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

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A. A Quilt Show

B. Mother’s Home

C. A Monday Dinner

D. Grandmother’s Quilt

B

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.

3. The underlined wood “crooked” in the passage most probably means　　　 .

A. unfinished

B. broken

C. bent

　D. unusual

2. The author was surprised because　　　 .

　A. the quilt looked very strange.

　B. her grandmother liked the quilt.

C. the quilt was the best she had seen.

D. her mother had made some changes

1. Why did the author go to mother’s home?

A. To see her mother’s quilts.

　B. To help prepare for a show.

　C. To get together for the family dinner.

　D. To discuss her grandmother’s life.

3. We may infer from this passage that ________.

A. some people are living only on vegetables

B. the artistic attitude is accepted by most people

C. the writer prefers the third life attitude

D. artists do most for the society in order to be remembered longer than others

第96天　　　　　　　　　　　　　 A

I arrived at my mother’s home for our Monday family dinner. The smells of food flew over from the kitchen. Mother was pulling out quilt(被子)after quilt from the boxes, proudly showing me their beauties. She was preparing for a quilt show at the Elmhurst Church. When we began to fold and put them back into the boxes, I noticed something at the bottom of one box. I pulled it out. “What is this?” I asked.

“Oh?” Mom said, “That’s Mama’s quilt.”

I spread the quilt. It looked at if a group of school children had pieced it together; irregular designs, childish pictures, a crooked line on the right.

“Grandmother made this?” I said, surprised. My grandmother was a master at making quilts. This certainly didn’t look like any of the quilts she had made.

“Yes, right before she died. I brought it home with me last year and made some changes,” she said. “I’m still working on it. See, this is what I’ve done so far.”

I looked at it more closely. She had made straight a crooked line. At the center of the quilt, she had stitched(缝) a piece of cloth with these words:　 “My mother made many quilts. She didn’t get all lines straight. But I think this is beautiful. I want to see it finished. Her last quilt.”

“Ooh, this is so nice, Mom,” I said. It occurred to me that by completing my grandmother’s quilt, my mother was honoring her own mother. I realized, too, that I held in my hands a family treasure. It started with the loving hands of one woman, and continued with the loving hands of another. (08重庆卷)

2. People who are best remembered by history are probably

A. those living on vegetables 　　 B. successful men

C. artists 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. businessmen

1. From the passage we know people who take the second life attitude ________.

A. are mostly businessmen　　　　　　　　　 B. think of getting the interests (利益) first

C. find their happiness from hard work 　　 　　D. take competition as their whole life

4. What is Tracy’s “new idea” (Paragraph 2) of being a volunteer?

　 A. Going abroad to help the sick.

　 B. Working in Mother Teresa’s home.

　 C. Doing simple things to help the poor.

　 D. Improving oneself through helping others.

B

As a human being you may have the choice of three basic attitudes towards life. You may treat life with the philosophy (哲学) of the vegetable, in which case your life will include being born, eating, drinking, sleeping, marrying, growing old and dying.

The second basic attitude is to look at life as if it were a business. A great many so-called successful men and women believe that life is a business. If you believe so, your first question of life, naturally, is " What do I get out of it? " " How much is this worth to me?" In a word, based on this attitude, happi¬ness becomes a matter of successful competition. The great ma¬jority of human beings today look at life as if it were a busi¬ness.

The third attitude toward life is the way of the artist. Here the basic philosophy is "What can I put into it?". They value cooperation and contribution. This point of view has been proved by history; for history remembers best those who have contributed most richly to the interests of their fellow-men. The more we investigate(调查),the more we become certain that the artistic attitude is the only one which goes with human happiness.

3. Why did Tracy choose to be a volunteer?

　 A. She liked to work with Mother Teresa.

　 B. She had already had some experience.

　 C. She was asked by Mother Teresa’s example.

　 D. She wanted to follow Mother Teresa’s example.