How should one invest a sum of money in these clays of inflation ? 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 ." 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 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 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... 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
B

One day a poor student walked in a town. He didn't have anything to eat for several days and he was very hungry. But when he saw a man selling steamed bread ( ), he let out a scream ( ) and fell ( ) to the ground. When the man asked the student what was the matter, the student answered, "I don't like steamed bread. Whenever Isee them , I feel ill and can't eat ." The man then wanted to play a joke on the student. He put ten steamed bread in a room and then put the student in it. After a short time, the man opened the door of the room. H e was surprised to find that the student ate all the steamed bread. The student explained, "For some strange reason, I suddenly find that I like steamed bread." The man was angry that the student had fooled ( ) him. He asked what other things he did not like to eat. "Oh, I like everything," answered the student. "But at the moment I don't like to drink two cups of good strong tea!" In fact, _ . A) the man wanted to sell some steamed bread to the student. B) The student didn't really like steamed bread. C) the student fooled the man. D) the man fooled the student.
C

Mary is an English girl. She's six years old . Her mother takes her to school in the morning and brings her home in the afternoon. She likes her nice school. She likes her teachers, too. One day, she says to her mother, " Mom, we have a new girl in our class today, Her name is Kim. She's six years old , too. She's very nice, but she isn't English. She is German ". "Does she speak English "? "No, but she laughs in English ", Mary says happily . Kim is _ . A) English B) German C) five D) Japan
B