青年网上卖硬币，年收入数万英镑
A young man who got bored of working as a labourer on a building site now makes up to ￡70,000 a year selling rare coins on eBay. James Grear, 20, from Bristol, set up The Coin Supplier with his friend Harry when they were both 18 and looking to increase the ￡9 an hour they earned in the construction trade.
They got the idea for the company after Mr Grear noticed a rare WWF 50p from 2011 that was selling for eight times its value on eBay and realised there was cash to be made.
They initially struggled to find enough rare coins to sell — as they were limited to get ￡100 of change a day from banks and could not find enough cash.But two years later, the company now has made between ￡50,000 and ￡70,000 a year, with coins sold under fixed prices rather than auctioned.
Mr Grear told Sun Online's Tara Evans,“I will sit down and observe all the coins. Since we started, I've learnt which coins are good and got much quicker at it. It wasn't easy to find a supplier. We had to go out and find people that would support our business.” Harry left to travel the world， so Mr Grear now runs the firm from his bedroom, although he hopes to move into an office soon.
There is plenty of money to be made in selling rare and unusual coins, as our guide shows below.But be careful — not all coins that look unusual will be worth anything extra. Yasmin Britton, of Change Checker, says, “It could be that the coin is a mis-strike, so the stamp is not central or complete. This can happen when a tiny bit of dirt gets into the machine and does not mean a coin is rare or valuable. People may have kept their coins for various reasons and it's even possible the coin is not real.”
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1.How long has James Grear sold the coins?
A 2 years.
B 9 years.
C 18 years.
D 20 years.
解析：选A。细节理解题。根据第一段第二句的James Grear, 20, from Bristol, set up The Coin Supplier with his friend Harry when they were both 18可以得知他是从18岁开始卖硬币的，而他现在20岁了，因此可以得知他卖了两年了。故选A。
2.How did they get the idea of selling coins?
A They were tired of working as labourers.
B They made much money in the construction trade.
C They found someone else sold the coins.
D They got interested in the very rare coins.
解析：选C。细节理解题。根据第二段They got the idea for the company after Mr Grear noticed a rare WWF 50p from 2011 that was selling for eight times its value on eBay and realised there was cash to be made.可以得知他们看到其他人在网上卖硬币，因此他们就开始卖硬币了。故选C。
3.What difficulty did they have at the beginning of their business?
A They couldn’t find the place to sell coins.
B They didn’t know the exact price of coins.
C They had little room to store so many coins.
D They didn’t have enough money to get coins.
解析：选D。推理判断题。根据第三段第一句的as they were limited to get ￡100 of change a day from banks and could not find enough cash可以得知他们没有足够的钱来储存硬币。故选D。
4.What should people keep in mind when buying rare coins?
A All the rare coins are valuable.
B Good coins are not complete.
C People even like unreal coins.
D It’s hard to tell the price of coins.
解析：选D。推理判断题。根据最后一段第二句的But be careful — not all coins that look unusual will be worth anything extra可以得知很难判断硬币的价格。故选D。