The mayor of a small town invited a wise man to dinner. The town’s economy was bad and the local people were disappointed. They wanted this wise man to give them some help.

   During his speech, the wise man took a large piece of white paper and made a small black dot in the centre of it with a marker pen. Then he held the paper up before the group and asked them what they saw.

   One person quickly replied, “I see a black dot.”     

   “Okay, what else do you see?”

   Others joined in agreement, “A black dot.”

   “Don’t you see anything besides the dot?” he asked.

   “No,” all of them replied.

   “What about the piece of paper?” asked the wise man. “I am sure you have all seen it,” he said, “but you have chosen to overlook it.”

   “In life, we often overlook many wonderful things that we have, or that happen around us and we only focus on small, dot-like failures and problems. The so-called ‘problems’ that we have are usually like the black dot on the paper. They are small and unimportant if we can look at the whole picture.”

   Are you one of the people who focus on dot-like problems?

56.  Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?                                          

  A. The people in the town didn’t believe the wise.   

  B. The wise man took out a piece of paper to test the people’s eyes.

  C. The people in the town were very rich.

  D. The people in the town were worried about their economy.

57. According to the wise man, “the black dot” represents ______.

  A. problems in life                                     B. things people like

  C. people’s lives                                     D. the centre of the paper

58. What did the wise man think according to the passage?

  A. The people in the town were foolish.

  B. There was something wrong with the people’s eyes.

  C. Things were not so bad as the people thought.   

  D. The town’s economy was in serious trouble.