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　　A shopkeeper was sent a telegram informing him that his ticket won in the sweepstake(跑马彩票)．He happened to be home having heart trouble, and his wife opened the message．Fearing that the sudden news might cause a fatal(致命的)shock to her husband, she asked the family doctor to dinner and requested him to pass the good news with tact(机智)．After dinner the doctor drew his patient to one side．

　　“How’s your business?” the doctor began．

　　“It could be better．I could make a few hundred pounds, ”said the shopkeeper．

　　“Well, ”smiled the doctor, “you have a sweepstake ticket．What would you do if you won 1 000 pounds?”

　　“Nobody ever wins, ”the man answered with a sigh．“But if I won, I would send my family to the seashore, and pay off my debts．”

　　“Suppose you win 50 000 pounds?”

　　“I would buy this house and a villa(别墅)in the country．”

　　“What would you do if you won 100 000 pounds?”

　　The man looked up．“Doctor,” he said seriously, “I swear I would send you half of it．”

　　The doctor gasped, opened his mouth and dropped down, dead．

阅读理解

　　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 than ＄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 a 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 dimmers 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．”

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　　A few days ago, he was just Colonel(上校)Yang; few people knew his name or recognized his face．But last Thursday, when he came back to the earth after a 21-hour trip to space, Yang Liwei’s smile was seen across the world above the magic words：“China’s first spaceman”．

　　The 38-year-old astronaut was sent into space at 9 a. m．Last Wednesday by China’s Shenzhou Ⅴ spacecraft, which orbited the earth 14 times．He landed safely at 6∶23 a. m．The next day, making China the third country successfully send a person into space, after the former Soviet Union and the US．

　　Yang was satisfied with his job．“I have seen many landing scenes before on video, and I think ours was one of the most successful, ”He said on a special plane to Beijing after landing．Born into an ordinary family in Liaoning Province, he became a pilot in the Chinese Air Force in 1987, spending 1350 hours in the air．He joined the Chinese space programme 11 years later．

　　While in space, Yang recorded everything he saw as well as showing China’s national flag and the United Nations’ flag to the people watching on TV at home．He also ate a meal of diced chicken and fried rice, before taking a 3-hour nap．The whole project went according to plan, but space exploration is not as easy as it seems．

　　Anyone who saw the destruction of the US space shuttle Columbia in February this year will know that Yang took a great risk．

　　He experienced extremely high temperatures, while the gravitation(重力)on take-off and landing were strong enough to force tears from his eyes．

　　He has spent five years training to become a spaceman．

　　“I eat all of my meals at the space programme’s dinning room and have never been able to take my son to kindergarten, ”he said．“I’ve never met his teachers．”

　　But becoming China’s first spaceman has made all the effort worthwhile．

　　“When I boarded the spacecraft for the first time, I couldn’t help feeling excited,” he said．“I decided that I had to fly it．”

　　To Chinese people, Yang is now a hero．One visitor to a Xinhua news agency online forum(网上论坛)said, “Yang’s trip is a giant leap forward for China．”

　　Officials say the next Shenzhou will be launched by 2005．China also plans to develop spacewalking and a space lab．

阅读理解

　　A new era is upon us．Call it what you will：the service economy, the information age, the knowledge society．It all translates to a basic change in the way we work．Already we are there now．The percentage of people who earn their living by making things has fallen fortunately in the Western World．Today the majority of jobs in America, Europe and Japan(two thirds or more of these countries)are in the service industry, and the number is on the rise．More women are in workforce than ever before．There are more part-time jobs．More people are self-employed．But the wideness of the economic change can’t be measured by numbers alone, because it also is giving rise to a radical new way of thinking about the nature of work itself．Long-held views about jobs and careers, the skills to succeed, even the relation between individuals and employers－all these are being challenged．

　　We have only to look behind us to get some sense of what may lie ahead．No one looking ahead 20 years possibly could have foreseen the ways in which a single invention the chip, would change our world, thanks to its use in personal computers, digital biotechnology, artificial intelligence or even some still unimagined technology could produce a similar wave of unexpected changes．But one thing is certain：information and knowledge will become even more important, and the people who have it, whether they work in manufacturing or services, will have the advantage and problems by vices will be predominant．It will be the way you do your job．