Burn rate is the speed at which a startup business consumes money. My rate was $ 75,000 a month. Four months after my company was set up, I had only a quarter of the starting capital left in the bank.

    Looking for guidance, I went to talk to my friend, Arthur Walworth about my new venture.

    “Times of great change always bring out the risk-takers,” he said. “And they leave winners and losers. My grandfather invested a lot of money in a project of Thomas Edison’s that ended up in failure.”

    I was lost in thought at the notion of a Thomas Edison project ending in failure. Damn. It could happen to anybody! I must continue.

    At that time CD-ROM sales had bombed, so investors were fleeting from the field. I didn’t turn away from mine entirely, but instead linked it to the Internet.
My plan was to offer consumers descriptions of home-design products by using a special software and let them modify the designs. Then we can enable them to get online professional and constructional help to have their houses built, decorated and furnished according to their own choice.

    To realize my plan I needed investors, so I continued to meet regularly with venture capitalists. One said I had a great idea. But I needed to test it. Get the money somewhere. To get this money from a VC is going to cost my wife and my children! He turned down my request.

    Wife ? Children ? I barely remembered them.

    I was working nonstop ― struggling to the key in the lock, to find the right way ahead.

    The pressure was terrible. It was just at this time that my parents and sisters stepped up. Two hundred thousands dollars. A lot of money to them, invested in this crazy son and brother without a moment’s hesitation. Dad and Mom had driven out from Chicago and seen the passion in my little office and the trouble at home.
With their help my company survived and has been prospering ever since. (2006.6 Passage 1)

    1. When the author’s company started operation, he had ____________.
    A. $ 450,000     B. $ 400,000      C. $350,000      D. $ 300,000

    2. Arthur implies that to start a business in times of charge, people have to _______.
    A. rely on famous people all the time.
    B. invest as much money as possible.
    C. face the risks of possible failure.
    D. think about nothing but success

    3. The author’s company was engaged in _________.
    A. furniture design and production
    B. online home-design service
    C. traditional home designing
    D. home decoration business

    4. Faced with a very favorable market situation, the author decided _________.
    A. to improve his service
    B. to start a new business
    C. to withdraw his money
    D. to reduce his investment

    5. It is implied that venture is often __________.
    A. risky    B. timely     C. secure     D. abundant

    1-5 BCBAA

    When we think about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, a peak of great delight ― and those peaks seem to get rarer the older we get.

    For a child, happiness has a magical quality. I remember making hide-outs in newly cut hay, playing cops and robbers in the woods, getting a speaking part in the school play. Of course, kids also experience lows, but their delight at such peaks of pleasure as winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved.

    For teenagers, or people under twenty, the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it’s conditional on such things as excitement, love, and popularity. I can still feel the agony of not being invited to a party that almost everyone else was going to. But I also recall the great happiness of being invited at another event to dance with a very handsome, young man.

    In adulthood the things that bring great joy ― marriage, love, birth ― also responsibility and the risk of loss. Love may not last, sex isn’t always good, loved ones die. For adults, happiness is complicated.

    My dictionary explains happy as “lucky” or “fortunate,” but I think a better explanation of happiness is “the capacity for enjoyment.” The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are. It’s easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved, the company of friends, the freedom to love where we please, even good health. Nowadays, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, we have turned happiness into one more thing we “gotta have.” We’re so self-conscious about our “right” to it that it’s making us extremely unhappy. So we chase it and consider it to be the same as wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren’t necessarily happier.

    While happiness may be more complex for us, the solution is the same as ever. Happiness isn’t about what happens to us ― it’s about how we perceive what happens to us. It’s the ability to find a positive for every negative, and view a setback as a challenge, it’s not wishing for what we don’t have, but enjoying what we do possess. (2006.6 Passage 2)

    1. According to the author, happiness lies in the ability to _________.
    A. think of something extraordinary
    B. experience delight at an old age
    C. feel the magic quality of pleasure
    D. enjoy what one has at the moment.

    2. According to the passage, a teenager looks at happiness mainly in terms of ________.
    A. material gains        B. social distinction
    C. spiritual satisfaction   D. academic achievement

    3. As is suggested in the passage, failure to feel happy often results from ________.
    A. lack of company of friends
    B. lack of freedom to love and be loved
    C. taking everything one has for granted
    D. ignoring the choices one is given in life

    4. The author implies that when one chases wealth and finally gets it _______.
    A. he can realize what happiness is
    B. he may not end up with happiness
    C. he may consider it extreme happiness
    D. he should not feel content with himself

    5. The passage aims to tell _________.
    A. the real meaning of happiness
    B. the great importance of happiness
    C. the constant pursuit of happiness
    D. the changing concept of happiness

    1-5 DCCBA