根据课文内容填空。(20*0.5'=10')

1.后半夜来了一场暴风雨，大雨倾盆而下。我们躲进了自己搭起来的避雨棚，让木筏顺流而下。

There was a big storm after midnight and the rain _____   ______. We stayed inside the _____ we had built and let the _____ sail down the river.

2.作家的生活经历常常和他们所创造的角色的生活经历相似。马克吐温也不例外。

Often the lives of writers_______ the lives of the characters they ______. Mark Twain is _____   _______.

3.欧洲是狂欢节的发源地，在那里，狂欢节过后会有40天不食肉的日子。这期间，人们准备迎接基督教的节日——复活节。

In Europe, ______ it began, _______ was followed by forty days without meat, as people ______  ______ the Christian festival of Easter.

4.那时，他们把自己的脸涂成白色，模仿并取笑他们的主人。

They ______ their faces white, imitating their masters and _____  ______ _____ them.

5.但就是这种失败感，使他决心在新的生活中取得成功。

But it was this _____  _______  ______ that made him determined to ______in his new life.

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.

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A. A Skeleton Key                       B. A Man of Many Secrets

C. World-wild Fame                          D. Great Escape 

After sunset on our last day at the farm I walked out into the desert. In this, the first pleasant moment for a walk after long hot hours, I thought I was the only thing out of doors. Suddenly I stopped. Before me a rattlesnake lay fixed, its head not yet drawn back to strike but only turned a little to watch what I would do. Many snakes will run away at the sight of a man but this rattlesnake felt no necessity to get out of any-body's way. He held his ground in calm watch-fullness waiting for me to show my intentions. My first aim was to take no notice of him; I had never killed an animal if I was not forced to kill. But I remembered that there were children, dogs and horses at the farm as well as men and women with thin clothes on; my duty was to kill the snake. I went back to the farm and returned with a stick. The rattlesnake had not moved; he lay like a wire but more quickly than I could stride he shot into a bush and set up his rattling, warning me by this that I had made an unreasonable attack and attempted to take his life and that if I insisted he would have no choice but to take mine if he could. For a moment I listened to this terrifying sound and then I struck into the bush with my stick and, chop-ping about, dragged him out of the bush with his back broken.

He struck once more at the stick but a moment later his neck was broken and he was soon dead althoughwww..com when I picked him up by the tail his mouth opened, proving that a dead snake may still bite. There was blood in his mouth and poison was dropping; it was not only a dis-gusting(令人作呕的) sight but a pitiful one too. I dropped the body into a green bush and, as I did so, I saw him in my imagination, crawling over the sands as he might have done if I had let him go.

At the sight of the author, the rattlesnake        .

A. shot into a bush

B. lay motionless but got ready to meet danger

C. drew itself up to strike

D. took no notice of his presence

The author had to kill the rattlesnake because       .

A. it stood in his way

B. it attempted to take his life

C. it presented a disgusting sight

D. its presence was a danger to the people and animals at the farm

Which of the following best describes the rattlesnake?

A. It attacked man without any reason.

B. It would not attack unless it was attacked.

C. It ran away at the sight of man.

D. It exposed itself to danger.

It is implied at the end of the passage that the author____.

A. regretted having killed the snake

B. was glad that he had killed the snake

C. felt a little sorry for the snake

D. could not help thinking about the dead snake

—He was nearly drowned in a pool.  

—Oh, when was ___ exactly?

     — It was in 1983 ____ he was swimming with his friends.

A. this; that         B. that; when        C. that; that         D. what; when

I have made ______ clear _______ I have nothing to do with the accident.

A．it; what           B．that; that          C．it; that            D．this; that