A lot of management training each year for Circle K Corporation, a national chain of convenience stores. Among the topics we address in our course is the retention（保护力） of quality employees-a real challenge to managers when you consider the pay scale（标准）in the service industry. During these discussions, I ask the participants（参加者）, “What has caused you to stay long enough to become a manager?” Some time back a new manager took the question and slowly, with her voice almost breaking, said, “It was a ＄19 baseball glove.”

Cynthia told the group that she originally took a Circle K clerk job as an interim（临时的） position while she looked for something better. On her second or third day behind the counter, she received a phone call from her nine-year-old son, Jessie. He needed a baseball glove for Little League. She explained that as a single mother, money was very tight, and her first check would have to go for paying bills. Perhaps she could buy his baseball glove with her second or third check. When Cynthia arrived for work the next morning, Patricia, the store manager, asked her to come to the small room in the back of the store that served as an office. Cynthia wondered if she had done something wrong or left some part of her job incomplete from the day before. She was concerned and confused.

Patricia handed her a box. “I overheard you talking to your son yesterday,” she said, “and I know that it is hard to explain things to kids. This is a baseball glove for Jessie because he may not understand how important he is, even though you have to pay bills before you can buy gloves. You know we can’t pay good people like you as much as we would like to; but we do care, and I want you to know you are important to us.”

The thoughtfulness, empathy and love of this convenience store manager demonstrates vividly that people remember more how much an employer cares than how much the employer pays. An important lesson for the price of a Little League baseball glove.

Among many of the problems in the service industry, talked about in this passage, is         .

       A．how to ensure his employees’ high pay

       B．how to attract more customers

       C．how to look carefully after the employees

       D．how to keep the good employees from leaving

Although a new manager, Cynthia would do her job well in keeping quality employees because she         .

       A．had mastered all the courses for the manager

       B．had already formed good relationship with the employees

       C．know the way how to deal with her employees

       D．had her own personal experience

This passage shows us that to run a business well it is necessary for managers to let their employees know         .

       A．how much they can get for their job.

       B．what good positions they can get later

       C．they are very necessary to the business  

       D．they are nice as well as useful

The story told in this passage tells us that employees care about         .

       A．only how large a pay they can get

       B．love from the managing people rather than only money

       C．if their children could be properly taken care of

       D．what position they can be offered

Although Thomas Edison created the technologies behind three major 21st century industries  electrical power，recorded music and movies—his greatest invention may have been the modern method of inventing．He basically came up with the modern system of research and development．Edison was not the only scientist doing research in his garage but someone who gathered around him a team of creative scientific minds．Edison’s 1aboratories were the forerunners（ 先驱）of Apple，Google and Microsoft．

Yet for a11 his scientific gifts，he was no Steve Jobs or Bill Gates．He once said，“Anything that won’ t sell，I don’ t want to invent．” But Edison，unlike Jobs or Gates，had no real sense of what the public wanted or how to change his discoveries into products that might sell．It took him years to understand that the phonograph（ 留声机）was not a business tool but an entertainment invention．He helped create movies but resisted the idea that people might want to go into a theater to watch one．

We chose Edison this year because we need his example now more than ever．Though we live in a time of great reformation，the U．S．is in danger of losing its advantage in science and technology．American investment（ 投资）in research and development has not increased as a percentage of GDP since the mid一1980s，while the government’ s share has been dropping．And this is at a time when China is rapidly increasing its money on research and development．The U．S．was once among the 1eading nations．Now it ranks near the bottom of the 23 nations that collect such data．We hope that Edison’ s story might not only encourage reformation but also inspire more

young Americans to study science and engineering．

The first paragraph is mainly about         .

    A．the number of Edison’ s great inventions

    B．Edison’ s special personal characters

    C．Edi son’ s modern system of research

    D．Apple．Google and Microsoft and their forerunners

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

    A．A11 the things Edison invented sold well．

    B．Edison wanted to invent things that sold well．

    C．Edison’ s inventions were not valuable for being unpopular．

    D．Edison had a gift for changing his discoveries into best sellers.

The author’ s main purpose is to    ．

      A．inform US of the danger the USA is in

      B．get young Americans to study science

      C．be in honor of Edison for his contributions

      D．tell US how important Edison’ s inventions are

We can infer from the text that    ．

    A．the USA is no 10nger advanced in science and technology

    B．the USA falls behind China in research and inventions

    C．more and more young Americans will be interested in science

D．China is spending more and more money on research and development

A few weeks after my first wife, Georgia, was called to heaven, I was cooking dinner for my son and myself. For a   16 , I had decided on frozen peas. As I was cutting open the bag, it   17  from my hand and crashed to the floor. The peas, like marbles,   18  everywhere. I tried to use a broom,   19  with each swipe they just rolled across the kitchen．
For the next week, every time I was in the   20 , I found a pea---in a corner, or behind a table leg. They kept   21 . Eight months later I pulled out the refrigerator to clean behind it, and   22  12 frozen peas hidden underneath．
At the time I found those few remaining   23 , I was in a new relationship with a wonderful   24  I’d met in a support group. After we married, I was reminded 25  those peas under the refrigerator, and realized that my   26  had been like that bag of frozen peas. It had shattered（破碎. My wife had died; I was in a new city with a busy job, and with a son having trouble   27  his new surroundings and the  28  of his mother. I was a bag of spilled frozen peas; my life had come apart and scattered．
When life gets you   29 , when everything you know comes apart, and when you think you’ll never  30 , remember that it’s just a bag of scattered frozen peas. The peas can be  31 , and life will move on. You’ll find all the peas   32 , including the ones that are hardest to find. And when you’ve got them   33  you’ll start to feel whole again．
The life you know can break apart at any time. But you’ll have to   34 , and how fast you collect your peas depends on you. Will you keep scattering them around with a broom,  35  will you pick them up one by one and put your life back together?

As she walked round the large shop, Edith realized how difficult it was to choose a suitable Christmas 16 for her father.
She 17 that he were as easy to please as her mother, who was 18 satisfied with perfume(香水). 19, shopping at this time of the year was not a most 20 job. People 21 on your feet, pushed you with their shoulders and almost 22 you over in their hurry in order to 23 something cheap ahead of you.
Partly to have a rest, Edith paused in front of a counter, where some beautiful ties were on 24. "They are 25 silk," the shop assistant told her with a smile trying to 26 her to buy one. But Edith knew from past 27 that her choice of ties hardly ever pleased her father.
She moved on slowly and then, quite by chance, 28 where a small crowd of men had gathered round a counter. She found some fine pipes on sale and the 29 were very beautiful. Edith did not hesitate for long, although her father 30 smoked a pipe once in a while, she believed this was 31 to please him.
When she got home, with her small but 32 present hidden in her handbag, it was time for supper and her parents were already 33 table. Her mother was in great 34. "Your father has at last decided to stop smoking," she told her daughter happily. Edith was so 35 that she could not say a single word.

A little boy invited his mother to attend his school’s first teacher-parent meeting. To the little boy’s   36 , she said she would go. This would be the first time that his classmates and teacher   37  his mother and he felt   38  of her appearance. Although she was a beautiful woman, there was a severe scar that   39  nearly the entire right side of her face. The boy never wanted to   40  why or how she got the scar.
At the meeting, the people were   41  by the kindness and natural beauty of his mother   
  42  the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed and   43  himself from everyone. He did, however, get within hearing of a conversation between his mother and his teacher.
The teacher asked   44  , “How did you get the scar on your face?”
The mother replied, “   45  my son was a baby, he was in a room that   46  fire. Everyone was   47  afraid to go in because the fire was   48 , so I went in. As I was running toward his bed, I saw a long piece of wood coming down and I placed myself   49  him trying to protect him. I was knocked   50  but fortunately, a fireman came in and saved both of us. ” She   51  the burned side of her face. “This scar will be   52 , but to this day, I have never   53  what I did.”
At this point, the little boy came out running toward his mother with tears in his eyes. He   54  her in his arms and felt a great sense of the sacrifice that his mother had made for him. He held her hand   55  for the rest of the day.