单选题 The Man of Many Secrets—Harry Houdini—was one of the greatest American entert-ainers 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 a 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.

单选题 According to the passage, Houdini's success in prison escapes depends on______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据第四段第二句:Harry把手、脚都训练得很灵活来摆脱手链脚铐,以及第四段第四句后半部分:妻子通过接吻传给他万能钥匙,可知答案为B。
单选题 In the fourth paragraph, the underlined word "this" refers to______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据语境,this指上文所表演的事情:第一次越狱成功。所以答案为A。
单选题 Which of the following statements is true?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。从第三段最后一句和第四段第一句可知Houdini进监狱只是为了宣传他的特技而不是因为犯罪,故C对A错;由第三段倒数第三句可知Houdini并没有一开始就出名,故B错;由第一段第一句可知Houdini没有特异功能故D错。
单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that Houdini became famous______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。根据第三段第一句可知他步入娱乐圈时是1891年,17岁;根据第三段倒数第二句可知第一次成功是1898年,时隔7年,应是24岁,可推知答案为D。
单选题 Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 主旨题。由第一段第二句可知Harry因逃狱出名,后面列举的例子谈的是他从监狱成功地逃出,所以答案为D。