The Man of Many Secrets — Harry Houdini — was one of the greatest American entertainers in the theater this century. He was a man famous for his escapes — from prison cells, from wooden boxes floating in rivers, from locked tanks full of water. He appeared in theaters all over Europe and America. Crowds came to see the great Houdini and his “magic” tricks.
Of course, his secret was not magic, or supernatural powers. It was simply strength. He had the ability to move his toes as well as he moved his fingers. He could move his body into almost any position he wanted.
Houdini started working in the entertainment world when he was 17, in 1891. He and his brother Theo performed card tricks in club in New York. They called themselves the Houdini Brothers. When Harry married in 1894, he and his wife Bess worked together as magician and assistant. But for a long time they were not very successful. Then Harry performed his first prison escape, in Chicago in 1898. Harry persuaded a detective to let him try to escape from the prison, and he invited the local newspapermen to watch.
It was the publicity(宣传) that came from this that started Harry Houdini’s success. Harry had fingers trained to escape from handcuffs and toes trained to escape ankle chins. But his biggest secret was how he unlocked the prison doors. Every time he went into the prison cell, Bess gave him a kiss for good luck — and a small skeleton key, which is a key that fits many locks, pass quickly from her mouth to his.
Harry used these prison escapes to build his fame. He arranged to escape from the local prison of every town he visited. In the afternoon, the people of the town would read about it in their local newspapers, and in the evening every seat in the local theater would be full. What was the result? World-wild fame, and a name remembered today.According to the passage, Houdini’s success in prison escapes depends on _______.
| A．his special tricks and supernatural powers |
| B．his unusual ability and a skeleton key |
| C．his magic tricks and unhuman powers |
| D．his wisdom and magic tricks |
In the fourth paragraph, the underlined word “this” refers to _______.
| A．his first prison escape | B．the year 1898 |
| C．the publicity | D．Harry Houdini’s success |
It can be inferred from the passage that Houdini became famous _______.
| A．in 1894 | B．before he married |
| C．at the age of 17 | D．when he was about 24 |
A Bite of China, featuring delicious Chinese food, has attracted countless viewers, and moved many to tears.
A Bite of China is a serious documentary providing a unique view of Chinese as well as the relations between people and food and between people and society from the view of food. The touching documentary reminds some people of their mother, and makes some realize that every grain comes from hard and laborious work. Some people see patriotism(爱国精神) in the documentary, and some consider it a great cultural export.
How did this documentary achieve a great influence beyond its subject matter in such a short time?
“It is not empty propaganda(宣传) about China’s splendid food culture. Instead, it shows the techniques used in making food and their production process as well as the lives of ordinary people, thus striking a chord(共鸣) with the audience,” an Internet user said. The success of the documentary should be owed to sincerity and reality. Nowadays, many works of art that have high investment, high technology, and magnificent scenes lack nothing but sincerity and reality.
A Bite of China shows that a commercial documentary promoting patriotism can be full of touching details, that the emotions of ordinary Chinese people should be exhibited even in publicizing(宣传) China overseas, and that even a completely commercial program can achieve both artistic and commercial success.
“We made this documentary with our respect and love for food,” said director Chen Xiaoqing. Being sincere is the most important thing for artists because they cannot move others unless they themselves are first moved, and cannot convince others unless they themselves are first convinced. Sincerity is the “secret” for making this documentary so popular, and every cultural creator should learn from its success.According to the passage, A Bite of China is _______.
| A．a book | B．a film |
| C．a newspaper | D．a TV program |
What can you find in A Bite of China?
| A．Relations between people and food. |
| B．Real lives of all Chinese people. |
| C．Patriotic stories of Chinese people. |
| D．processes of preparing food. |
From the passage, it can be inferred that ________.
| A．The documentary is so successful that no one can surpass (超越) it. |
| B．Different people can get different messages from the documentary. |
| C．The documentary should have shown China’s splendid food culture. |
| D．Many art works fail to reflect (反映) reality and high technology. |
The main idea of the last paragraph is that ________.
| A．Director’s respect and love for food. |
| B．The secret of the documentary’s success. |
| C．The influence of the documentary. |
| D．The popularity of the documentary. |
Children who are brought up by two parents grow up to be cleverer than those raised by just one person, new research suggests. Being with both parents in the earliest years of life leads to a child developing more brain cells, the scientists believe. Being brought up by both parents causes boys to have better memory and learning functions. By contrast, it causes girls to develop improved co-ordination and sociability.
It is believed that babies with two parents tend to get more attention and more stability(稳定), and that they are less likely to suffer emotional distress(悲伤) in the first years of life. This leads to greater brain cell production ------ for boys it is grey matter brain cells that develop and for girls is white matter brain cells.
The researchers from Canada studied mice and experimented by creating one-parent and two-parent family groups. They then measured the offspring’s(后代的) brain cell development from birth to adulthood. Adult mice with the highest number of brain cells turned out to be those who had been brought up by two parents rather than one. As babies they had received more attention and more nursing as both parents took turns to lick and tend to their youngsters, said Dr Samuel Weiss.
As a result, the babies with two parents are less likely to suffer early life hurt which can have a massive impact on how their brains develop in later life, the research shows. However, what did surprise the researchers is that female babies who grew up with both parents turned out to be good single mothers, as if good parenting was passed on.
The researchers said,“ In the mouse model, parenting and the environment directly impacted adult brain cell production. It is possible that similar effects could be seen in other mammals, such as humans.”From the first paragraph we can draw a conclusion that ________.
| A．Girls have better memory and learning functions. |
| B．Boys are better at co-ordination and sociability. |
| C．The benefits vary between the sexes. |
| D．The benefits are the same between the sexes. |
The researchers proved their idea ________.
| A．by questionnaire on parents. |
| B．by experiment on mice. |
| C．by raising babies themselves. |
| D．by experiment on humans. |
The underlined word “impacted” means _________.
| A．destroyed | B．constructed |
| C．influenced | D．disagreed |
What does the passage mainly tell us?
| A．Children brought up by two parents are cleverer. |
| B．Children brought up by single parent are cleverer. |
| C．Children grow up themselves are cleverer. |
| D．Children grow up themselves are more self-confident. |
Right now in China, talks on the street have been about the strange weather and it's raising a lot of concerns. A heavy haze(雾霾) has blanketed many cities in the northern and southern parts of the country in part of an unusual weather system that’s descended on the nation.
The haze stretches over a vast area, from Hebei and Shan-dong Provinces in the north all the way to Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan and Fujian provinces in the south. At its worst, the smog is reducing visibility to less than 200 meters and disrupting traffic, both on the ground and in the air. The weather front has also led many to worry about the possible health impacts.
Many cities are waking up to another day covered by a dense haze. In Beijing, drivers have to keep their lights on even though it’s already past eight o’clock in the morning. Even driving at very slow speeds, the roads can still be very dangerous. In some of the worst hit areas, drivers can’t even tell the colors of traffic signals. Authorities have stepped in to close off many highways across the troubled region. In Shandong Province, the highways that are open are backed up for miles. And traffic police have stepped up their patrols.
In the region’s airports, flights information boards have gone red. A huge number of flights have been delayed or cancelled, nearly three hundred in Beijing alone, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Some are more frustrated than impatient. Passenger from Jinan airport, Shangdong province, said: “I’ve been waiting for more than five hours. It’s Mother Nature, so there’s really nothing we can do.” The airport is urging passengers to confirm with their carrier whether their flight will still take off as scheduled.
Back on the city streets, people are wearing breathing masks to get free from any ill effects. Fog has cleared a little in Shanghai. But damage has already been done. Shanghai resident said: “I’ve been wearing the mask, but still, my throat feels sour and itchy. I think it’s because of the weather.”
The weather forecast predicts a cold front is about to sweep across central and eastern China tomorrow. Many are hoping that this will clear away the depressive haze as well as the harm it brings.The harm the smog caused didn’t include.
| A．reducing visibility to less than 200 meters |
| B．disrupting traffic |
| C．health problems |
| D．heavy fog |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Only a small part of China suffered the haze. |
| B．Many highways were blocked up |
| C．All the flights were delayed or cancelled |
| D．The bad weather would last another few days |
When the passenger said “It is Mother Nature”, he had a feeling of.
| A．impatience | B．frustration |
| C．Anxiety | D．curiosity |
The passage is developed by.
| A．making comparisons |
| B．giving examples |
| C．following the time order |
| D．analyzing the causes |
A soldier who lost both his legs after being blown up in Afghanistan is racing a sports car in his hometown this weekend.
Remarkably David Birrell will not only drive the Mazda MX5 but he does without any specially adapted equipment.
Davie, 28, has battled back from terrible injuries after a bomb blew up directly below him. He gave himself first aid and fired at Taliban(塔利班) fighters until help arrived. Davie was always interested in motor sport and after spending weeks in hospital was introduced by Help the Heroes to Mission Motorsport, which helps the wounded recover. The charity(慈善机构) are organizing a major event, Race of Remembrance, at the Anglesey Circuit near Rhosneigr of North Wales in November, and Davie was at the circuit yesterday for an official launch.
He said,“It’s my first time racing on Anflesey. This means everything to me. I loved it straight away, and it gives you something to focus on, to try and stay in front of others. I was boxing since the age of eight and my whole life has been one-to-one competition. But now everything has changed.”
Davie, a corporal（下士）in the Black Watch, was in Helmand in April 2010 when his interpreter stood on the bomb. He said,“I was confused and went blank（空白） for a couple of seconds. There was dust in the air and I couldn’t see. Both legs were still attached but there were massive injuries to my right leg and my left foot was broken.”As the Taliban began firing he returned fire and waited for help. He added,“A medical team came over. I was taken back to Camp Bastion by helicopter. I was there for two days before being flown to hospital in Birmingham.”
He had lost his right leg and the following year had his left leg amputated below the knee, ending the Army career.Davie was wounded _____________ according to the passage?
| A．In Rhosneigr. | B．In Birmingham. |
| C．In Helmand. | D．In Bastion. |
___________can replace the underlined word“ amputated” in the last paragraph?
| A．Cut off. | B．Blew up. |
| C．Focused on. | D．Attached to. |
Davie is most likely to come from ___________.
| A．Afghanistan. | B．the UK. |
| C．the US. | D．Taliban. |
What we know about Davie is that _____________.
| A．Davie was killed by Taliban fighters. |
| B．Davie’s interpreter survived the accident. |
| C．Davie’s legs were blown up immediately. |
| D．Davie might like boxing when he was young. |
What do you do when you need to look something up? Go to the library? Open an encyclopedia（百科全书）? Click onto the Internet? These days, most people go straight to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. But how reliable is it?
There is no denying the popularity and usefulness of Wikipedia. It attracts as many as 78 million visitors every month, and the site is available in more than 270 different languages. It’s one of the most comprehensive resources available, which includes almost all details, facts and information that maybe concerned. It's got much more information than an ordinary encyclopedia. The site is updated on a daily basis by thousands of people around the world. Anyone with an Internet connection can log on and edit the contents or add a new page. And you don't need any formal training.
Of course, there are some controls. Wikipedia has a team of more than 1,500 administrators who check for false information. And main targets for harmful comments(such as politicians) are off-limits to public editing. But with more than 16 million articles to keep an eye on, it isn't easy. So, while Wikipedia benefits from being constantly updated with information from all over the world, it's also open to “vandals” (破坏他人财产者).
Some of the damage is easy to notice. One person drew devil horns and a moustache on Microsoft chairman Bill Gates’ photo, while another edited Greek philosopher Plato’s biography to say he was a “Hawaiian weather man who is wildly believed to have been a student of‘Barney the purple Dinosaur’ and to have been deeply influenced by his dog, Cutie”.
But other things are harder to spot. The most common form of vandalism involves adding tiny items of false information into the biography of a famous person. Unbelievably, some of this misinformation has appeared in newspapers, with The Daily Mail, The Guardian and The Independent all having fallen victim to the dirty tricks. For example, in an article about British comedian Sir Norman Wisdom, one newspaper claimed that he co-wrote Dame Vera Lynn’s wartime hit There’ll be bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover. He did no such thing. And in another article, it was reported that TV Theme tune composer Ronnie Hazlehurst had written the S Club 7’s hit Reach. Once again, not true.
So, if you are going to use any information from Wikipedia, make sure you double-check it first.Which of the following would the author most probably agree with?
| A．Before using the information from Wikipedia, one should first check it. |
| B．Though popular and wildly used, Wikipedia provides little reliable information. |
| C．It is understandable that some people add false information to Wikipedia. |
| D．Updated on a daily basis, any information from Wikipedia is reliable. |
We can learn from the passage that _______________ .
| A．because of its popularity, 78 million people from 270 countries visit Wikipedia monthly |
| B．Wikipedia is the most comprehensive resource with all information we need |
| C．anyone who has access to the Internet can edit any contents of Wikipedia as they like |
| D．the primary job of the administrator is to make sure true information is conveyed |
What does the underlined part “off-limits” in paragraph 3 mean?
| A．Not convenient | B．Not welcome |
| C．Not accessible | D．Not boundless |
What’s the writer’s attitude to Wikipedia?
| A．Negative | B．Worried |
| C．Indifferent | D．Objective |