Like a_______, like book.

Like a_______, like book.

       Like many lovers of books, Mary and her husband, Richard Goldman, seldom walked past a bookstore without stopping to look inside. They often talked of opening their own store one day.

       When Mary was hospitalized with heart trouble in 1989, they decided it was time to get serious. Richard, who worked for a business company, was eager to work for himself, and Mary needed to slow down from her demanding job.

       They started by talking to bookstore owners and researching the industry. “We knew it had to be a specialty store because we couldn’t match the big chains dollar for dollar,” says Mary. One figure caught her attention: She’d read somewhere that roughly 20 percent of books sold were mysteries （推理小说）, and many buyers spent more $300 a year on books. She and Richard were themselves mystery readers.

       On Halloween 1992, they opened the Mystery Lovers Bookshop and Café near their home. With three children in college, the couple could not spend all the family’s money to start a shop. To cover the $100,000 cost, they drew some of their savings, borrowed from relatives and from an bank.

       The store merely broke even in its first year, with only $120,000 in sales. But Mary was always coming up with new ways to attract customers. The shop had a coffee bar and it offered gifts to mystery lovers and served dinners for book clubs that met in the store. She also invited dozens of writers to discuss their stories.

       Today Mystery Lovers makes sales of about $420,000 a year. After paying taxes, business costs and the six part-time sales clerks, Richard and Mary together earn about $34,000.

       “The job you love may not go hand in hand with a million-dollar income,” says Richard. “This has always been about an enjoyable life for ourselves, not about making a lot of money.”

72．When Mary was in hospital, the couple realized that ____.

       A. they had to put their plan into practice

       B. health was more important than wealth

       C. heart trouble was a serious illness

       D. they both needed to stop working

73．After Mary got well from her illness they began _____.

       A. to study industrial management  

       B. to buy and read more mystery books

       C. to do market research on book business

       D. to work harder to save money for the bookstore

74．How did their bookstore do in the first year?

       A. They had to borrow money to keep it going.

       B. They made just enough to cover all the costs.

       C. They succeeded in earning a lot of money.

       D. They failed though they worked hard.

75．According to Richard, the main purpose of running the bookstore is _____.

       A. to pay for their children’s education      

       B. to get to know more writers

       C. to set up more bookstores 

       D. to do what they like to do

A “blogger” is a person who writes on an Internet website called a “blog”. The word “blog” is a short way of saying “web log”, or “personal website”. Anyone can start a blog, and they can write about anything they like.

There are millions of blogs on the Internet today. They provide news, information and ideas to the people who read them. They contain links to other websites. And they provide a place for people to write their ideas and react to the ideas of others.

A research company called Perseus has studied more than 3,000 web logs. It says that blogs are most popular with teenage girls. They use them to let their friends know what is happening in their lives. The study also says that more than 100,000 bloggers stopped taking part in the activity after a year.

However, some people develop serious blogs to present political and other ideas. For example, the Republican and Democratic parties in the southern state of Kentucky recently started their own blogs. And American companies are beginning to use blogs to advertise their products.

At the same time, some long-standing blogs have ended. Last week, blogging leader Dave Winer closed his free blog service “weblogs.com”. He said the site became too costly to continue. He started the blog four years ago, and thousands of people had written on it. They are now upset because they did not know that the site was closed

One blog that is still going strong is called Rebecca’s Pocket. Rebecca Blood created the website in 1999. She wrote about the history of blogs on the site. That article led to a book called The Weblog Handbook. It has been translated into four languages so far.

Miss Blood says Rebecca’s Pocket get about thirty thousand visitors a month. She writes about anything and everything — politics, culture and movies. She recently provided medical advice. And she wrote about how to prevent being stolen from online bank accounts.

The text is mainly written to _______.

A. introduce an Internet website called “blog”  B. introduce a short way of saying “web log”

C. tell readers about blogs                   D. tell readers how to write blogs

From the text we can learn that blogs cover almost everything except _______.

A. different ideas     B. medical advice   C. advertisements      D. account passwords

Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the text?

A. Politicians don’t use blogs at all.        B. A lot of bloggers no longer write or read blogs.

C. Those who like to use blogs are mostly teenage girls.

D. Dave Winer closed his “weblogs.com” because of the money shortage.

The reason why Rebecca’s Pocket is still going strong is that _______.

A. it was created by a woman             B. it is about the history of blogs

C. it provides useful information and advice

D. it has editions in at least four different languages

A daughter’s duty? Adult daughters are often expected to caregiver for older parents. In 2007, Jorjan Sarich and her dad moved from California to Idaho. It was where he wanted to live his rest time.

“I left my occupation, I left my friends; he did the same thing,” said Sarich, who bought a house with her father, George Snyder, in the China Gardens neighborhood of Hailey after his health began to decline. Though a graduate student struggling to finish her dissertation（论文）, Sarich chose to be her dad’s full-time caregiver.

“It’s only now, several years later, that I’m realizing how much work it was. It’s the kind of exhaustion（疲惫）that sleep doesn’t cure,” she said.

About 6 million Americans provide care to elderly relatives or friends living outside of nursing homes. Laurel Kennedy, author of “The Daughter Trap” (Thomas Dunne Books, $25.95), says that women bear a disproportionate（不成比例的）share of the burden — about 70 percent of hands-on care giving such as bathing.

“I want to be clear: Women don’t hate this,” Kennedy said. “What they hate is that everyone just assumes they’ll do it.”

Kennedy is calling for a social revolution equal to the rise of affordable child care and day care: Employers should help working caregivers by offering accommodations. Men should step up more often. It’s unfair that women are always chosen to provide care for an elderly family member.

Despite the hard work it took on Sarich — interrupted sleep and the knowledge that his 2009 death was the end game, she would do it again. Since about half a century had gone by, she wasn’t the person he remembered, and he wasn’t the person she remembered either. Caring for her father changed how each saw the other.

Why did Jorjan Sarich caregiver for her father?

   A. It was a very easy job.                          B. She had no work to do.

   C. It was the social practice.                         D. She lived with her father.

What can we infer from the book “The Daughter Trap”?

   A. Daughters don’t like care giving.

   B. Daughters devote a lot to care giving.

   C. Care giving is daughters’ duty.

   D. Care giving should be sons’ duty.

What does the underlined phrase “a social revolution” refer to?

   A. The child care revolution.                            B. The reform in day care.

   C. The social development.                              D. The change in care giving.

How many years did Jorjan Sarich work as her father’s full-time caregiver?

   A. Five years.          B. Only one year.          C. Four years.        D. Two years.

In her care giving, Jorjan Sarich _____.

   A. got along well with her father                  B. was a little tired of her father

   C. changed her father in every way            D. felt it was unfair to do so