People often say that money talks. They mean that a person with a lot of money can say how he or she wants things done. But it is not easy to earn enough money to gain this kind of power. Ask anyone in a business, they will tell you that it is a jungle out there. The expression probably began because the jungle is filled with wild animals and unknown dangers that threaten people. Sometimes people in business feel competing businesses are as dangerous as wild animals. And they feel that unknown dangers in the business world frighten the survival of their business.
People in business have to be careful, if they are to survive the jungle out there. They must not be led into making bogus investments. Bogus means something that it is not real. Nobody is sure how the word got started. But it began to appear in a American newspapers in 1800s. A newspaper in Boston Massachusetts said the word came from a criminal whose name was Bogazy. The newspaper said Bogazy wrote checks to people, although he did not have enough money in the bank. After he wrote the checks, he would flee from town. So people who were paid with his checks received nothing. The newspaper said Americans shortened and changed to the criminal's name Bogazy to bogus.
People try to earn money also must be aware of being ripped off. A person who is ripped off has had something stolen or at least has been treated very unfairly. A writer for the magazine American Speech said he first saw the expression used in 1971. It was on a sign that a student carried during a protest demonstration at a university. The message on the sign was that the student felt ripped off or cheated. Perhaps the best way to prevent getting ripped off in business is to not try to get rich quickly.
To be successful, a person in business works hard and tries to get down to brass tacks. This expression means to get to the bottom or most important part of something. For example, a salesman may talk and talk about his product without saying the price. You get down to brass tacks when you say it sounds good but how much does it cost？
Word expert Charles Funk thinks the expression comes from sailors on ships. They clean the bottom of a boat. When they have removed all the dirt, they are down to the brass tacks, the copper pieces that hold the boat together. So if we get down to brass tacks, we can prevent rip-offs and bogus ways of earning money in that jungle out there. And some good luck will help too.
1.This passage is mainly written to________.
A. explain several expressions related to money
B. tell us some skills of learning English words
C. tell us the secret of how to do business
D. tell us the power of money
2.People compare doing business to being in a jungle because________.
A. doing business is as exciting as living in a jungle
B. businessmen are as dangerous as animals in a jungle
C. doing business is as difficult as living in a jungle
D. businessmen are as careful as people living in a jungle
3.If we say something is bogus, we probably mean it is not________.
A. real B．beautiful C．good D．new
4.According to Paragraph 2,where did the word "bogus" come from? _________
A. The name of a very successful businessman.
B. The name of a criminal who cheated others.
C. The name of a famous newspaper in Boston.
D. The name of a check written by a criminal.
I was blind, but I was ashamed of it if it was known. I refused to use a white stick and hated asking for help. After all, I was a teenager girl, and I couldn't bear people to look at me and think I was not like them. I must have been a terrible danger on the roads, coming across me wandering through the traffic; motorists probably would have to step rapidly on their brakes. Apart from that, there were all sorts of disasters that used to occur on the way to and from work.
One evening, I got off the bus about halfway home where I had to change buses, and as usual I ran into something. "I'm awfully sorry," I said and stepped forward only to run into it again. When it happened a third time, I realized I had been apologizing to a lamppost. This was just one of the stupid things that constantly happened to me. So I carried on and found the bus stop, which was a request stop, where the bus wouldn't stop unless passengers wanted to get on or off. No one else was there and I had to try to guess if the bus had arrived.
Generally in this situation, because I hated showing I was blind by asking for help, I tried to guess at the sound. Sometimes I would stop a big lorry and stand there feeling stupid as it drew away. In the end, I usually managed to swallow my pride and ask someone at the stop for help.
But on this particular evening no one joined me at the stop; it seemed that everyone had suddenly decided not to travel by bus. Of course I heard plenty of buses pass, or I thought I did. But because I had given up stopping them for fear of making a fool of myself, I let them all go by. I stood there alone for half an hour without stopping one. Then I gave up. I decided to walk on to the next stop.
1.The girl refused to ask for help because she thought_________
A. she might be recognized
B. asking for help looked silly
C. she was normal and independent
D. being found blind was embarrassing
2.After the girl got off the bus that evening, she_________.
A. began to run
B. hit a person as usual
C. hit a lamppost by accident
D. was caught by something
3.At the request stop that evening, the girl___________.
A. stopped a big lorry
B. stopped the wrong bus
C. made no attempt to stop the bus
D. was not noticed by other people
4.What was the problem with guessing at the sound to stop a bus? _________
A. Other vehicles also stopped there.
B. It was unreliable for making judgments.
C. More lorries than buses responded to the girl.
D. It took too much time for the girl to catch the bus
I learned all about taking responsibility from my mother’s tough love. My mom had a wonderful way of helping you up and realize that your life is going to be what you make it.
She had this circular way of you took responsibility for your decisions and the person you would . She would say,“ It' s your .” “What you want and what you get are sometimes two different things.” And then, “No one ever said life was fair.” And she would these comments together in such a way that you could never an argument, and yet, the was that you realized your life is going to be what you make it.
So I might go to my mom and say, “I’d like to football”. And she would say, “Well, it's your life. If you want to go out there and get and hurt and break your knees and limp around the rest of your life, that' s fine.” That is I would say, “Well, you know, that won’t . I' m really fast.” And she would reply, “Well, we don’t really have the money.” And then I would , “Yes but that' s not fair.” And she would reply, “ Well, life isn’t .” Then I would say, “But I’ve been itching to." And she would reply, “Yes, but what you want and what you get are usually two entirely different things.”
It was the combination of these that allowed my mother to lead me down the right path under her but let me feel as if I was making the decisions my own. The sum total of that was, in the end, you’re for the life you lead. That' s the best advice I’ve ever gotten.
1.A. light B. open C. grow D. keep
2.A. promising B. ensuring C. ignoring D. noticing
3.A. protect B. envy C. refuse D. become
4.A. fault B. life C. progress D. turn
5.A. Then B. But C. Now D. However
6.A. increasingly B. approximately C. completely D. occasionally
7.A. combine B. remind C. answer D. publish
8.A. lose B. doubt C. win D. raise
9.A. belief B. reason C. mistake D. result
10.A. quit B. play C. buy D. watch
11.A. beaten up B. dressed up C. divided D. closed up
12.A. what B. how C. when D. which
13.A. fail B. work C. last D. happen
14.A. take B. go C. make D. catch
15.A. fair B. cosy C. hard D. special
16.A. comments B. descriptions C. techniques D. messages
17.A. temper B. influence C. activity D. success
18.A. for B. on C. over D. beyond
19.A. mind B. account C. deal D. advice
20.A. famous B. responsible C. sorry D. thankful
---Dad, I am too tired and feel too much pressure on my mind
---Come on! That’s the life of Senior Three, but if you are admitted to a key University, you ____get an Iphone 5s as a gift.
A. must B. shall C. will D. might
_______ is known to us, the dragon stands for China ______the bear symbolizes Russia.
A. It; but B. As; while C. What; while D. It; when
The project__________, my colleagues and I had a party to celebrate it.
A. completed B. was completed C. had completed D. completing
