[单项选择]Read the following passage carefully and complete
the succeeding three items: Ⅲ, Ⅳ, Ⅴ.
(1)A young man of
humble origins came to New York from the Midwest to seek his for- tune. He
dreamed, in the American way, of becoming a millionaire. He tried his luck on
Wall Street. He was diligent and shrewd and, when he had to be, devious. He put
together the deal and he did some things with an electronics acquisition that
wouldn’t bear explaining. He succeeded even beyond his dream: he made twelve
million dollars.
(2) At first the young man assumed that
everything was working out splendidly. "Isn’t it grand" he said to his wife,
once it was apparent that he had made twelve million dollars. His wife told him
that it wasn’t grand, and he was a nobody.
(3)"But that’s
impossible," the young man said. "I’m a rich person. We live in an era that
celebrates rich people. Rich people are shown in the newspapers in the company
of movie stars and famous novelists and distinguished dress designers. The names
of the richest corporate raiders are known to every schoolboy. There are rich
real estate sharks whose faces appear on the covers of glossy magazines. "But
his wife said that his face would not, because he was a nobody. When he stressed
the fact that he had twelve million dollars, his wife retorted that a lot of
people did, but they were still nobodies.
(4)"I could buy our
way onto the committees of important charity balls," the young man said," then
we’d be mentioned in the columns." "Don’t kid yourself," his wife said. "The
important committees are already filled up with people who are really rich.
People like us would end up working on something like a dinner-dance to benefit
the American Psoriasis(牛皮癣) Foundation." The young man mentioned that he owned a
co-op apartment on Fifth Avenue that was worth two million dollars. His wife
argued that, to a certain extent, two mil- lion dollar co-ops were a dime a
dozen. Then the young man boasted of owning a stretch limousine and said it was
twenty-one and a half feet long. His wife brushed the idea aside, saying that
nobody famous had ever ridden in something like that, and neither Henry
Kissinger nor Calvin Klein had ever heard of him, so he was still a
nobody.
(5)The young man was silent for a while. "Are you
disappointed in me" he finally said to his wife. "Of course I’m disappointed in
you," she said. "When you asked me to marry you, you said you would surely
amount to something. How was I to know that you’d turn out to be a
nobody"
(6) For a moment the young man looked defeated. Then
he squared his shoulders and cleared his throat. "I’ll make them pay attention,"
he said. "I’ll buy a professional football team and argue a lot with the coach
in public. Celebrities will join me to watch big games from the owner’s box.
"The wife ridiculed him, saying that nobody could buy a professional football
team for twelve million dollars, because professional football teams cost big
bucks.
(7)"Then I’ll buy a magazine and appoint myself chief
columnist, "the young man said." A tiny but exceedingly flattering picture of me
will run next to my column every week. The owners of professional football teams
will invite me to watch big games from the owner’s box." The wife believed that
he might be able to buy one of those weekly-shoppers throwaways for twelve
million dollars, but not a real magazine. One couldn’t buy a real magazine for
chicken feed.
(8) The young man was very much hurt and asked
his wife whether twelve million dollars were chicken feed. But his wife
insisted, "it’s not big bucks."
(9)"But that’s not fair," the
young man said. "I’m a young man of humble origins who made twelve million
dollars. I succeeded even beyond my dream." "Some of those things you did with
the electronics acquisition probably weren’t fair either," his wife said. "Fair
isn’t being measured these days. What they measure is money. "Then the young man
said, if that was the case, he would get more money by going back to Wall Street
and making fifty million dollars.
(10)But before the young man
could make fifty million dollars a man from the Securities and Exchange
Commission came and arrested him for having committed insider-trading violations
in the electronics acquisition.
(11)The young man was taken
away from his office in handcuffs. A picture on the front page of the afternoon
paper showed him leaving his arraignment trying to hide his face behind an $850
Italian overcoat. A long article in the morning paper used him as an example of
a new breed of Wall Street traders who were the victims of their own greed,
probably because of their humble origins. His friends and associates avoided
him.
(12)Only his wife stuck by him. She tried to see the
bright side. "For someone with only twelve million dollars" she said to the
young man, "you’re getting to be pretty well known."Ⅲ. There are Five statements, followed by four choices marked
A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and mark the corresponding letter on your
answer sheet. He tried his luck on Wall Street. ______
A. He became lucky in the financial world.
B. He tried to get a job in Wall Street.
C. He got a job in the financial world and tried to make a lot of money
there.
D. He went to Wall Street to see if he could get a job and to make a lot of
money there.
[填空题]Questions 14-17
Complete the following sentences with NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
The shaping island, Surtsey, caused by______has been witnessed by Olafsson when he was a teenager.