When 7-year-old Warren Buffett said, “I will be the richest man one day,” his friends made fun of his “daydreaming”. But ever since then the little boy has set about learning how to make money by selling drinks, delivering newspaper and buying stocks. The American had already earned $9,000 (equal to $90,000 today) by the time he graduated from the high school.

And this month the 78-year-old, who earned his fortune by making a lot of sound investment in the stock market, took the place of Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, as the world’s richest man. Gates’ worth declined $1.5 billion to $55.5 billion in 33 days after the recent financial storm, according to Forbes Magazine.

Buffett, the only son of a stockbroker, was ready to think outside the box to develop his business from a very early age. At 8, he went to golf courses collecting and selling the used balls. At 11 when he sold soda pop door-to-door with a friend, the pair collected lids on streets to judge which flavor was the most popular.

As a paper boy during high school, Buffett delivered two competitor papers, so that even when customers canceled one of the subscriptions (订阅) , he could still make a profit from the other. With his paper delivery savings, Buffett bought 162,000 square meters of farmland and collected rent. Young Buffett stepped into the stock market at 11 but earned only $5. The experience taught him one of the virtues（优点）in investing patience.

After graduating from university, Buffett started his venture with stocks with his childhood earnings and money from friends. He researched the stocks and just bought those of solid companies that were undervalued and inexpensive at the time. By sticking to companies such as American Express and Coca-Cola, Buffett has become rich.

“Learning is important to Buffett’s success. He is a learning machine who can spend his entire day reading. He keeps learning from books, street smarts and investigation, from both success and failure. In this way, he over achieved his aptitude (能力),” said Charlie Munger, his longtime business partner.

1.The passage is mainly about_____.

A．why Buffett took the place of Bill Gates as the world’s richest man

B．what effect Buffett’s childhood experiences have on his success

C．how Buffett earned his fortune and achieve his aptitude

D．what Buffett dreamt about when he was a child

2.How did Buffett behave at the stock market?

A．He will buy the stock whose price is lower than its value.

B．He often prefers some inexpensive stocks.

C．He always borrows money from his friends to buy stocks.

D．He will sell the stock if its price doesn’t go up.

3.Which is the main factor that determines Buffett’s success?

A．His desire to learn.

B．His family background.

C．His education.

D．His cooperation with his partner.

4.What can we infer from the passage?

A．Buffett is an immediate success in the stock market

B．Buffett and Gates are business partners.

C．His father helped him a lot in his business.

D．Buffett has a good sense of business.

Fat and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis, cricket--- anything with a round ball, I was useless,” he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the one always made fun of in school gym classes in Devonshire, England.

It was a mountain bike he received for his 15^th  birthday that changed him. At first he went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to ride the bike along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set up his mind on building up his body, increasing his speed and strength. At the age of 18, he ran his first marathon.

The following year he met John Ridgway and was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of adventure in Scotland, where he learnt about Ridgway’s cold-water exploits. Greatly interested, Saunders read all he could about North Pole explorers and adventures, then decided that this would be his future.

In 2001, after becoming a skillful skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition(探险) towards the North Pole. It took unbelievable energy. He suffered frostbite（冻疮）, ran into a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit, pulling his supply-loaded sled（雪橇） up and over rocky ice. www.zxxk.com

Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the North Pole by himself than any other British man. His old playmates would not believe the change.

Next October, Saunders, 27, heads south from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, a 2900-kilometer journey that has never been completed on skis.

1.What change happened to Saunders after he was 15 years old?

A. He became good at most sports.   B. He made friends with a runner.

C. He joined a sports team.          D. He began to build up his body.

2.The underlined word “exploits” (paragraph 3) is closest in meaning to ______.

A. journeys      B. adventures   C.researches                      D. operations

3.Which of the following is the correct order of the events that happened to Saunders?

a. He ran his first marathon.               b. He skied alone in the North Pole.

c. He rode his bike in a forest.      d. He planned an adventure to the South Pole.

A. a c d b                     B. c d a b           C. c a b d                     D.a c b d 

4. What does the story mainly tell us abut Saunders?

A. He is a success in sports.                         B. He is the best British skier.

C. He is Ridgway’s best student. `     D. He is a good instructor at school.

（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）

根据短文内容，从下框的A---F选项中选出能概括每一段主题的最佳选项。选项中有一项为多余选项。

E. Low Fertility Rates in Developed Countries.

F. Birth Control Programs.

61. ________  

Population growth is determined by the relationship between births and deaths. The growth rate is calculated by the birth rate minus the death rate. If the birth rate is 4%, for example, and the death rate is 3%, the population growing at rate of 1% per year.

62. ________

Historically, families had many children, but average life expectancies are low and many children died young. Improvements in nutrition and public health programs in the past 30 years have led to a drop in the mortality rate and hence to more rapid population growth.

63. ________

Public health programs and improved nutrition over the past 30 years have brought about declines in mortality rates in the developing nations. But fertility rates(出生率)have not declined as quickly, and the result has been high rates of population growth. Reduced population growth depends to some extent on decreased birth rates.

64. ______

Family planning and modern forms of birth control are important mechanisms for decreasing fertility, but by themselves such programs have had rather limited success in most countries where they have been tried. If family planning strategies are to be successful, they must make sense to the people who are supposed to benefit from them.

65. _______

To a great extent, in developing countries people want large families because they believe they need them. In some societies, children are important sources of farm labor, and they may thus make significant contributions to household income. In societies without any social security programs for the aged, children may also provide a vital source of income for their old parents.       

This is the reason ______ she explained in the report for her success in the job.

A．what             B．that              C．how              D．where

A recent survey shows that the alarming rate of child suicide(自杀) in Hong Kong, raising levels of stress and anxiety among young people, increasing conflicts between children and teachers, and children’s complaints that their parents do not understand their problems—all point to a drop in “emotional quotient” (EQ) (情商), the ability to handle relationships.

EQ is defined as the ability to deal with oneself and others effectively. High EQ, psychologists say, is easy to spot. Some of the greatest humanitarian (人道主义的) leaders have high EQ, along with successful managers and inspirational and respected teachers. The problem is not how to spot high EQ but to improve on low EQ, so society as a whole can benefit.

In the United States, declining EQ among young people is seen as one of the factors behind rising young people’s crime because youths fail to understand others’ feelings—one of the key components of EQ. While the situation in Hong Kong is not so bad, there are warning signs that the levels of anxiety among youth may become critical. Declining EQ among Hong Kong teenagers has been acknowledged by several studies including a key study by the education concern group, the Learning-Teacher Association, which found a high degree of anxiety among students over the future and also that young people lacked confidence in dealing with problems. Parents and teachers will also need to develop their own EQ skills in order to deal with them effectively.

Daniel Goleman cites a number of basic elements of high EQ: first, awareness of your feelings as you experience them which is very important to making good decisions in life; second, feeling or awareness of what others are feeling. “90% of emotional information is expressed non-verbally and people vary in their ability to pick it up,” Dr. Goleman says in his book.

Dr. Goleman argues that without high EQ even highly-educated, highly-intelligent people will not find success in life. Or those with low EQ, even though they may be brilliant, tend to lack feeling and impulse control. They fail easily, and they are easily intolerant and often aggressive in interpersonal relations. Some educational psychologists believe work on EQ may be important in Hong Kong with its high rate of suicide among school children. EQ test may be able to help predict those most at risk, and those least able to deal with their own emotions or unable to deal with others, including parents and teachers.

1.According to the passage, children in Hong Kong commit suicide at an alarming rate as a result of _______.

A．parents not understanding their children

B．the rising levels of stress and anxiety among young people

C．the inability of dealing with relationships

D．increasing conflict between children and teachers

2.We can infer from the passage that people with low emotional quotient _______.

A．are least likely to become good leaders

B．can deal with oneself and others effectively

C．are beneficial to society

D．are more likely to be respected

3.The word “its” in the last paragraph refers to ________.

A．the work on EQ

B．Hong Kong

C．EQ

D．China

4.Daniel Goleman believes that _______.

A．one can be just as successful without having a high EQ

B．only people with both high EQ and high IQ will be successful in life

C．people with low intelligence will not get a successful life

D．people not having high EQ may not be successful in life despite being extremely intelligent