Directions:There are 10 questions in this part of the
test. Read the passage through. Then, go back and choose one suitable word or
phrase marked A, B, C, or D for each blank in the passage. Many people invest in the stock market hoping to find the next
Microsoft and Dell. However, I know from personal experience how difficult this
really is. For more than a year, I was 1 hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars a day investing in the market.
It seemed so easy, I dreamed of 2 my
job at the end of the year, of buying a small apartment in Paris, of traveling
around the world. But these dreams came to a sudden and dramatic end when a
stock I 3 , Texas cellular pone
wholesaler, fell by more than 75 percent 4 a one year period. On the worst day, it plunged by more than $15 a share.
There was a rumor the company was exaggerating sales figures. That was when I
learned how quickly Wall Street punishes companies that misrepresent the
5 In a panic, I sold
all my stock in the company, paying off margin debt with cash advances from my
credit card. Because I owned so many shares, I 6
a small fortune, half of it from money I borrowed from the
brokerage company. One month, I am a winner, the next, a loser. This one big
loss was my first lesson in the market. My father was a
stockbroker, as was my grandfather 7 him.(In fact, he founded one of Chicago’s earliest brokerage firms.) But
like so many things in life, we don’t learn anything until we experience it for
ourselves. The only way to really understand the inner
8 of the stock market is to invest your own hard-earned
money. When all your stocks are doing 9 and you feel like a winner, you learn very little. It’s when all your stocks
are losing and everyone is questioning your stock-picking
10 that you find out if you have what it takes to invest in
the market.