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．
0f course，his secret was not magic，or supernatural powers．It was simply strength．He had ability to move his toes as well as to move 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 New York club．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 successful．Then Harty 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 newspaperman to watch．It was the publicity(名声)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 from 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 jail 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? Worldwide fame，and a name remembered today．
小题1:According to the passage，Houdini’s success in prison escapes depends on ．
A．his magic tricks and inhuman powers
B．his special tricks and a skeleton key
C．his unusual ability and skeleton key
D．his inhuman talents and magic tricks小题2:According to the passage，how did Houdini get the key which helped him unlock prison door?
A．He took the key from his wife’s mouth．
B．His wife passed it to his hand while kissing him．
C．His wife gave it to him by a magic trick．
D．He got it in his mouth through a kiss by his wife．小题3:It can be inferred from the passage that Houdini became famous ．
A．when he was about 24
B．when he was about 17
C．after the year 1894
D．before the year 1898
