首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Harry Houdini, who died in 1927, was the entertainment phenomenon of the ragtime era. He could escape from chains and padlocks,
Harry Houdini, who died in 1927, was the entertainment phenomenon of the ragtime era. He could escape from chains and padlocks,
admin
2009-12-11
42
问题
Harry Houdini, who died in 1927, was the entertainment phenomenon of the ragtime era. He could escape from chains and padlocks, from ropes and canvas sacks. They put him in a strait-jacket and hung him upside down from a skyscraper and he somehow untied himself. They tied him up in a locked packing case and sank him in Liverpool docks. Minutes later he surfaced smiling. They locked him in zinc-lined Russian prison van and he emerged leaving the doors locked and the locks undamaged. They padlocked him in a milk churn full of water and he burst free. They put him in a coffin, screwed down the lid, and buffed him and well, no, he didn’t pop up like a mole, but when they dug him up more than half an hour later, he was still breathing.
Houdini would usually allow his equipment to be examined by the audience. The chains, locks and packing eases all seemed perfectly genuine, so it was tempting to conclude that he possessed superhuman powers. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes was the very paragon of analytical thinking but Conan Doyle believed that Houdini achieved his tricks through spiritualism. Indeed, he wrote to the escapologist imploring him to use his psychic powers more profitably for the common good instead of just prostituting his talent every night at the Alhambra. However, Houdini repeatedly denounced spiritualism and disclaimed any psychic element to his act.
The alternative explanation for his feats of escapism was that Houdini could do unnatural things with his body. It is widely held that he could dislocate his shoulders to escape from strait-jackets, and that he could somehow contract his wrists in order to escape from handcuffs. His ability to spend long periods in confined spaces is cited as evidence that he could put his body into suspended animation, as Indian fakirs are supposed to do.
This is all nonsense. If you ever find yourself in a strait-jacket, it is difficult to imagine anything less helpful than a dislocated shoulder. Contracting your wrists is not only unhelpful but, frankly, impossible because the bones of your wrist are very tightly packed together and the whole structure is virtually incompressible. As for suspended animation, the trick of surviving burial and drowning relies on the fact that you can live for short periods on the air in a confined space. The air shifted by an average person in a day would occupy a cube just eight feet square. The build-up of carbon monoxide tends to pollute this supply, but, if you can relax, the air in a cuff should keep you going for half an hour or so.
In other words, there was nothing physically remarkable about Houdini except for his bravery, dexterity and fitness. His nerve was so cool that he could remain in a coffin six feet underground until they came to dig him up. His gingers were so strong that he could undo a buckle or manipulate keys through the canvas of a strait-jacket or a mail hag. He made a comprehensive study of locks and was able to conceal lock-picks about his person in a way which fooled even the doctors who examined him. When they locked him in the prison van he still had a hacksaw blade with which to saw through the joins in the metal lining and get access to the planks of the floor. As an entertainer he combined all this strength and ingenuity with a lot of trickery. His stage escapes took place behind a curtain with an orchestra playing to disguise the banging and sawing. The milk churn in which he was locked had a double lining so that, while the lid was locked onto the rim, the rim was not actually attached to the churn. Houdini merely had to stand up to get out. The mail sack he cut open at the seam and sewed up with similar thread. The bank safe from which he emerged had been secretly worked on by his mechanics for 24 hours before the performance.
All Houdini’s feats are eminently explicable, although to explain them, even now, is a kind of heresy. Houdini belongs to that band of mythical supermen who, we like to believe, were capable of miracles and would still be alive today were it not for some piece of low trickery. It’s said of Houdini that a punch in his belly when he wasn’t prepared for it caused his burst appendix.
Automatically, it’s virtually impossible that a punch could puncture your gut, but the story endures. Somehow the myth of the superman has an even greater appeal than the edifice of twenty-first century logic.
According to the writer, how do people regard Houdini nowadays?
选项
A、They want to hear the scientific explanations for his feats.
B、They prefer to believe that he had extraordinary powers.
C、They refuse to believe the story of how he died.
D、They doubt the fact that he ever really existed.
答案
B
解析
文章最后一段提到Houdini belongs to that band of mythical supermen who, we like to believe , were capable of miracles and would still be alive today were it not for some piece of low trickery.“人们更愿相信他是超人中的一员,仍然具有神奇的力量,并不是什么低级骗术。”因此B项为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/kO8K777K
本试题收录于:
A类竞赛(研究生)题库大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)分类
0
A类竞赛(研究生)
大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)
相关试题推荐
Librarieshavereferencebooks______youcancheckoutaphysician’seducationalbackground,training,andothercredentials.
Whatnumbershouldreplacethequestionmark?
WhichofthefollowingsisNOTareasonwhywomenbossesareunpopular?
—Youdon’tlooksohappy,Bill.What’sthematter?—I’mworriedaboutmyEnglishhomework—theoriginof"JimCrow."Doyoukno
—DidyougetanyinformationfromPeter?—He______anexpert,buthedoesn’tseemtoknowmuch.
WhatistheaccidenthappeninginRegentStreet?
It’snotalwayseasytodecidewhichsportto【66】t______up.Whenchoosing,itisimportanttorememberthatexcellenceinsport
DemographicindicatorsshowthatAmericansinthepostwarperiodweremoreeagerthanevertoestablishfamilies.Theyquickly
A、Holdaparty.B、SeeMr.Smith.C、Workovertime.D、Attendawedding.A题目问女士明天会做什么。对话中Mary说明天不能加班,因为她和John要举办一个派对来庆祝结婚五周年,故选A。
Whichofthefollowingdidthecallerhavedecorated?
随机试题
50℃时纯水的蒸气压为7.94kPa,若某甘油水溶液中含甘油摩尔分数为0.030,则水的蒸气压下降值为()。
老年男性。反复咳嗽咳痰4~5年,近2个月来病情加重,痰量多,青霉素氨基糖苷类抗生素治疗效果欠佳。查体:背部双下肺野可闻湿啰音,血WBC7.6×109/LN76%。该病人诊断应为
遇光极易氧化,使其分子内脱氢,产生吡啶衍生物的药物有
原始凭证可分为通用凭证和专用凭证,其分类依据是()。
对人员增减变动很小的单位,其月平均人数可以用月初人数与月末人数之和除以2求得。()
税收对宏观经济具有调节()的功能。
借款融资方式的优点不包括()。
我国目前对保险公司偿付能力的监管标准适用的是()偿付能力原则。
A、 B、 C、 D、 B将每个图形看成刻度尺,从左到右,0一8标数,第一个图形在2、4、6位置上标记,且2+4=6,题干图形都有类似的规律,选项中只有B符合。
2018年2月7日,我国第五个南极科考站——()在恩克斯堡岛正式选址奠基。
最新回复
(
0
)