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A

A T-shirt has become one of the most popular items sold by online trader Amazon in the past few weeks. Sales of the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt shot up 2，300% after an increase of ironic（諷刺性的）comments went up.

The first review gave the shirt five stars， saying “It fits my fat body， has wolves on it， attracts girls” but “cannot see wolves with arms crossed”. That caused hundreds of others to post foolish reviews， turning the page into an Internet attraction.

“When I put this T-shirt on for the first time， my wife left me！ Thank you， Three Wolf Moon T-shirt！” wrote one man， while another said， “The Three Wolf Moon T-shirt gave me a ten-plus resistance to energy attacks， eight-plus strength. And I have successfully solved 7 crimes in my city.”

Amazons senior manager of community content， Russell Dicker， said the T-shirt was currently the top selling item in their clothing store. “The Three Wolf Moon T-shirt recently moved up 2，300% in sales rank，” he said. “We are grateful that our reviewers are so passionate.”

However， the firm which actually made the T-shirt appeared less than pleased at some of the comments. “The Mountain is a wholesale（批發(fā)的）company and does not sell shirts on Amazon. These comments werent acceptable in some way until the shirt made the Mountain Three Wolf Moon T-shirt company into the top 10 in the Amazon clothing part，” they said in a posting on the Amazon site. “We appreciate buyers humor， but we dont agree on some of the remarks.”

However， the firms art director Michael McGloin said the firm was actually rather pleased with the publicity. “Well take ironic fashion someday and were printing another 400，000 more T-shirts， and its just a wonderful thing，” he said.

1. What brought about the increase of the sale of the T-shirt？

A. The low price. B. The quality of it.

C. The special style. D. The humorous reviews.

2. What is probably the second man mentioned in Paragraph 3？

A. A policeman. B. A salesman.

C. An athlete. D. An official.

3. Talking about The Mountain， the firm that made the T-shirt ___ .

A. was to compete with it

B. decided to force it to sell more

C. was not satisfied with it at first

D. thought it should make greater progress

4. What can we infer from the words of Michael McGloin？

A. He is proud. B. He is honest.

C. He is hopeful. D. He is hard-working.

B

What I saw was a great opportunity to provide computing technology in a more efficient way. I started the business with a simple question： how can we make the process of buying a computer better？ The answer was： sell the computer directly to the end customers.

Sometimes its better not to ask or to listen when people tell you something cant be done. I didnt ask for permission. I just went ahead and did it.

On January 2， 1990， I went back to Austin before I had to attend classes， and I did all the things one needed to do to set up a business. I registered the company with the State of Texas as “PCs Limited”. I placed ads in the classified section in our local newspaper.

Through my previous contracts with customers and the small ads I placed in the paper， I was already getting a lot of business. I was selling upgraded personal computers， and add-on computer components between $50，000 to $80，000 to people in Austin area. Not long after starting the classes I was able to move from the room that I shared with a roommate to an apartment with high ceilings and two bedrooms. I didnt， however， tell my parents for a few months that I moved.

In early May， about a week before I took my final exam to complete my freshman year， I set up the company as “Dell Computer Corporation”， doing business as “PCs Limited”. I hired a few people to take orders over telephone and a few more to fulfill them.

Not going to college is not an acceptable option in my hometown. Persuading my parents to allow me to leave school would have been impossible. So I just went ahead and did it， whatever the results. I finished my freshman year， and left. After a while， my parents forgave me. And a little bit after that， I forgave them， too.

People ask me now， “Were you scared？” Sure. But it turned out， the time for founding PCs Limited couldnt have been better.

5. What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 2？

A. He felt sure of success.

B. He thought others were helpless.

C. He used to do things all by himself.

D. He was not easily influenced by others.

6. What was the author when he started the business？

A. A salesman. B. A farmer.

C. A worker. D. A student.

7. Which is the correct order of the events the author experienced？

a. He left college.

b. He hired some workers.

c. He registered a company.

d. He moved into an apartment.

A. a， c， b， d B. a， d， b， c

C. c， b， d， a D. b， c， d， a

8. How did the author feel talking about his PCs Limited？

A. Satisfied. B. Pressed.

C. Excited. D. Worried.