He is a man of few words, and seldom speaks until _______ to.

A. spoken       B. speaking

C. speak  D. be spoken

Liang Bo，     the champion of the Voice of China．is a man of   few words but has remarkable inner strength．

A．不填；a          B．a；a             C．the；不填         D．不填；tile

— Mr. Smith never means what he says. I dislike him.

—       , as the saying goes.

A．A single flower does not make a spring

B．A still tongue makes a wise head

C．A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds

D．Actions speak louder than words

Most people want to know how things are made.They honestly admit,however,that they hardly know a thing when it comes to understanding how a piece of music is made.Where a composer(作曲家) begins,how he manages to keep going—in fact,how and where he learns his trade—all are covered in complete darkness.The composer,in short,is a man of mystery(神秘).

One of the first things the common man wants to know about is the part inspiration(灵感) plays in a composer’s work.He finds it difficult to believe that composers are not much interested in that question.Writing music is as natural for the composer as eating or sleeping for all.Music is something that the composer happens to have been born for.

The composer,therefore,does not say to himself:“Do I feel inspired?”He says to himself:“Do I feel like working today?”And if he feels like working,he does.It is more or less like saying to himself:“Do I feel sleepy?”If you feel sleepy,you go to sleep.If you don’t feel sleepy,you stay up.If the composer doesn’t feel like working,he doesn’t work.It’s as simple as that.

1.What would be the best title for the text?

A.Composer:a man of mystery

B.Practice makes good music

C.Relation between sleeping and music

D.Music:product of nature

2.The words “covered in complete darkness” underlined in Paragraph 1 most probably mean _______.

A.difficult to be made                      B.without any light

C.black in color                            D.not known

3.Most people seem to think that a composer _______.

A.finds it difficult to write music

B.considers it important to have a good rest

C.should like to talk about inspiration

D.never asks himself very simple questions

4.The author will most probably agree that composers _______.

A.are born with a gift for music

B.are people full of mystery

C.work late at night for their music

D.know a lot about eating and sleeping

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