The Man of Many Secrets — Harry Houdini — was one of the greatest American entertainers(表演者) in the theater. He was a man famous for his escapes（逃走；逃生） — from prison cells（囚室）, from wooden boxes floating（漂浮） 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 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 （监狱）escape in Chicago in 1898. Harry persuaded（说服） a detective（侦探） which 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, 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? Worldwide fame, and a name remembered today.

    An old man was going home late one night with his horse and cart after a day's hard work. When he was not far away from his house, the light on the cart went out. He tried but could not repair it. He was near his home, and so he went along the road without a light. When a policeman saw this, he stopped the old man.

    "Where is your light?" asked the policeman. "No man may take a cart along the road at night without a light. You know that. You have broken the law." "I had a light, but it has just gone out," said the old man.

    "I don't believe that story. What's your name and where do you live?" asked the policeman. "Please don't write down my name," said the old man. "My home is just there. You can see it from here. I had a light nearly the whole way."

    "You came all the way without a light. What's your name?"

    The old man quickly took the policeman's hand and put it down on the top of the light. The light was still hot and burnt the policeman's hand. The policeman jumped and he was very angry. "Now, what do you think?" said the old man. "Did I come all the way without a light?"

    After returning from her round trip, the angry woman stood outside the ticket office of the station. "The railway owes me 12 pounds," she said to Harry Jenks, the young man working at the office. "You sold me a ticket for May 22nd, but there was no ship from Jersey that night. So my daughter and I had to stay in a hotel. It cost me 12 pounds. "

    Harry was worried. He remembered selling the woman a return ticket. "Come into the office, Madam," he said politely. "' I'll just check the Jersey timetable for May 22nd." The woman and her little girl followed him inside. She was quite right, as Harry soon discovered. There was no sailing on May 22nd. How could he have made such a careless mistake? He shouldn't have sold her a ticket for that day. Wondering what to do, he smiled at the child. "You look sunburnt(晒黑的) , "he said to her. "Did you have a nice holiday in Jersey?"

    "Yes," she answered, shyly. "The beach was lovely. And I can swim too!"

    "That's fine," said Harry. '" My little girl can't swim a bit yet. Of course, she's only three…"

    "I'm four," the child said proudly. "I'll be four and a half."

    Harry turned to the mother. "I remember your ticket, Madam," he said. "But you didn't get one for your daughter, did you?"

    "Er, well..." the woman looked at the child. "I mean...she hasn't started school yet, she's only four. "

    "A four- year- old child must have a ticket, Madam. A child's return ticket to Jersey costs...let me see.13.50 pounds. The law is the law, but since the mistake is mine."

    The woman stood up, took the child's hand and left the office.

    Peter lives in a small house. He is a clerk(职员)in a bank(银行).

Peter gets up at 6:30 every morning. He has breakfast and watches TV news at 7:00. After breakfast, he goes to work by bus.

    He gets to the bank at 8:25. He gets ready to work. He has too much work to do. He has lunch in a restaurant near the bank. He finishes his work at 4:30. He likes exercise, so he goes home on foot.

    After supper, he sometimes reads newspapers. Sometimes he looks for things on the Internet. He goes to bed early. He is tired after a day's work.