As a teenager in 1972, Bill Gates boasted that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 20. While he did not quite achieve that goal, only 15 years later, he was a millionaire. And by 1992, as head of the Microsoft company, he became the richest man in America with assets of nearly US $ 6.3 billion. Born in Seattle, Washington on 28, October, 1956, Gates was named William Henry after his father and grandfather. From the beginning, he was an extremely energetic and intelligent child. He had read the entire world book encyclopedia by the age of nine. His favorite subjects at school were science and math and his favorite pastime was "thinking". Gates first started to play with computers at the age of 13. Before long he became an expert at working the school's computer. After his graduation from secondary school, Gates was accepted by the three top universities in the USA-Princeton, Harvard and Yale. He chose Harvard and began classes there the next autunm, majoring maths. But he was still obsessed with computers and spent as much time in the computer laboratories as he did in the lecture halls. By 1975, Gates and a partner, Paul Allen, had developed a software program called BASIC. This was not the first program ever created, but its inventors were the first to decide that people who wanted to use it should pay for it. BASIC was a success because until it came along, there had been no efficient way of getting computers to carry out instructions. Although he had not completed his degree, Gates left university and went to work full time for the new company he had formed called Microsoft. His next project was the software program that made him famous and very rich. It was called DOS, short for Disk Operating System, and it was purchased by IBM in 1980. Today it is the operating system used in more than 14 million personal computers around the world. As chief executive officer of Microsoft, Gates is known as a bright man, but one who is not easily satisfied. He is quick to criticize his staff and hates to be... When he was a teenager, Bill Gates wanted to be a _ . A) teacher B) doctor C) businessman D) professor
C
It seems that the key to winning any contest is in the belief that you can win. This belief is what inspires one to do one's best. If we have this belief, we work tirelessly to accomplish our goals, and make whatever sacrifices which are necessary. Whether it's a hot-dog eating contest or a spelling bee, the winners have not just been the ones with the most skills, but those with the greatest desire to win. Much can be said for positive thinking. An entire movement is based on the idea that if you visualize your goals on a daily basis, you will accomplish them, no matter how difficult they may seem. Most life coaches recommend writing down a list of all of your goals on a poster, and then displaying it where you'll see it every day. This way these goals will become so much a part of your life that you will find yourself driven to accomplish every one of them. The same strategy applies to winning any contest. Practice is, of course, also part of winning. If you're not devoted enough to practice, then you have no hope anyway. Don't take the other contestants for granted. They're working just as hard as you are, and you have to keep practicing all the way up to the moment of competition if you really want to win. Finally, show grace in victory. Always be generous in your praise of the other contestants. The positive energy of their good will toward you will carry you to countless additional victories. Be proud in you heart that you worked so hard to accomplish your goals, and that you deserve the reward you've just gotten, but accept the reward with a modest and gracious manner. A true winner _ . A) have many goals B) is very generous C) wins every spelling bee D) does not appear proud
D
Q: Recently we've had a popular department store open in our area. It's been the talk of the town for months. On about the third day of the grand opening, I thought I'd stop by to check it out. I noticed right away that the parking area was very busy. As I was about to exit my car, a lady was about to enter her car to leave. She was parked on the opposite side of me and there was a four way stop behind our parking areas. As the lady tried to back out to leave, some of the shoppers were extremely rude to her. They shouted and beeped their horns at the lady and she had a look of terror on her face. She looked at me and threw up both of her hands as if she didn't know what to do. I gestured for the lady to put her window down and I told her that she was doing just fine. She smiled and seemed to relax. I then became her rear view mirror as it was hard for her to see behind her while backing out of the parking space. As I watched for safety, she was able to back out enough to drive forward. At this point, she was smiling broadly!She thanked me many times. I felt that many of the other drivers weren't sympathetic enough toward. I was happy to help that lady. Besides that, who knows, we may have avoided a potential accident with this simple act of patience and kindness. What was the difficulty the woman met with when she wanted to leave? A) The writer's car prevented her from driving out. B) There were too many cars parked on her way. C) Other drivers wouldn' t let her car back out. D) Some drivers weren't patient when she backed out.
A: D
Why do we laugh and get amusement from so many different things,from puns to pratfalls? Why are some things funny to some people and not to others? How is that while a successful joke can cause pleasure,a sick one can cause serious harm? Over the centuries,various scholars have attempted to produce a universally agreed-upon theory of humor.Plato and Aristotle introduced the superiority theory,the idea that people laugh at the misfortune of others.Their theory seems to explain teasing,but it doesn't work well for knock-knock jokes.Sigmund Freud argued for his relief theory,the concept that humor is a way for people to release psychological tension and reveal their inner fears and desires.His theory works well for dirty jokes,less well for most puns. The majority of humor expels today agree with the incongruity theory,the idea that humor arises when there's a gap between what people expect to happen and what actually happens.Incongruity has a lot going for it -- jokes with unexpected funny lines,for example,fit well.But scientists have found that in comedy,unexpectedness is overvalued. With the goal of developing a new,more satisfactory explanation,I produced "the gentle violation theory",the idea that humor arises when something seems wrong or threatening,but is actually OK or safe.A dirty joke,for example,trades on moral or social violations,but it's only going to get a laugh if the person listening is open enough to consider the subject OK to talk about.Similarly,puns can be seen as linguistic violations that still make grammatical sense. And while most humor theories have struggled to account for tickling ,or just avoided the phenomenon altogether,my theory accounts for even this kind of laughter.Tickling involves violating someone's physical space in a gentle way.People can't tickle themselves -- because it isn't a violation. According to the author,why are some things funny to some people but not to others? A) Because the sense of humor varies greatly from person to person. B) Because people have different expectations for the same thing. C) Because some people lack the sense of safety deep in their heart. D) Because people's understanding of violation is different.
D