A man was mending a street lamp when he saw a pretty young woman and three children get into a car which was in the garden of a house near him. He saw that the car had a flat tyre, and tried to warn the woman, but it was too late—she was already driving the car out of the garden, and into the busy street. When she had got there, she stopped the car at the side of the street, got out and looked at the flat tyre. The children stayed in the car. Very soon another car stopped, and the driver offered to help her. The young woman accepted his offer, and the man changed the tyre for her.

    When she had thanked him and he had gone, she drove the car back into the garden, got out with the children and went back to her work in the house –with clean hands.

    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 Englishman was showing a foreign visitor around London" What's that strange building?" asked the visitor. " That's the Tower(塔)of London" " I see. How long did it take to build it?" "About 500 years." "In my country we can build it in five months. "said the visitor. A short time after that they came to St. Paul's Cathedral (大教堂). "Very interesting!" said the visitor. "How long did it take to build it?" "Nearly forty years, "said the Englishman. "In my country we can finish it in forty days." said the visitor. This went on all day. They visited most of the best known buildings in the city. Every time they saw a new one, the visitor asked what it was and how long it took to build it. Then he said that they could do the same thing much faster in his country. At last the Englishman got angry with the visitor though he tried not to show it. A few days later they came to the House of Parliament(议会大厦)and the visitor asked his usual question. "What's that?" The Englishman answered, "I've no idea. It wasn't there last night. "