For the past two years, 8-year-old Harli Jordean from Stoke Newington, London, has been selling marbles(弹珠). His successful marble company, Marble King, sells all things marble-related － from affordable tubs of the glass playthings to significantly expensive items like Duke of York solitaire tables － sourced, purchased and processed by the mini-CEO himself.
“I like having my own company. I like being the boss,” Harli told the Mirror.
With profits now in the thousands, “the world’s youngest CEO” has had to get his mother and older brothers to help him meet the growing demand.
Harli launched Marble King after swapping marbles at school led to schoolchildren consuming his marble collection. Yes, he literally “lost his marbles.” Harli and his mother, Tina, turned to the Internet to find replacements.
Harli saw an empty space online: the marbles he wanted were hard to find. Within months, Harli had his own marble-selling website － and orders started pouring in.
Tina says her son's attachment to marbles started when he was just 6.
“His attachment became so passionate that we started calling him the Marble King — so when he wanted to set up a website it was the natural name for it,” she told The Sun.
“I never thought it would become so popular － we are struggling to cope with the number of orders at times.”
The 8-year-old boy has his sights set on expanding his business and launching his own brand of marbles.
“Sometimes his ideas are so grand we have to scale them back a bit. But his dream is still to own Britain's biggest marble shop and open stores around the world,” Tina told The Daily Mail.
“At the moment he is annoying me by creating his own Marble King marbles － so that could well be the next step for him.”
小题1:Harli’s Marble Company became popular as soon as he launched it because ______.
A．it was run by “the world’s youngest CEO”
B．it filled the gap of online marble trade
C．Harli was fascinated with marble collection
D．Harli met the growing demand of the customers小题2:How many mass media are mentioned in the passage?
A．One
B．Two
C．Three
D．Four小题3:The underlined expression “scale them back” is closest in meaning to ______.
A．hold them down
B．carry them out
C．set them aside
D．clear them away小题4:What message do the last two paragraphs carry?
A．Conflicts often occur between Harli Jordean and his family.
B．Harli’s mother and brothers are worried about Marble King’s future.
C．Marble King marbles will surely attract more fans around the world.
D．The “Marble King” has great ambition for his Marble King company.
