Wealth starts with a goal saving a dollar at a time. Call it the piggy bank strategy . There are lessons in that time-honored coin-saving container. Any huge task seems easier when reduced to baby steps. I f you wished to climb a 12,000-foot mountain, and could do it a day at a time, you would only have to climb 33 feet daily to reach the top in a year. If you want to take a really nice trip in 10 years for a special occasion, to collect the $15,000 cost, you have to save $3.93 a day. If you drop that into a piggy bank and then once a year put $1,434 in a savings account at 1% interest rate after-tax, you will have your trip money. When I was a child, my parents gave me a piggy bank to teach me that, if I wanted something, I should save money to buy it. We associate piggy banks with children, but in many countries, the little containers are also popular with adults. Europeans see a piggy bank as a sign of good fortune and wealth. Around the world, many believe a gift of a piggy bank on New Year's Day brings good luck and financial success. Ah, but you have to put _ in it. Why is a pig used as a symbol of saving? Why not an elephant bank, which is bigger and holds more coins? In the Middle Ages, before modern banking and credit instruments, people saved money at home, a few coins at a time dropped into a jar or dish. Potters made these inexpensive containers from an orange-colored clay called "pygg," and folks saved coins in pygg jars.The Middle English word for pig was "pigge". While the Saxons pronounced pygg, referring to the clay, as "pug", eventually the two words changed into the same pronunciation, sounding the "i" as in pig or piggy. As the word became less associated with the orange clay and more with the animal, a clever potter fashioned a pygg jar in the shape of a pig, delighting children and adults. The piggy bank was born. Originally you had to break the bank to get to the money, bringing in a sense of seriousness into savings. While piggy banks teach children the wisdom of saving, adults often... The piggy ban originally was _ . A) a potter's instrument B) a cheap clay container C) an animal-shaped dish D) a pig-like toy for children
B
(Question)
One of the requirements of every graduation ceremony speaker is that they offer some advice. Well, get ready, here it comes. Soon you will be leaving the company of those who think they have all the answers -your professors, instructors and counselors-and going out into what we like to call the real world. In time you will meet up with other people who think they have all the answers. These people are called bosses. My advice is: humor them. A little later you'll meet additional people who think they have all the answers. These are called spouses . My advice is: humor them, too. And of all goes well, in a few years you will meet still another group of people who think they have all the answers. These are called children. Humor them. Life will go on, your children will grow up, go to school and someday they could be taking part in a graduation ceremony just like this one. And who knows, the speakers responsible for handing out good advice might be you. Halfway through your speech, the graduate sitting next to your daughter will lean over and ask, "Who is that woman up there who thinks she has all the answers?" Well, thanks to the reasonable advice you are hearing today and that I hope you will all pass on, she will be able to say, "That is my mother. Humor her." According to the text, at a graduation ceremony you'll most probably hear _ given by the speaker. A) wishes B) proposals C) warnings D) instructions
(Answer)
B
Ques: Most students hate their endless homework. The students from Class 2, Senior 2 of the High School Affiliated to Peking University certainly did so before they published their own collection of English novels at home. Their small book contains stories about a holy war, the happy life of a self-taught artist and the story of a laid-off worker who devoted his last breath to playing his beloved accordion . The book becomes an instant hit on campus. About 3,000 copies have been sold and the class is already working on the second volume. "We're up to our ears in homework. Exercises and exams make us out of breath. But to do something creative and full of imagination is such a great achievement," said Yu Xiaoxiao, 16. "I took the writing as an ordinary homework at the beginning, but after I finished the first part of my story, I could not help but let it flow," said Wang An, who wrote "Accordion". Inspired by "Lord of the Rings", Jiang Lu wrote his story about magic wins between angels from the light and the dark side. "The main message of the story was to look at the balance of the world. Both dark and light angels fight with love as their weapons. I want to tell people that selfish love might bring hate," Jiang said. "I was shocked by their work and felt so proud to be the editor of my students' book," said Nathaniel Timmermann, the oral English teacher at the school. Liu Xiuqin, an English teacher, started the project by asking students to write whatever was in their mind every week. "They have performed beyond expectation," Liu said. "They wrote interesting stories and their English has improved after they started to express their real minds." "We never imagined that our homework would be so popular and profitable . We sell the novels at five yuan, but many teachers pay more to encourage us," said Yuan Mengyao. After Wang An finished the first part of his story, he _ . A) couldn't go on B) had to put aside C) just wanted to express it freely D) lost it
Ans: C
Question: Trees are useful to man in three important ways: They provide him with wood and other products; they provide him shade;. and they help to prevent droughts and floods. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, man has not realized that the third of these services is the most important.In his eagerness to make money from trees, he has cut them down in large numbers, only to find that without them he has lost the best friends he had. And besides, he is usually too careless to plant and look after new trees. So the forests slowly disappear. This does not only mean that man will have fewer trees. The results are even more serious: for where there are trees, their roots break up soil allowing the rain to sink in and also bind the soil, thus preventing it from being washed away easily;but where there are no trees, the rain falls on hard ground and flows away, causing floods and carrying away the rich top-soil. When the top-soil is gone, nothing remains but worthless desert. Two thousand years ago,a rich and powerful country cut down its trees to build warships, with which to gain itself an empire .It set up the empire, but, without its trees, its soil became poor and grew weak. When the empire fell to pieces, the home country found itself faced by floods and starvation . Which title best fits the passage? A) Trees and Man B) How Trees Prevent Droughts and Floods C) How an Empire Fell D) A Story about Trees.
Answer:
A