Q: Read the following article and answer the question. Article: The Man of Many Secrets-Harry Houdini---was one of the greatest American entertainers in the theater this century. He was 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 prefix = st1 /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 he moved 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 then 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 escape, inChicagoin 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 that came from this that started Harry Houdini's success.  Harry had fingers trained to escape from handcuffs 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. Question: According to the passage, Houdini's success imprison escape depends on_. Answer:
A: his unusual ability and skeleton key

Q: Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Argentina's Lionel Messi has won the Golden Ball awarded to the European Footballer of the Year, becoming the sixth Barcelona player to take the award and the first since Brazilian Ronaldinho in 2005. Messi beat last year's winner Cristiano Ronaldo into second place while Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez finished third in the poll results released by France Football magazine early Tuesday. Praised by Argentina great Diego Maradona as his successor, Messi won an unprecedented treble  in Spain last season with Barcelona as the Catalan side swept the Champions League, the Spanish title and the Copa del Rey. The 22-year-old Messi, the first Argentine to win the world-famous award, was the top scorer in last year's Champions League with nine goals, including his superb header  in the 2-0 victory over Manchester United in the final. Messi, who scored 473 of a possible 480 points, largely controlled the voting and won with a record-margin of 240 points. Real Madrid winger Ronaldo had 233 and Xavi had 170. "Honestly, I knew that I was among the favorites because Barcelona had a fruitful year in 2009," Messi was quoted as saying by the magazine. " _ The Golden Ball is very important to me. All the players who won it were great players, and some great players never won it." Barcelona had three players in the Top 5 with Andres Iniesta taking fourth ahead of former Barca player Samuel Eto'o. In an outstanding season, Messi netted(...) 38 goals in 51 games in all competitions, often leaving defenders in his wake(...) with a combination of speed, extraordinary abilities and his effective left-footed strike. Messi, who led Argentina to next year's World Cup in South Africa, recently signed a new contract with Barcelona through 2016. Messi had a good start to this season - already scoring nine goals - and put on a great display to help his club defeat archrival Real Madrid 1-0 last Sunday. "It won't be easy to confirm after a year like the one we just went through," Messi said. "I hope the next one will reach the same... Question: Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage? Answer:
A: Messi said Barcelona had a fruitful year in 2009.

Q: Read the following article and answer the question. Article: When you think of the tremendous technological progress we have made, it's amazing how little we have developed in other respects. We may speak scornfully of the poor old Romans because they enjoyed the seemingly excited killing that went on in their arenas . We may despise them because they mistook these goings on for entertainment. We may forgive them because they lived 2000 years ago and obviously knew no better. But are our feelings of superiority really justified? Are we any less blood-thirsty? Why do boxing matches, for instance, attract such universal interest? Don't the audience who attend them hope they will see some violence? Human beings remain as bloodthirsty as ever they were. The only difference between ourselves and the Romans is that while they were honest enough to admit that they enjoyed watching hungry lions tearing people apart and eating them alive, we find all sorts of arguments to defend sports which should have been banned long ago. It really is incredible that in this day and age we should still allow hunting or bull-fighting, that we should be prepared to sit back and watch two men punch each other in a boxing ring, that we should be relatively unmoved by the sight of one or a number of racing cars crashing and bursting into flames. Any talk of 'the sporting spirit' is merely hypocrisy . People take part in violent sports because of the high rewards they bring. Audience are willing to pay vast sums of money to see violence. A world heavyweight championship match, for instance, is front page news. Millions of people are disappointed if a big fight is over in two rounds instead of fifteen. They feel disappointment because they haven't experienced the exquisite pleasure of witnessing continuous violence. Why should we ban violent sports if people enjoy them so much? You may well ask. The answer is simple: they are uncivilized. For centuries man has been trying to improve himself spiritually and emotionally--though with little success. But at least we no longer tolerate the sight madmen... Question: Why does the author mention the old Romans in this article? Answer:
