The Man of Many Secrets

    Harry Houdini was one of the greatest American entertainers(表演者·演艺人员) in the theater this century. He was a man famous for his escapes－from prison cells(囚室), 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 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 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 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（脚镣）, 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（万能钥匙）, 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.

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    Kyle walked up and down as he waited for his turn at the back stage. This would be his most important piano performance yet. At ten years old, he was the youngest performer in the Christmas concert. Although his teacher Ms. Neal said he was good enough at the song he would play, he still practiced it more than 30 times that week. When he closed his eyes at night, the music played over and over again in his mind

    Now, the day finally arrived, but Kyle was not sure he was ready. He kicked a small ball which was picked up from a Christmas tree, and then looked himself in a mirror—trying to make his bow tie more smooth and beautiful. He thought of his mom who bought him the new suit with this bow tie. He would make her feel proud of him. He noticed that his hands were shaking. How could he play the notes of the song if his hands were shaking? He took a deep breath and tried to calm down, but his hands shook more.

At this time, Ms. Neal walked up to speak to him. “I have something for you,” she said, putting a smooth black stone into Kyle's hand. “It's a special stone. There's no other one like it in the world. You've practiced so much, so you don't need anything else.”

    The stage lights reflected on it. “Thank you.” Kyle said.

When Kyle's name was called, he rubbed the stone, stepped onto the stage, and played better than ever. After his performance, he noticed that Ms. Neal had a whole bag of black stones. “Why did you say this one was so special?” he asked.

His teacher smiled, “Like your talent, it is special because it belongs only to you.''

    I arrived at my mother's home for our Saturday family dinner. The smells of food flew over from the kitchen. Mother was pulling out quilt after quilt from the boxes, proudly showing me their beauties. I knew they were all made herself. She was preparing for a quilt show on TV. When we began to fold and put them back into the boxes, I noticed something at the bottom of one box.

    I pulled it out. "What's this?" I asked.

    "Oh?" Mom said, "That's Mama's quilt."

    I spread the quilt. It looked as if a group of school children had made the pieces together.

    "Grandmother made this?" I asked in surprise. My grandmother was a master at making quilts. This certainly didn't look like any of the quilts she had made.

    "Yes, right before she died. I brought it home with me last year and made some changes,"

Mom said, "I'm still working on it. See, this is what I've done so far."

    I looked at it more closely. She had made a line straight(直的). At the center of the quilt, she had stitched a piece of cloth with these words: "My mother made many quilts. She didn't get all lines straight. But I think this is beautiful. I want to see it finished. Her last quilt."

    "Oh, this is so nice, Mom." I said. I was sure now that by completing my grandmother's quilt, my mother was honoring her own mother. I realized that I held in my hands a family treasure. It started with the loving hands of one woman, and continued with the loving hands of another.

    I can't help thinking about the face of that little beggar girl all the time．I can see the glad light filling her eyes when I laid the dime(一角硬币)in her little dirty hand．

    How much I had thought of that dime，too! Grandpa gave it to me a whole month ago，and I had kept it ever since in my red box upstairs；but those sugar apples looked so beautiful，and were so cheap—only a dime apiece(每个)一that I made up my mind to have one．

    I can see her—the beggar girl，I mean—as she stood there in front of the store，in her old dress，looking at the chocolates laid all in a row．I wonder what made me say, “Little girl，what do you want?''

    How she stared at me，just as if nobody had spoken kindly to her before．I guess she thought l was sorry for her, for she said．“l was thinking how good one of those gingerbread rolls would taste，I haven't had anything to eat today．''

    Now，I thought to myself, “Mary Williams，you have had a good breakfast and a good dinner this day，and this poor girl has not had a mouthful．You can give her your dime；she needs it a great deal more than you do．''

    I could not resist(抗拒)that little girl's hungry look—so I dropped the dime right into her hand，without waiting for her to speak，walked straight away．

    My friends and I joined a two-day survival(生存) training course in the mountains. The first day was really1—there was so much to do! Arriving at the campsite, we were divided into groups and given a tent, some food, a2and a compass(指南针). Standing next to a small river, Fanny3 camping in the grassy area nearby. However, our instructor, Mr.Lee, pointed out that it might flood(淹没) if it rained. In the end, we found a4area. Putting up the tent was very hard.5Mr.Lee helped us a lot.

    By the time we had put up the tent,6was really hungry. "We wouldn't have got this hungry if we had brought some snacks." Peter said. We all told him to7complaining(抱怨) and help us start a fire to cook our food8. Realizing we were having trouble making the fire, he finally9.

    The next day started early. Woken by a strange noise. Peter went to see what was 10.

    "Some cows have eaten our breakfast!" he shouted. "That's all because you didn't11the food properly last night." said Mr. Lee.

    Worried that Mr. Lee was angry with us, we tried very hard on our next12— using the map and compass to find a secret location. We made it to the location13the other group did.

    We all felt very proud of14.

    The survival training course was a great15. Now I feel I could survive anywhere!

    Alan Smith is blind. He teaches blind children in his country. To show the world that the blind can also do something amazing, he walked across the world's largest salt desert, Salar de Uyuni, only with the help of a GPS.

    Walking across the desert is not easy for an able-bodied person, let alone (更不用说) a blind man. Before setting off, Alan spent three years training for the journey. He studied everything he could find about the place and asked for advice from other travelers. During his journey, he only took water, food and sleeping bags. He walked about 20 kilometers a day. He showed great perseverance (毅力) and finished the 140-kilometer journey in just seven days.

    The brave teacher thought his week-long journey was wonderful. He said, "The journey was quite good. There were snow storms and winds, but luckily I made it."