When I was about 14, I decided to make money, so I got a part-time job at a local restaurant. With my first paycheck, I realized that I would have to work awfully hard to make very little money. My boss had been making just above minimum wage for 20 years, and I knew I didn't want to spend the rest of my life working to death. Around the same time, my godparents took me to an investment workshop. Immediately, my eyes were opened to the power of compound growth in investing. I knew that this was a way to financial freedom. I left the workshop, determined to make my money work for me instead of just me working for money. Honoring what my mother had taught me, to share whatever I had, I donated part of my paychecks to raise money for breast cancer, and saved everything else to build up a large enough nest egg to open a brokerage account . Too excited to wait, I began reading everything I could about investing. With most of my life savings (which wasn't very much money), I invested in DuPont, AT&T, Caterpillar, and International Paper. The pride in being a shareholder in a company, along with watching my stocks increase in value, fueled my desire to learn more. I went to three more investment workshops with my godparents and browsed books at the library. I began with $4,000 in my account and have added about $2,000 since then. My portfolio is now worth roughly $12,000, five years later, having grown about 18% per year, on average. My favorite holdings are biotechnology companies that I know a fair amount about because they're based near me. In the years since then, I have experienced many moments of gratitude for discovering investing so early in my life. I'm in college now, and plan to go on to medical school and become a family practice physician. And I know that, thanks to investing, my road will be much easier. Not only have I taken an active step towards improving my long-term financial future, but I am confident that I will also be able to generously support the causes I believe in with more ease than I... Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE according to the passage? A) Investing made his wealth grow effectively. B) Investing enabled him to achieve his life goals. C) Investing allowed him to pay off all his debts. D) Investing helped him to reach financial independence.
C
This parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule . The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule praying for whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together , told them what had happened, and asked them to help pour dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out his misery. At the beginning, the old mule was crazy! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shovelling and the dirt hit his back, _ . It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, he would shake it off and step up! This he did, blow after blow. "Shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up!" He repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or how distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought panic and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up! It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him actually helped him... all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity . That's life! If we face our problems and respond to them positively, and refuse to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity. The adversities that come along to bury us usually have within them the very real potential to benefit us! Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the boat. Professionals built the Titanic. Who saved the mule at last? A) The farmer B) The farmer's neighbors C) The farmer and his neighbors D) The mule himself
D
(Q).
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her loyal friend and musical partner, Lester Young, Holiday was a great influence on jazz and pop singing. Her voiced style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of controlling tempo . Above all, she was admired for her deeply personal and direct approach to singing. Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Clarence Halliday (Holiday), a musician, did not marry or live with her mother. Her mother had moved to Philadelphia when thirteen, after being driven away from her parents' home in Sandtown-Winchester, Baltimore for becoming pregnant. With no support from her own parents, Holiday's mother arranged for the young Holiday to stay with her older married half sister, Eva Miller, who lived in Baltimore. During her final period of separation from her mother, Holiday began to perform the songs she learned while working in the brothel . By early 1929, Holiday joined her mother in Harlem. Their landlady was a sharply dressed woman named Florence Williams, who ran a brothel at 151 West 140th Street. In order to live, Holiday and her mother had to work there. Holiday had not yet turned fourteen at that time. On May 2, 1929, the house was raided , and Holiday and her mother were sent to prison. After spending some time in a workhouse, her mother was released in July, followed by Holiday in October, at the age of 14. She co-wrote a few songs, and several of them have become jazz standards, notably God Bless the Child, Don't Explain, and Lady Sings the Blues. She also became famous for singing jazz standards written by others, including Easy Living and Strange Fruit. Her early career is hard to track down exactly. But, she later gained work singing in local jazz clubs before being spotted by a talent scout , John Hammond, in 1933, aged 18. Her voice and recordings are loved for the depth of emotion and intensity she could bring to classic standards.... Why was the song Strange Fruit limited on radios? A) It was about a cruel story. B) It concerned civil rights. C) It was recorded very badly. D) It was performed many times.
(A).
B