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 bought it for a few coppers(铜钱).Between its pages there was something very interesting. It was a thin paper on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone”!

The touchstone was a small pebble(卵石)that could turn any common metal into gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles were cold.

So the man camped on the seashore and began testing pebbles.

He thought that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and put them down again, 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.

The days became weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, 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 .So 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 know an opportunity when it is in hand and it’s just as easy to throw it away.

1.The book was special to the man because ______.

A. it was made of cotton

B. it was the only book that was saved from the great fire

C. it was a story about how to tell the touchstone from ordinary stones

D. it included the secret of the touchstone

2.The man threw pebbles into the sea ______.

A. to test how far he could throw

B. to practice throwing pebbles

C. to avoid picking up the same pebble once again

D. to express his disappointment at failing to find the touchstone

3.The story is written mainly to tell us that___________.

A. careful habits can lead to success.

B. habits can benefit you but also hold you back.

C. never judge a person or a thing by appearances.

D. opportunity only visits the ready and watchful mind

 0  104902  104910  104916  104920  104926  104928  104932  104938  104940  104946  104952  104956  104958  104962  104968  104970  104976  104980  104982  104986  104988  104992  104994  104996  104997  104998  105000  105001  105002  105004  105006  105010  105012  105016  105018  105022  105028  105030  105036  105040  105042  105046  105052  105058  105060  105066  105070  105072  105078  105082  105088  105096  159627 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网