Michigan. It happened near my hometown long ago when my mother was in school. The guy had

escaped from a madhouse.” “Well, it sounds an awful lot like something that happened a few years

ago to a friend of my brother's in Colorado,” said another student. “Only the guy actually caught

the babysitter.”

What's going on here? How could the same event have happened to three different babysitters

in three different parts of the country at three different times? It is what we call urban legend （都

市传奇）, which is the modern version of American folk tales. Urban legends are modern and

sound real to us. They are humorous, unexpected, and often frightening, though they probably

never happened.

1、The girl from Michigan believed her story to be the most frightening because________.

A、it actually happened

C、it involved a dangerous person B、it happened on a stormy night D、it happened far away in the country

2、In the story told by the girl from Michigan, the prisoner________.

A、escaped from the house B、caught the baby-sitter

C、was arrested by the police D、called from the girl's home

3、According to the girl from Iowa, the guy in the house was________.

A、a runaway prisoner B、an escaped mad person

C、a classmate of her mother D、a friend of her brother's

4、The author uses three different versions of the same story to________.

A、illustrate what urban legend is

C、emphasize the truth of the story B、show the false nature of the story D、prove life in the country is dangerous

5、According to the passage, urban legends are________.

A、always horrible and scary B、very difficult to believe

C、enjoyed by college students D、part of the folk tale tradition

Passage Four

I will never forget what my old headmaster had taught me. Normally when you are only 15

years of age you don t remember most of the things that are preached by your teachers. But, this

particular story is one such lesson I will never forget. Every time I drift off course, I get reminded

of the story.

It was a normal Monday morning at an assembly, and he was addressing the students on

important things in life and about committing ourselves to what was important to us. This is how

the story went:

An old man lived in a certain part of London, and he would wake up every morning and go

to the subway. He would take the train right to Central London, and then sit at the street corner

and beg. He did this for almost 20 years.

His house was filthy, and a horrible smell came out of it. The neighbors could not stand the

smell any longer, so they summoned the police officers to clear the place. The officers knocked

down the door, cleaned the house and found small bags of money all over the house. When they

counted the money, they realized that the old man was a millionaire.

They waited outside his house in anticipation to share the good news with him. When he

arrived home that evening, the old man was met by one of the officers who told him that there was

no need for him to beg any more as he was now a millionaire.

The old man said nothing at all. He went into his house and locked the door. The next

morning he work up as usual, went to the subway, got into the train, and sat at the street corner