Forty-three years seems like a long time to remember the name of a mere acquaintance. I have forgotten the name of an old lady who was a customer on my paper route. Yet it seems like just yesterday that she taught me a lesson in forgiveness.

On a Saturday afternoon, a friend and I were throwing rocks onto the roof of the old lady’s house.The object of our play was to observe how the rocks changed to missiles (导弹) as they rolled to the roof’s edge and shot out into the yard like comets (彗星) falling from the sky. I found myself a perfectly smooth rock and sent it for a ride. However, it slipped from my hand as I let it go and headed straight for a small window. At the sound of crashed glass, we knew we were in trouble and ran away.

A few days later, when I was sure that I hadn’t been discovered, I started to feel guilty for her misfortune. She still greeted me with a smile each day when I gave her the paper, but I was no longer able to act comfortably in her presence. I made up my mind to save my paper delivery money, and in three weeks I had the seven dollars that I calculated would cover the cost of her window. I put the money in an envelope with a note, and put the envelope through the letter slot in her door.

The next day, I handed the old lady her paper and was able to return the warm smile that I was receiving from her. She thanked me for the paper and said, “Here, I have something for you.” It was a bag of cookies. I thanked her and began to eat the cookies as I continued my route.

After several cookies, I felt an envelope and pulled it out of the bag. When I opened the envelope, I was surprised. Inside were the seven dollars and a short note that said, “I’m proud of you.”

1. What was the author forty-three years ago?

A．Ateacher.

B．Aresearcher.

C．A delivery boy.

D．Arepairman.

2. We can learn from the text that the author _______.

A．broke the window by mistake	B．avoided the old lady for several days
C．acted as usual after breaking the window	D．felt guilty the moment he broke the window

3. The old lady wrote “I’m proud of you” because she thought the author was brave enough ______.

A．to do experiments with smooth rocks

B．to earn money to support his own life

C．to admit his own mistake and make up for it

D．to put an envelope with a note through the letter slot

My day began on a definitely sour note when I saw my six-year-old wrestling with a limb of my azalea（杜鹃花）bush. By the time I got outside, he’d broken it. “Can I take this to school today?” he asked. With a wave of my hand, I sent him off. I turned my back so he wouldn’t see the tears gathering in my eyes.
The washing machine had leaked on my brand-new linoleum. If only my husband had just taken the time to fix it the night before when I asked him instead of playing checkers with Jonathan.
It was days like this that made me want to quit. I just wanted to drive up to the mountains, hide in a cave, and never come out.
Somehow I spent most of the day washing and drying clothes and thinking how love had disappeared from my life. As I finished hanging up the last of my husband’s shirts, I looked at the clock. 2:30. I was late. Jonathan’s class let out at 2:15 and I hurriedly drove to the school.
I was out of breath by the time I knocked on the teacher’s door and peered through the glass. She rustled through the door and took me aside. “I want to talk to you about Jonathan,” she said.
I prepared myself for the worst. Nothing would have surprised me. “Did you know Jonathan brought flowers to school today?” she asked. I nodded, thinking about my favorite bush and trying to hide the hurt in my eyes. “Let me tell you about yesterday,” the teacher insisted. “See that little girl?” I watched the bright-eyed child laugh and point to a colorful picture taped to the wall. I nodded.
“Well, yesterday she was almost hysterical. Her mother and father are going through a nasty divorce. She told me she didn’t want to live, she wished she could die. I watched that little girl bury her face in her hands and say loud enough for the class to hear, ‘Nobody loves me.’ I did all I could to comfort her, but it only seemed to make matters worse.” “I thought you wanted to talk to me about Jonathan,” I said.
“I do,” she said, touching the sleeve of my blouse. “Today your son walked straight over to that child. I watched him hand her some pretty pink flowers and whisper, ‘I love you.’“
I felt my heart swell with pride for what my son had done. I smiled at the teacher. “Thank you,” I said, reaching for Jonathan’s hand, “you’ve made my day.”
Later that evening, I began pulling weeds from around my azalea bush. As my mind wandered back to the love Jonathan showed the little girl, a biblical verse came to me: “...these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” While my son had put love into practice, I had only felt anger.
I heard the familiar squeak of my husband’s brakes as he pulled into the drive. I snapped a small limb bristling with hot pink azaleas off the bush. I felt the seed of love that God planted in my family beginning to bloom once again in me. My husband’s eyes widened in surprise as I handed him the flowers. “I love you,” I said.
4. Why did the woman cry when seeing her son had broken the azalea bush?

A．Because she could not tolerate the harm to it.

B．Because it made her bad mood even worse.

C．Because her son did not ask her for permission.

D．Because she wanted to hand it to her husband.

5. The writer wanted to hide in the mountain cave probably for the reason of         .

A．feeling fed up with her endless daily housework

B．her husband’s failing to fix the machine in time

C．boring daily routine with a feeling of lack of love

D．her hoping to seek happiness in a brand new place

6. We can infer from the passage that the writer expressed love to her husband in that         .

A．she was inspired by her son that love was supposed to be felt and practiced

B．she felt guilty that she misunderstood her husband and wanted to apologize

C．she felt it necessary to have a complete family for the happiness of herself

D．she wanted to prove her love and expected the same words from her husband

Working from a shady balcony overlooking a vast sea, with five-star restaurants and golf courses within easy reach: what better place could there be to while away the pandemic (疫情) than Barbados?

Like most of its Caribbean neighbours, Barbados has been good at keeping COVID-19 out. Normally tourism brings in more than half of its foreign earnings. Now, many tourists are banned and the economy is declining. The tourism minister, Kerrie Symmonds, puts unemployment at close to 40%.

The prime minister, Mia Mottley intends to introduce a “Welcome Stamp” for visitors to “work remotely in paradise” for up to a year. The idea is that if holidays are not possible, then maybe the island can attract wealthy office workers who no longer have to go to the office. Other Caribbean islands are considering competing plans; Bermuda has announced one.

It did not take a pandemic for some digital workers to consider moving to a beach. But before now, it was legally difficult. Getting a work permit or immigrant status meant weeks or months of form-filling. Workers had to pay Barbadian income taxes. The new procedure looks quick and easy by comparison. For a fee of $2,000 for one person, or $3,000 for a family, you can take your Zoom calls from a real white sandy beach, instead of merely selecting it as a virtual background. You continue paying tax according to the rules of whichever country you came from.

There will be some checks on new arrivals. We do not want “the scum of the earth, but honest and respectable types”, says Mr Symmonds. Applicants must have health insurance, and the main breadwinner must earn at least $50,000. But otherwise the gates are open. “All must breathe, in this world and in this country.” says Ms Mottley.

7. The project “Welcome Stamp” is intended to ________.

A．help the economy recover	B．create jobs for visitors
C．keep COVID-19 out	D．compete against other islands

8. What is needed to apply for Welcome Stamp?

A．Spending weeks to get work permit or immigrant status.

B．Paying a certain amount of Barbadian income taxes.

C．Paying $2,000 per person, or $3,000 per family.

D．Earning at least $50,000 per family member

9. What can we learn from the text?

A．Barbados is the first to put forward the plan.

B．All healthy and wealthy people are welcome.

C．Increasing unemployment leads to an economic decline.

D．It used to be difficult for digital workers to move to Barbados.

10. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Barbados provides a paradise to work remotely.

B．The Caribbean islands are fighting against the pandemic.

C．Office workers choose to work from the beach.

D．Working abroad becomes easier than before.

When a corporation(公司) is formed, it issues stock (股票), which is sold or given to individuals.Ownership of stock entitles you to vote in the election of acorporation’s directors, so in theory holders of stock control the company. In practice, however, in most large corporations, ownership is separated from control of the firm. Most stockholders have little input into the decisions a corporation makes. Instead, corporations are often controlled by their managers, who often run them for their own benefit as well as for the owners. The reason is that the owners’control of management is limited.

A large percent of most corporations’ stock is not even controlled by the owners; instead, is controlled by financial institutions such as mutual funds (financial institutions that invest individuals’money for them) and by pension funds (financial institutions that hold people’s money for them untilit is to be paid out to them upon their retirement). Thus, ownership of I Corporations is another step removed from individuals. Studies have shown that 80 percentof the largest 200 corporations in the US are essentially controlled by managersand have little effective stockholder control.

Why is the question of who controls a firm important? Because economic theory assumes the goal of business owners is to maximize profits, which would be true of corporations if stockholders made the decisions. Managers don’t have the same motivation to maximize profits that owners do. There’s pressure on managers to maximize profits, but that pressure can often be weak orineffective. An example of how firms deal with this problem involves stock options. Many companies give their managers stock options-rights to buy stock at a low price - to encourage them to worry about the price of their company’s stock. But these stock options dilute the value of company ownership and profits per share and can give managers an incentive (激励, 刺激)to overstate profits through accounting tricks, as happened at Enron, Xerox, and a number of other firms.

11. Why can’t the stockholders control the company?

A．Because they are separated from the managers.

B．Because they havea little input in making decisions.

C．Because they are limited in the control of management.

D．Because they are restricted to the ownership of the company.

12. Which of the following statements is true of the ownership of corporations?

A．Ownership is controlled by managers.

B．Ownership is separated from control of the company.

C．Ownership is removed from the stockholders.

D．Ownership is controlled by financial institutions.

13. What does the underlined word “dilute” refer to?

A．maximize

B．arouse

C．decrease

D．ease

14. What is used to encourage managers to maximize profits?

A．Stock option.	B．The right to own stock.
C．Controlling power.	D．Effective stockholder control.

15. What is the best title for the text?

A．Who Controls Corporation?	B．When should the Stock be Issued?
C．Importance of Financial Institutions	D．Stockholders and Managers