( )的出现，大大降低了人工成本，使商品的价格更加具有竞争力。A．百货商店 B．零

In a land far away, once upon a time there was great poverty, and only the rich could manage without great problems．It is said that one day three of those rich men and their servants were         together on a road when they came to a very poor village．
The first could not stand seeing the         , so he took all the gold and jewels from his wagons （四轮载重马车） and shared them out among the villagers．He wished them all the best of luck, and he left．
The second rich man, seeing the worrying situation, stopped for a short time and then decided to give the        all his food and drink, since he could see that money would be of little         to them．He made sure that they each         their fair share and would have enough food to last for some time．Then, he left．
The third rich man, on seeing such poverty,        and went straight through the poverty-stricken village without stopping．The two other rich men saw all this from a distance and commented heatedly with each other on how the third rich man lacked sympathy．It was         that they themselves had been there to offer help．
However, to their great surprise,  three days later, they        the third rich man, who was coming in the         direction．He was still traveling quickly, but his wagons, instead of the gold and valuables they had been carrying, were now completely full of farming tools and bags of        ．He was rushing back to help them out of poverty．

小题1:	A．standing B．traveling C．gathering D．running

小题2:	A．land B．welfare C．richness D．poverty

小题3:	A．villagers B．servants C．others D．rest

小题4:	A．interest B．concern C．use D．attraction

小题5:	A．returned B．possessed C．offered D．received

小题6:	A．turned around B．certain C．true D．strange

小题7:	A．welcomed B．met C．accepted D．persuaded

小题8:	A．opposite B．same C．similar D．familiar

小题9:	A．food B．jewels C．money D．seeds