Have you ever fancied sailing around the world or buying a holiday home in the Caribbean? Well, before you get too excited, it may help to find out if you have what it takes to become a billionaire.   

    We've all heard stories of school drop-outs who have made their fortune. Do they tend to be university graduates or self-made successful people? Are they married or single?

    Thanks to a recent analysis of people in Forbes（福布斯）Top 100 Billionaires List, we can now find out what they have in common. We know what percentage wear glasses and even how many are bald!

    If you are deciding whether or not to go to university, it may help you to know that 76% of the richest people in the world have a degree. According to this study, of those 76%, 47% have a bachelor's degree, 23% have a master's and 6% have a doctorate. Don't lose hope if you aren't very academic, though. It's worth noting that many of those on the list did not pass all their exams with flying colors. Microsoft founder Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University after two years of study. And Chinese business magnate Jack Ma, failed his university entrance exams three times before going on to complete his degree and make his millions.

    Another interesting trend is that the world's richest people are much more likely to be married - only 12% of billionaires are unmarried. Finally, the percentage of billionaires who are bald is quite high – so don't worry if you're losing your hair.

    Sometimes I really doubt whether there is love between my parents. Every day they are very busy trying to make money for my schooling.

    One day, my mother was sewing a quilt(缝被子). I silently sat beside her. "Mum, is there love between you and Dad?" I asked in a very low voice.

    With surprise in her eyes, she stopped her work for a while. Then she said, "Susan, look at this thread(线). It can hardly be seen, but it' s really there. It makes the quilt strong. If life is a quilt, love should be a thread. Love is inside. "

    I couldn' t understand her until the next spring. At that time, my father suddenly got sick seriously. My mother had to stay with him in the hospital for a month.

    After they were back, my mother helped my father walk slowly on the country road every day. They were so kind to each other and it seemed they were the happiest couple.

    After two months my father still couldn' t walk by himself. "Dad, how are you feeling now?" I asked him one day.

    "Susan, don' t worry about me," he said. "I just like walking with your mum. I like this kind of life." Reading his eyes, I knew he loves my mother deeply.

    Now I understand that love is just a thread in the quilt of our life. Love is inside, making life strong and warm.

    When her five daughters were young, Helene An always told them that there was strength in unity (团结). To show this, she held up one chopstick, representing oneperson. Then she easily broke it into two pieces. Next, she tied several chopsticks together, representing a family. She showed the girls it was hard to break the tied chopsticks. This lesson about family unity stayed with the daughters as they grew up.

    Helene An and her family own a large restaurant business in California. However, when Helene and her husband Danny left their home in Vietnam in 1975, they didn't have much money. They moved their family to San Francisco. There they joined Danny's mother, Diana, who owned a small Italian sandwich shop. Soon afterwards, Helene and Diana changed the sandwich shop into a small Vietnamese restaurant. The five daughters helped in the restaurant when they were young. However, Helene did not want her daughters to always work in the family business because she thought it was too hard.

    Eventually the girls all graduated from college and went away to work for themselves, but one by one, the daughters returned to work in the family business. They opened new restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Even though family members sometimes disagreed with each other, they worked together to make the business successful. Daughter Elisabeth explains, "Our mother taught us that to succeed we must have unity, and to have unity we must have peace. Without the strength of the family, there is no business."

    Their expanding business became a large corporation in 1996, with three generations of Ans working together. Now the Ans' corporation makes more than $20 million each year. Although they began with a small restaurant, they had big dreams, and they worked together. Now they are a big success.

    My teacher, Mr. August J. Bachmann, was the most influential teacher I ever had.

    I had gotten into trouble in his class: Another student had pushed me for fun, and I became angry and began to hit him. Mr. Bachmann stopped the fight, but instead of sending me to the office, he sat me down and asked a simple question, "Penna, why are you wasting your life？Why aren't you going to college?"

    I didn't know anything about colleges or scholarships. No one had ever considered that a fatherless boy from the poorest neighborhood had a future. That day, instead of rushing off for lunch, he stayed and explained possible education options to me. At the end of our talk, he sent me to see a secretary who had a child at a state college. This was in 1962 at Emerson High School in Union City, New Jersey.

    Well, 55 years have passed, and what have I done with the knowledge he gave me？I gained a PhD from Fordham University when I was only 29.I taught English and social studies and then moved up the chain of command from teacher to principal(校长).

    I've sat on the board for Magnet Schools of America and represented that organization at the United Nations. I've won a number of great educational awards. But where would I be if a truly caring teacher had not taken the time out of his lunch period to speak to me? It was without question only his confidence in me that helped me forward.

    I have repaid his kindness hundreds of times by encouraging misguided youngsters to aim higher. If I have saved any children, it is because of him. If I have been a successful educator, it is because I had a great role model in Mr. Bachmann.

Polly Townsend

    PART THREE READING COMPREHENSION

Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 choices marked A,B,C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage. (20%)

    "Mummy, I don't know what to play with. " Steve interrupts his mother, who is talking to a friend, for the fourth time. "You've got a room full of toys!" his mother says, impatiently, In fact it is the jumble of toys which is to blame for four -year-old Steve's lack of interest in his dolls, cars and stuffed （packed）animals. Each morning he tips out three washing baskets of toys all over his floor, listlessly pulls out something and shortly after is standing at his mother's desk or following her into the kitchen saying: "Mummy, I am bored."

    A family therapist(治疗专家)explains why children lose interest when they have a whole "toy shop" at home : "According to their brain development, little children are not in a position to judge the quality of a variety of things at once. There is always just one favorite toy for the moment. All the rest is left lying about." What can parents do to stop their children from being oversupplied with toys? Under no conditions simply make something disappear without the child's knowledge. If he/she takes no more notice of a toy, a parent can ask if it can be stored or given away. Be warned though the child will help. Lyn is the mother of four-year-old Jessie, and holds the toys and books that are the current（at present）favorites. When it seems to her that her daughter is tired from a cupboard in another room. The box of "old" toys goes into the cupboard. When her child says she is "bored", they also get something from her cupboard—it may be something she has had for some time but because she hasn't seen it for a while it is almost like a new toy.

    Some favorite toys stay out all the time, and there is collection of dolls which sits in the comer, but in this way Lyn has found that she has fewer toys to put away at the end of the day and her daughter always has something "fresh" to play with.

What's your favorite book? Think of all the books you have ever read. Now imagine if you had not read any of them, how would your life be different?

Out of 7.8 billion people in the world today, 12% are illiterate(文盲的). This means that 1 in 5 adults are incapable of writing their own name, let alone reading a line out of a book. While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights expressly states under its 26th article the right to a free education"at least in the elementary and fundamental stages",marginalized(边缘化的) populations are often denied this basic right.

September 8 is International Literacy Day, established by UNESCO in 1966 to raise awareness on the issue by giving rise to support worldwide. In 1965, the World Conference ofMinisters of Education(WCME) met in Tehran, Iran to discuss future plans which would involve the eradication(消除) of illiteracy. As a way to honor the opening of this meeting,the conference decided that September 8 would be announced as International Literacy Day.

This year's theme for the day is"Literacy And Sustainable Societies". But what exactly does that mean? Literacy has been associated with the reduction of poverty as it offers skills for gaining knowledge, values, and attitudes for expanding societies in a sustainable way. At the same time, the promotion of literacy boosts agriculture, health, and vocational skills,leading societies to become more efficient and environmentally literate.

So how can you raise awareness and promote literacy on this day? Host a reading competition at your school or simply exchange books with friends. You could create a book club or even start a writing competition. Be an active global citizen by commitment to raising awareness so that we can eradicate illiteracy.