THREE CENTURIES OF HOAXES（骗局；恶作剧）！

A THINKING MACHINE

In 1769，long before computers were invented，a man from Hungary（匈牙利） built a wonderful machine that could play chess very well．It delighted（使高兴） people all over Europe and beat nearly everyone it played，including famous figures like French leader Napoleon Bonaparte，and scientist and inventor Benjamin Franklin．For decades，many people believed that it was truly a thinking machine．

There were people who said it was a hoax，but could not prove it or explain how it worked．About 85 years later，the secret was finally revealed．There was a man hiding inside the machine all the time…who was obviously very good at playing chess!

200 ESCAPE（逃脱）

On November 9，1874，New York newspaper，The Herald，ran a shocking story on its front page．It said that all the animals in the Central Park Zoo had escaped and were running around the city．It said the police were working to save people，but 27 people had already been killed，and 200 people hut．It wanted everyone to stay at home to avoid danger．Many people in New York were terrified，and did as the paper said．If only they had read the final words of the article，which said："Not one word of it is true Not a single act described has taken place．"It was all just a hoax．The story was made up by Thomas Connery，an editor at The Herald，who wanted to draw attention to the poor condition of cages in the zoo．

ROSIE THE RUNNER

The first woman to cross the finish line of the 1980 Boston Marathon（马拉松） was 23﹣year﹣old Rosie Ruiz．However，as she climbed the stairs to receive her prize，people started to become suspicious（怀疑的）．She didn't seem to be tired at all．Furthermore，none of the other runners remembered seeing her，and her picture never appeared in photos or TV broadcasts of the race．Later，several people said that they had seen her join the race only at the end．It turned out she had run only half a mile（about 805 meters）and taken the train for the rest of the race! Her prize was taken away，of course．

42．The underlined word "it" in Paragraph 1 refers to（指）　　

A．the hoax．

B．the news．

C．the thinking machine．

D．the computer．

43．Which of the following is mentioned in the passage？　　

A．The thinking machine used a computer to win games．

B.200 people were killed by zoo animals in l874．

C．Rosie Ruiz wasn't tired at the finish line．

D．Rosie Ruiz didn't appear in TV broadcasts of the race．

44．What is true about all the writer in the passage？　　

A．They made people scared．

B．They fooled a lot of people．

C．They made people suspicious．

D．They delighted people．

45．The title of the passage shows us that the writer thinks that hoaxes 　　

A．are not new．

B．are easily avoided．

C．are always cruel．

D．are usually unbelievable．

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