The website FarmersOnly.com calls itself an online dating and friendship finder. The idea started in the mind of a man, Jerry Miller in Ohio. He wondered how farmers could meet new people who understand the life of a farmer. Jerry Miller is not a farmer but he represents a lot of farmers.
As he tells it, the idea for the site was planted when a farmer told him one day that she was recently divorced and would like to date. But someone would invite her to meet for coffee at nine o’clock at night, when she had to start her day at five the next morning.
So, in 2005, Jerry Miller launched his website. “You don’t have to be a farmer to be on FarmersOnly.com, but you do have to have the good old-fashioned traditional values of America’s Heartland.” 
You also have to live in the United States or Canada to be a member of the site. Some services are free, but a full membership costs fifty dollars for a year. As of last week the site listed more than 58,000 members. Many of them are farmers in the United States. Others are students or workers involved in some way with agriculture. Jerry Miller tells us about thirty marriages in the last year have resulted from his website.
Some farmers have also found love through a group, Singles in Agriculture, which was formed as a nonprofit organization in 1986. It organizes gatherings that usually end with a dance, but is not a dating service. The purpose is to support educational and social activities that offer people a chance for friendship. Its website, singlesinag.org, says there are more than 1,000 members across the nation and as far away as France.
【小題1】Jerry Miller started singlesinag.org in order to     .

A．help farmers	B．support traditions
C．understand farmers	D．represent farmers

Mary was seven years old. Her parents recently moved to a new town, and so Mary was going to a 36   school, which was a few kilometers from the house they lived in now. A school bus going around picked up 37 every morning and brought them back to their  38  every afternoon, and as both of Mary’s parents  39 to go to work, she always went on this bus.
Mary’s parents always 40  their alarm clock for seven o’clock so that none of them would be 41   . But one morning the alarm  42  to go off, and it was not until a quarter past eight that Mary’s mother suddenly 43  , looked at the clock and said, “What’s ever happened to that clock?” and then 44   into Mary’s room to wake her up.
“I’m sorry, dear,” she said, “ 45 you’ll have to wash and dress very quickly, have an even  46 breakfast and then I’ll  47  you to school on my way to the office.”
“But how can you find the   48, Mum?” Mary said, “You’ve been to school only once.”
“Yes,” her mother answered, “but you’ve done the   49   several times now on the bus, so you can be my guide to get there, can’t you?”
“Oh, yes,” said Mary, “I suppose so.” She washed, and  50  and had a quick breakfast, and then they set off. Mary told her mother to turn each time they came to a place she 51  .In this way she made her mother drive round most of the town   52  they got to her school. When they arrived, her mother saw that it was not really very far from her house.
“Why ever did you make me go such a long way round, Mary, instead of the most    53    way?” her mother asked her.
“Well, Mum,” answered Mary, “it was because I didn’t know   54  else to get here. That’s the way our bus always goes to   55   the other children to school.

It’s a goal for millions and millions of families every year——keep the Christmas spending within a certain amount, but can still afford the gifts that your loved ones will enjoy. Never has this concern been greater in recent years than right now. Even so, there are several things that you can do to help.
Hit the sales.
No one wants to get up at four o’clock in the morning and fight to get the best deal on Black Friday, and it’s surely very tough to pick up the courage and get out there in the cold for a good deal, but sometimes——it can be well worth. Many retailers(零售商) offer specials all through the day——and some even offer online Black Friday specials, so you may still be able to get a great deal on Black Friday.
Pay close attention to advertisements.
Once the Christmas shopping season is coming, retailers hungry for business will do just about whatever to get you in the store. Pay very close attention to weekly advertisements of sales among the major retailers and you may be lucky enough to find different prices for the same thing in different shops.
Shop online.
Some of us don’t like running from store to store in order to get the best price on the perfect gift, and some of us don’t like to go out in the cold at all——thankfully for us, we can do online shopping.
The world of online shopping lets people visit all the major retailers as well as some specialty stores that could only be found on the Internet. Customers can find exactly what they are looking for, at the best possible price without ever having to leave the house. With traditional Christmas shopping consumers are sometimes limited to what’s left in stock if they wait too long to get to a particular store.
【小題1】The first paragraph implies that ______.

The 92-year-old, thin, calm and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, even though she is nearly blind, moved to a nursing home today.
Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the hall of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.
As she walked slowly to lift, I provided a true description of her tiny room, including the old sheets(床單) that had been hung on her window. “I love it.” She said with the happiness.
“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room…. Just wait..”  “That doesn’t matter.” She replied. “ Happiness is something you decide ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. It is how I arrange my mind, I have already decided to lobe it. It is a decision I make every morning when I wake up. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I will focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away.” She went on to explain, “Old age is like a bank account(帳戶). You put what you have in. So, my advice to you would be to put in a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my memory bank.” And with a smile, she said, “All my memories are happy ones.”
Mr. Jones was always happy in the nursing home and she died at the age of 108.
【小題1】 We can infer from the passage that the writer_____________.

Investors soon will be able to own shares of Facebook stock. The world’s biggest social media network presented documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The documents are required before the company can make its initial public offering（首次公開募股）or IPO. A date for the stock sale has yet to be announced.
Experts say Facebook could raise about five billion dollars. That would be one of the biggest IPO sales ever. And it would be much bigger than Google’s first public stock sale in 2004. At that time, the Internet search company raised almost two billion dollars.
Facebook has 800 million users around the world. It is the second most visited website after Google. Now, experts say the social media network is in a position to become one of the most valuable Internet companies.
Stock expert Anupam Palit at Greencrest Capital says that among social media sites, Facebook is in a class by itself.
“It is the biggest company in this space and we believe what makes it very unique from every other company that went public last year in this space is that it is very, very profitable.” said Anupam Palit.
Early estimates place the total value of the social network between 75 and 100 billion dollars. That includes earlier investments by other companies. David Kirkpatrick wrote the book The Facebook Effect. He says Facebook’s IPO will be historic.
The stock sale could also make Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg one of the world’s youngest billionaires. He is only 27.
Investment companies are likely to buy Facebook stock first. But investment manager Jim O’Shaugnessy says that is not so bad. He says the prices of some IPO stocks are too high and fall not long after they first go on sale.
Recently, share prices of some Internet businesses have fallen after their stocks were first offered. For example, stocks of Linkedln, Groupon and Zynga, dropped in price by as much as 25% after going public.
There were similar questions eight years ago when Google first sold stock to the public. Today, Google is one of the world’s most valuable technology companies.
【小題1】Which of the following is true about Google?