Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend. But some women show great interest in colorful beads（珠子）from Uganda made of recycled paper. The beads are sold by a nonprofit organization called BeadforLife.
BeadforLife began as a chance meeting between three American women on a trip to Uganda and a local jewelry maker. Millie Grace Akena was rolling paper beads near her home. She made paper beads as a hobby. But there was no real market in her country.
Torkin Wakefield says she and her daughters Devin and Ginny brought some of the beads back home. Immediately people started admiring the beads. The three Americans started BeadforLife in 2004. Nearly 700 women have taken part.
The group says its beaders earn an average of more than 2,000 dollars a year in the program. This is five times what they earned before. The beads are sold across Uganda and in Boulder, Colorado. They are also sold online and at jewelry shows called bead parties. “Because they have meaning, because these are gifts that help people, when folks in America and beyond buy our beads, they feel a sense of generosity. They feel a direct connection, like they can really take part in getting rid of poverty.” Torkin said.
The jewelry costs between five and thirty dollars. BeadforLife reported sales in its last budget year of more that 3.5 million dollars. It says for every ten-dollar necklace sold, the beader gets two dollars and forty-three cents in money or materials. It says more than 90% of earnings are reinvested in community development projects in Uganda. Torkin Wakefield estimates that BeadforLi
fe has helped more than 8,000 people this way.
So what about Millie Grace Akena, the jewelry maker? Mrs Wakefield says she has gone on to organize a small group of women who work with her, and they sell their beads to a religious group.
小题1:According to the passage, BeadforLife is an organization that ______.
| A．provides poor people worldwide with free education |
| B．mainly encourages people to learn to earn a living on their own |
| C．has attracted many businessmen to invest in beading |
| D．supports community development projects in Uganda |
小题2:When Torkin Wakefield brought the beads to America, ______.
| A．she didn’t know people would like them |
| B．she wanted to make a fortune out of them |
| C．people showed great interest in them at once |
| D．she was thinking of how to find investors |
小题3:According to Paragraph 4, the beads are popular because ______.
| A．people think buying them is a good way to help the poor |
| B．they are of good quality and can be kept for a long time |
| C．they symbolize the most important thing in people’s life |
| D．they look even more beautiful than diamonds |
小题4:Which of the following can best summarize the main idea of the passage?
A．Mrs Wakefield makes a great contribution to developing count ries. |
| B．BeadforLife makes beads out of recycled paper. |
| C．BeadforLife uses paper beads to improve people’s lives. |
| D．Mrs Wakefield’s career takes off thanks to paper beads. |