There is a workman in America who earns as much as a company director. He is Max Quarterman, a thirty-year-old plasterer (泥瓦匠).

    Max lives in an upper middle-class housing estate. His 1 are mostly bank managers, business executives, airline pilots and the 2, but Max's seven-bedroom house — 3 $ 80,000 — is the largest in the area. 4 outside the house are Max's $ 7000 sports car and his wife's Morris Mini. Indoors is a 150 colour TV set and the family's 5 — a circular bath with gold-plated taps. There are also many labour－saving 6 and luxury furniture.

    How can a plasterer 7 all this? The answer, says Max, is hard work. In 8 with another plasterer, Max 9 contract plastering jobs for a firm. The owner of the firm 10 them as human machines, the best and quickest in the 11, who can do as much in two days as 12 two-man team can in two weeks.

    How do they manage it? Not by working overtime. They work a(n) 13 eight-hour day, five days a week. The secret 14 in Max's hod (桶) in which he carries the plaster to the site of the job. Max's is a superhod — it contains double the usual 15 of plaster, and Max, a strong fellow, runs when he carries it. More time is thus 16 to get on with the plastering. Besides, 17 man wastes time smoking, and they 18 their lunch break to a 19 of an hour a day. Now Max earns over $ 800 a week which is four times the average weekly pay in Britain today, and if he gets as 20 as $ 15, it's a disaster.

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

    I went online to check if my pay was in my bank 1. To my amazement I discovered that not only had I been paid, a 2 I'd never worked for had also paid me! I knew I'd have been beside myself if my own salary was not in my account, so I tried to get the money 3 to the right person. Easier said than4 .

    The bank couldn't help as it wasn't a bank 5. The human resources department at the company that paid me was unable to help as I didn't have enough 6 . I rang the bank again. 7, I had a sympathetic call operator who gave me a(n)8 , so I again rang the company “Daniel” worked for.

    I expected the bank would 9 me to arrange to take the money from my account and repay Daniel. I heard 10 for a month and the money remained in my account when Daniel called, 11 he'd tried to get back his money but had been unsuccessful as neither the bank nor his company felt it was their12 . He had rung to ask if I could speak to the bank, but after chatting for a few minutes we realized we could probably 13 this problem ourselves.

    We decided I would take the money from my account and he would14 it up from me. Due to my busy job I was unable to meet Daniel 15 but he left me a lovely bottle of wine 16 what was rightfully his. I never had any 17of keeping Daniel's pay but red tape(繁琐手续) made 18 difficult to do the right thing. It all came down to (归结为) 19 people being able to do what a huge bank and a large company couldn't do— 20 a mistake has occurred and fix it.

    Mr and Mrs Moore were invited to a Christmas party at a hotel one year. They 1their car outside and went in. Mr Moore had never got drunk (醉) before, so he was2not to drink too much,3his friends asked him to drink more 4 .

    During the party, Mrs Moore found that she had5to bring her bag, so she asked her husband to go out to the car and6it for her. He7so,but on his way back to the hotel gate ,he heard a car horn(喇叭) blowing near his own car. He thought 8might be in need of help and went over to the car with the 9. He found a small black bear sitting in the driving-seat and blowing the horn.

    When Mr Moore 10the party, he told several people about the bear, but of course they did not believe him and thought he was drunk. When he took them out of the hotel to 11that his story was12, he found that the car with the 13 in it had gone. There were so many14about Mr Moore's black bear during the next week that he at last put an advertisement(广告)in the newspaper;“If anyone saw a black bear blowing the horn in a car outside the Century Hotel 15 the   evening of Christmas Day, please tell…”

    Tow days later16Mrs Richards called him and said that she and her husband had left their pet (宠物) bear in their car outside the Century Hotel for a few minutes that evening, and that17 he had blown the horn.

    Mrs Richards did not 18to think there was anything19about that.“Our bear likes blowing car horns,”she said,“and we don't20when we are not driving the car.”

    I truly feel that my mother led me here, to Morzaine, and to my future as a happy wife and businesswoman. When Mum1  in October 2007, I was a cook. In December that year, a pearl (珍珠) necklace Mum had left me 2 . I was distraught (忧心如焚的). Some days later, I was 3  that a guy who was working with us that day，“could probably have made a fortune 4  the necklace he found”5 ， he returned it. When he heard how I'd6  Mum for six months before her death, he said, “Winter is coming, and I think this Christmas would be  7  for you. Why not go out to the Alps(阿尔卑斯山)for a couple of weeks？”

    I came to Morzaine, a small,8 village in the Alps and immediately fell in love with it. What was 9 to be a stopgap (权宜之计) trip turned into a new life. I kept travelling between London and here and felt 10  than I had in months. In December 2008, I was11as a hotel manager and moved here full time.

    A month later, I met Paul, who was traveling here. We fell in love. In the beginning, I didn't want to discuss 12 ， because the sadness of losing Mum 13 felt great. Paul understood that and never  14 me. But, by summer, we got married. A year later, we used his savings, and the money from the sale of Mum's house, to build our own 15. We want to give our guests a  16 feel, so each room is themed(以……为主题) around memories from our lives. There are also styles to remind me of Mum—a tiny chair which 17 be in her bedroom is set in one room.

    We are having a wonderful life and Mum18 naturally part of it,19  there's no way we would be here if it wasn't for the 20 she gave me. I know she's here in spirit, keeping an eye on us.

    John's parents acquired the washer when he was a small boy. It happened during World War Ⅱ. His family never 1 a washing machine and, since gasoline was expensive, they could not 2 trips to the laundry several miles away. Keeping clothes 3 became a problem for young John's household.

    A family friend joined the army, and his wife 4 to go with him. John's family 5 to store their furniture while they were away. To the family's 6, the friend suggested they use their Bendix. So this is how they 7 the washer.

    Young John helped with the washing, and across the years he 8 a love for the old, green Bendix. But 9 the war ended. When the friends came to take it back, John grew terribly 10. His mother 11 him and said. "You must remember, that machine 12 belonged to us in the first place. That we ever got to use it at all was a gift. So, instead of being mad at it being taken 13, let's use this 14 to be grateful that we had it at all."

    The lesson turned out 15. Years later, John watched his eight-year-old daughter die a slow and painful death of leukemia (白血病). Though he 16 for months with her death, John could not begin getting over from the 17 until he remembered the old Bendix.

    His daughter was a 18. When he realized the simple fact, everything changed. He could now begin recovering from the death of his daughter. He started to see her as a marvelous gift that he was fortunate enough to 19 for a time. He felt 20. He found strength and recovery. He knew he could get through the valley of loss.

    While I was waiting to enter university, I saw in a newspaper a teaching job 1 at a school about ten miles from where I lived. Being very short of 2 and wanting to do something 3 I applied (申请), 4 as I did so, that without a degree and with no 5 of teaching my chances of getting the job were 6.

    However, three days later, a letter arrived, calling me to Croydon for a meeting with the headmaster. It proved to be a 7 journey: a train to Croydon station, a ten-minute bus ride and then a walk of at 8 a quarter of a mile. As a result I arrived there, feeling too hot to be nervous. It was clearly the 9 himself that 10 the door. He was short and round.

    "The school," he said, "is made up of one 11 of twenty-four boys between seven and thirteen." I should have to teach all the subjects except art, 12 he taught himself. I should have to divide the class into 13 groups and teach them in turn at three different 14, and I was 15 at the thought of teaching maths—a subject at which I wasn't very 16 at school. Worse perhaps was the idea of 17 to teach them on Saturday afternoon because most of my friends would be 18 themselves at that time.

    Before I had time to ask about my salary, he got up to his 19. "Now" he said, you'd better meet my wife. She is the one who really 20 this school.