－Would you like ________ coffee?－________ two cups.

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How should one invest a sum of money in these clays of inflation (通货膨胀)? Left in a bank it will hardly keep its value, however high the interest rate. Only a brave man, or a very rich one, dares to buy and sell on the Stock Market. Today it seems that one of the best ways to protect your savings, and even increase your wealth is to buy beautiful objects from the past. Here I am going to offer some advice on collecting antique clocks, which I personally consider are among the most interesting of antiques.
I sometimes wonder what a being from another planet might report back about our way of life. "The planet Earth is ruled by a mysterious creature that sits or stands in a room and makes a strange ticking sound. It has a face with twelve black marks and two hands. Men can do nothing without its permission, and it fastens its young round people's wrists so that everywhere men go they are still under its control. This creature is the real master of Earth and men are its slaves（奴隶）."
Whether or not we are slaves of time today depends on our culture and personality, but it is believed that many years ago kings kept special slaves to tell the time. Certain men were very clever at measuring（量） the time of clay according to the beating of their own hearts. They were made to stand in a fixed place and every hour or so would shout tire time. So it seems that the first clocks were human beings.
However, men quickly found more convenient and reliable（可靠的） ways of telling the time. They learned to use the shadows cast by the sun. They marked the hours on candles, used sand in hour- glasses, and invented water-clocks. Indeed, any serious student of antique should spend as much time as possible visiting palaces, stately homes and museums to see some of the finest examples of clocks from the past.
Antique clocks could be very expensive, but one of the joys of collecting clocks is that it is still possible to find quite cheap ones for your own home. After all, if you are going to be ruled by time, why not invest in air antique clock and perhaps make a future profit（收益）?
【小题1】According to the passage, collecting antique clocks____.

A．can hardly keep the value of your savings

B．will cost much of your savings

C．may increase your wealth

D．needs your bravery

【小题2】By quoting (引用) the remark of a being from another planet, the author intends to____.

A．suggest human beings are controlled by a clock

B．describe why clocks can rule the planet Earth

C．tell readers what clocks look like

D．compare chocks to human beings

【小题3】Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a way to measure the time?

A．Counting the beating of one's own heart.

B．Making use of candles, sand and water.

C．Observing shadows cast by the sun.

D．Keeping slaves busy day and night.

【小题4】The underlined phrase stately homes in paragraph（段落）4 means_________.

A．state-owned houses

B．houses in very good condition

C．grand houses open to the public

D．houses where statesmen meet regularly

【小题5】The purpose of the passage is________.

A．to introduce the culture of antique clocks

B．to offer some advice on collecting antique clocks

C．to compare different ways to make a future profit

D．to explain convenient and reliable ways of telling time

Over the last 70 years, researchers have been studying happy and unhappy people and finally found out ten factors that make a difference. Our feelings of well-being at any moment are decided to a certain degree by genes. However, of all the factors, wealth and age are the top two.
Money can buy a degree of happiness. But once you can afford to feed, clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference. Researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But the link between money and happiness is complex. In the past half-century, the average income has sharply increased in developed countries, yet happiness levels have remained almost the same. Once your basic needs are met, money only seems to increase happiness if you have more than your friends, neighbors and colleagues.
“Dollars buy status (social position), and status makes people feel better,” say some experts, which helps explain why people who can seek status in other ways, scientists or actors, for example, may happily accept relatively poorly-paid jobs.
In his research, Professor Alex Michalos found that the people whose desires, not just for money, but for friends, family, job, health, rose furthest beyond what they already had, tended to be less happy than those who felt a smaller gap. Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times better than income alone. “The gap measures just blow away the measures of only income.”says Michalos.
Another factor that has to do with happiness is age. Old age may not be so bad “Given all the problems of aging, how could the elderly be more satisfied?” asks Professor Laura Carstensen. In one survey, Carstensen interviewed 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and asked them to fill out an emotion questionnaire. She found that old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people. Some scientists suggest older people may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or they’re more realistic about their time running out. Older people have learned to focus on things that make them happy and let go of those that don’t.
“People realize not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever,” she says. “A goodbye kiss to a husband or wife at the age of 85, for example, may bring far more complex emotional responses than a similar kiss to a boy or girl friend at the age of 20.”
【小题1】Some actors would like to accept poorly-paid jobs because the jobs__________.

A．make them feel much better

B．provide chances to make friends

C．improve their social position

D．satisfy their professional interests

【小题2】Professor Alex Michalos found that people feel less happy if _________.

A．the gap between reality and desire is bigger

B．they have a stronger desire for friendship

C．the hope for good health is much greater

D．their income is far below their expectation

【小题3】We can infer from the passage that older people _________.

A．would like to have more goodbye kisses than young people

B．are used to living a hard life because they are kind to others

C．express their positive opinions just as some young people do

D．find it easier to feel happy because they are more realistic

【小题4】According to the passage, the feeling of happiness _________.

A．increases gradually with age

B．is controlled partly by desires

C．has little to do with wealth

D．is decided mostly by genes

Yesterday my grandfather told me about his early days.   1   he left school, he found a job in a post office. He worked hard in the   2 . Soon he had more money than his friends because of his hard work. It seemed that he would have a   3   future.

When he was 25 years old, however, he began to   4   his job. He wanted a more exciting one, so he left the post office. Two months   5  , he found a new job in a big company. Workers in this company   6   traveled a lot. At first he really enjoyed the traveling. But after a year, he began to hate   7  . He had to move around and he was always in a car or on a train. The worst thing was that he couldn’t make any new   8  . Even so, his boss was not satisfied with him. Two years later he left the company.

He was   9  at that time so he sold his house. He had to accept a part-time job in a   10  shop. He was surprised to find that he loved it!  He made new friends every day and he enjoyed    reading books. Three years later, he  11   the shop owner’s daughter. Soon they had their first child. In the next ten years, they had another three   12   and four more book shops! He became very rich indeed.

“Life is wonderful,” he told me. “The most important thing is that you should always try your best. Never give up!”

1．A．While                      B．When                     C．Until                      D．If

2．A．factory                    B．theatre                   C．bank                      D．post office

3．A．bad                        B．bright                     C．sad                        D．interesting

4．A．be tired of               B．like                        C．love                       D．be crazy about

5．A．ago                         B．before                    C．later                       D．after

6．A．almost                     B．usually                   C．seldom                   D．never

7．A．it                             B．him                        C．her                        D．us

8．A．teachers                   B．classmates              C．friends                   D．wives

9．A．happy                      B．fun                        C．rich                      D．poor

10．A．cloth                      B．fruit                      C．book                     D．shoe

11．A．married                 B．understood            C．met                       D．visited

12．A．sisters                    B．brothers                       C．children                 D．cousins