THREE CENTURIES OF HOAXES!

A THINKING MACHINE

In 1769, long before computers were invented, a man from Hungary (匈牙利) built a wonderful machine that could play chess very well. It pleased people all over Europe and beat nearly everyone who played chess with it. For decades, many people believed that it was truly a thinking machine. About 85 years later, the secret was finally revealed. There was a man hiding inside the machine all the time, who was obviously very good at playing chess!

ZOO ESCAPE (逃脱)

On November 9, 1874, a New York newspaper ran a shocking story on its front page. It said that all the animals in the Central Park Zoo had escaped and were running around the city. It said the police were working to save people, but 27 people had already been killed, and 200 people were hurt. Many people in New York were terrified. But it was all just a hoax. The story was made up by Thomas Connery, an editor at The Herald, who wanted to draw attention to the poor condition of cages in the zoo.

ROSIE THE RUNNER

The first woman to cross the finish line of the 1980 Boston Marathon (马拉松) was 23-year-old Rosie Ruiz. However, as she received her prize, people started to doubt that. She didn’t seem to be tired at all. What’s more, none of the other runners remembered seeing her in the race. Later, it turned out that she had run only half a mile (about 805 meters) and taken the train for the rest of the race! Her prize was taken away, of course.

【小题1】Which of the following is mentioned in the passage?

A．The thinking machine used a computer to win games.	B．200 people were killed by zoo animals in 1874.
C．Rosie Ruiz didn’t seem to be tired at the finish line.	D．Rosie Ruiz didn’t appear in TV broadcasts of the race.

【小题2】We can infer that all the hoaxes ________ in the passage.

A．made people scared	B．fooled a lot of people
C．made people suspicious	D．delighted people

【小题3】The underlined word “It” in Paragraph 1 refers to “________”.

A．The hoax

B．The news

C．The thinking machine

D．The computer

【小题4】Which of the following is TRUE about Rosie Ruiz in the third paragraph?

A．She was very tired after the marathon.	B．She was the winner in the 1980 Boston Marathon.
C．She ran only half a mile in the race.	D．She took the bus for the rest of the race.

【小题5】The title for the passage shows us that the writer thinks that hoaxes ________.

A．are not new

B．are easily avoided

C．are always cruel

D．are usually unbelievable