Benjamin Banneker was born a few months before another great American—George Washington. Benjamin was black, but he was not a slave (奴隶). He and his mother and his grandmother were free. Benjamin's grandmother came from England. In America she got a job and worked for many years to pay for her boat trip across the ocean. After working many years, she saved enough money to buy a farm. Benjamin lived with her for a while. She taught him to read, write and do arithmetic (算术).

    Benjamin's neighbours knew that he was clever. They were not surprised when he built a large wooden clock. He made each piece after studying a small pocket watch. The clock made him famous, for it was one of the first clocks built in America. People from other places began to send hard problems of all kinds to Benjamin to settle.

    Thomas Jefferson heard of Benjamin Banneker's ability to settle hard problems. He asked Banneker to help build the city that was to be the capital of the United States—Washington, D.C. Banneker worked hard on the plans for the city. He marked where the streets and buildings—the Capitol (美国国会大厦), the White House, and many other places should be built.

    Later, L' Enfant, the Frenchman who had designed the new city, had a quarrel, and went back to France in anger. He took all of the plans away. The workmen couldn't build without any plans to follow.

    For a while it seemed that the plans for the capital might have to be changed, but Benjamin Banneker remembered the plans he had helped draw. He drew each again as he had built each piece of his clock.

    If it weren't for Benjamin Banneker, Washington,

    D.C might look very different from the way it does today.

    Started in 1636, Harvard University is the oldest of all the colleges and universities in the United States. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    In the early years, these schools were much alike. Only young men went to college. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Little was known about science then, and one kind of school could teach everything that was known about the world. When the students graduated, most of them became ministers or teachers.

    In 1782, Harvard started a medical school for young men who wanted to become doctors. Later, lawyers could receive their training in Harvard's law school. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Soon it began teaching American history.

    As knowledge increased, Harvard and other colleges began to teach many new subjects. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Today, there are many different kinds of colleges and universities. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} There's so much to learn that one kind of school can't offer it all.

A. In 1825. besides Latin and Greek, Harvard began teaching modern languages, such as French and German.

B. Most of them are made up of smaller schools

C. Yale, Princeton and Columbia were opened soon after Harvard

D Students were allowed to choose the subjects that interested them

E. All the students studied the same subjects, and everyone learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew