When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man bought it for a few coppers（铜钱）.Between its pages there was something very interesting. It was a thin paper on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone”!
The touchstone was a small pebble（卵石）that could turn any common metal into gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles were cold.
So the man camped on the seashore and began testing pebbles.
He thought that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and put them down again, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone.
The days became weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea .So when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.
So it is with opportunity. Unless we are careful, it’s easy to fail to know an opportunity when it is in hand and it’s just as easy to throw it away.
The book was special to the man because ______.

A．it was made of cotton

B．it was the only book that was saved from the great fire

C．it was a story about how to tell the touchstone from ordinary stones

D．it included the secret of the touchstone

The man threw pebbles into the sea ______.

A．to test how far he could throw

B．to practice throwing pebbles

C．to avoid picking up the same pebble once again

D．to express his disappointment at failing to find the touchstone

The story is written mainly to tell us that___________.

A．careful habits can lead to success.

B．habits can benefit you but also hold you back.

C．never judge a person or a thing by appearances.

D．opportunity only visits the ready and watchful mind

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