"Mark Twain" was the name used by Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) when he wrote books. His father was a lawyer, but a poor one, who lived at Florida, Missouri. The family was so poor that Samuel did not receive much teaching. He had to learn all that he could from the people whom he met. His father died when he was very young, and then there was even less money than before.

　　Many of the men in this part of America worked in the ships on the great River Mississippi, and he did this himself at one time (1857).

　　Where did he find the name "Mark Twain"? It came from the great river itself. It was part of one of the cries used by men who worked in the ships. When a man called "By the mark twain!" he meant that the river was "two marks deep" there, that is to say, six feet deep ( "Twain" is an old form of the work "Two".) Samuel Clemens often heard these words when he was young, and he used them as a penname all his life.

　　During his work on the Mississippi he met travelers of all kinds, and this helped him a great deal when he started to write. But the number of travelers became smaller when war started in America in 1861. Many of the great ships on the river stopped work. Samuel left then and went to Nevada with his brother, who was at that time Governor of Nevada. There, near the town of Carson, Samuel became a gold miner, but he never made much money at the time. He soon saw that life in the gold mines was not for him. He also tried writing for the newspapers in Nevada, and this seemed more hopeful. He found that he could write.

　　He went to Europe in 1867 and visited France and Italy. In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon, and two years later he was spending nearly all his time writing. Among his books is his own story (1908).

　　He is now always known as Mark Twain, and many people do not even know that his family name was Clemens. He traveled in America and in England, and went to Oxford in 1907. He was one of the great American writers of the time, and could make his readers laugh – a thing which few writers can do. He died in 1910.

"Mark Twain" was _________.

 A. a famous American writer    B. name of a book      

 C. a great river in America      D. a large ship

As a child, Samuel did not get much education because _________.

 A. his father died too early          B. the family was very poor 

C. he disliked school very much

D. he could learn what he liked from the people he met

What gave him a great deal when he started writing? _______

 A. His poor childhood               B. The Mississippi river   

 C. All kinds of travelers he met        D. His brother

We can infer from the passage that ________.

 A. Samuel loved writing from his early age  

 B. Samuel did not love writing at the beginning

 C. his writings to the newspaper were successful            

 D. his brother encouraged him to write more

According to the writer of the passage, a good writer could _________.

A.write a lot for his readers            B. make a lot of money for his family

C. cause his readers to laugh           D. travel everywhere he wanted

Having a husband means an extra seven hours of housework each week for women, according to a new study. For men, getting married saves an hour of housework a week. “It’s a well-known pattern,” said lead researcher Frank Stafford at University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. “Men usually work more outside the home, while women take on more of the housework.”
　　He points out that differences among households(家庭)exist. But in general, marriage means more housework for women and less for men. “And the situation gets worse for women when they have children,” Stafford said.
　　Overall, times are changing in the American home. In 1976, women busied themselves with 26 weekly hours of sweeping-and-dusting work, compared with 17 hours in 2005. Men are taking on more housework, more than doubling their housework hours from six in 1976 to 13 in 2005.
　　Single women in their 20s and 30s did the least housework, about 12 weekly hours, while married women in their 60s and 70s did the most-about 21 hours a week.
　　Men showed a somewhat different pattern, with older men picking up the broom more often than younger men. Single men worked the hardest around the house, more than that of all other age groups of married men.
　　Having children increases housework even further. With more than three children, for example, wives took on more of the extra work, clocking about 28 hours a week compared with husbands’10 hours.
【小题1】 According to the “well-known pattern” in Paragraph 1, a married man___________.

第四部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）

　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

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(手铐) and toes trained to escape ankle chains. 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, passed 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 wisdom and magic tricks

C. his magic tricks and unhuman powers

D. his unusual ability and a skeleton key

2. In the fourth paragraph, the underlined word “this” refers to _______.

A. the year 1898                                B. his first prison escape

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. when he was about 24                            D. at the age of 17

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

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

C. World-wild Fame                                 D. Great Escape 

Having a husband means an extra seven hours of housework each week for women, according to a new study. For men, getting married saves an hour of housework a week. “It’s a well-known pattern,” said lead researcher Frank Stafford at University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. “Men usually work more outside the home, while women take on more of the housework.”

　　He points out that differences among households(家庭)exist. But in general, marriage means more housework for women and less for men. “And the situation gets worse for women when they have children,” Stafford said.

　　Overall, times are changing in the American home. In 1976, women busied themselves with 26 weekly hours of sweeping-and-dusting work, compared with 17 hours in 2005. Men are taking on more housework, more than doubling their housework hours from six in 1976 to 13 in 2005.

　　Single women in their 20s and 30s did the least housework, about 12 weekly hours, while married women in their 60s and 70s did the most-about 21 hours a week.

　　Men showed a somewhat different pattern, with older men picking up the broom more often than younger men. Single men worked the hardest around the house, more than that of all other age groups of married men.

　　Having children increases housework even further. With more than three children, for example, wives took on more of the extra work, clocking about 28 hours a week compared with husbands’10 hours.

1. According to the “well-known pattern” in Paragraph 1, a married man___________.

A．takes on heavier work                    B．does more housework

C．is the main breadwinner                  D．is the master of the house

2. How many hours of housework did men do every week in the 1970s?

A．About 23.         B．About 26.          C．About 13.         D．About 6.

3. What kind of man is doing most housework according to the text?

A．An unmarried man.                      B．An older married man.

C．A younger married man.                  D．A married man with children.

4. What can we conclude from Stafford’s research?

A．Marriage gives men more freedom.

B．Marriage has effects on job choices.

C．Housework sharing changes over time.

D．Having children means doubled housework.