of his crew was sick. Without stopping to think, the lad(少年) offered to take his place. ___【小题3】___.
_【小题4】__. If the lad had gone home to ponder（考虑）his decision for a week, he may have missed his chance. It is one thing to be offered an opportunity; it is another thing to take it and use it well.
Sometimes we hear stories about people who break all the rules and still seem to land plum jobs（美差）. When you go for a job interview or fill out an application, you are expected to say nice things about the company to which you are applying. __【小题5】___. And within a year this person had become general manger of the company.

Choosing the right job is probably one of the most important decisions we have to make in life, and it is frequently one of the hardest decisions we have to make. One important question that you might ask yourself is: "How do I get a good job?"   1.  .

There are people who can answer an insignificant advertisement in the local paper and find the best job in the world; others write to all sorts of places all over the country, and never seem to get a reply at all. Still others believe that the in-person, door-to-door approach is by far the best way to get a job; and then there are those who, through no active decision of their own, just seem to be in the right place at the right time.    2.  . He used to spend a lot of his free time down by the sea watching the tall ships, but never thinking that he might one day sail one of them. His father was a farmer, and being a sailor could never be anything for the boy but an idle dream. One day, on his usual wandering, he heard the captain of the ship complaining that he could not sail because one member of his crew was sick. Without stopping to think, the young man offered to take his place.    3.   .

 4.  . If the young man had gone home to ponder（考虑）his decision for a week, he may have missed his chance. It is one thing to be offered an opportunity; it is another thing to take it and use it well.

Sometimes we hear stories about people who break all the rules and still seem to get plum jobs（美差）. When you go for a job interview or fill out an application, you are expected to say nice things about the company to which you are applying.    5.. And within a year this person had become general manger of the company.

E．But there was one person who landed an excellent job by telling the interviewer

all the company's faults.

F．He spent the rest of his life happily sailing the ships he had always loved.

G．It is very important to seize an opportunity when you are given one.