Why was Bastille important to the citizens of Paris? The building of the Bastille had been started in 1370 under Charles V. By the seventeenth century, it had stopped to be important for defense. Cardinal Richelieu turned it into a prison. It was not an ordinary prison to punish common crimes. Its huge doors closed only on enemies of the King. The Bastille's workings were secret. Prisoners were taken to it in closed vehicles. Soldiers on guard duty had to stand with their faces to the wall. No talking was allowed. Worst of all, a prisoner never knew if he would be there a day, a week, a year, or forever. Only the King's letter could set him free. Over the years, the number of arrests by King's letter had become fewer. By the time of its fall, most of the prisoners were writers who had written against the corruptions of the government. Voltaire, the famous French writer, spent a year there in 1717-1718, and another 12 days in 1726. For those who believed in free speech and free thinking, the Bastille stood for everything evil. The day it was captured, only seven prisoners were found inside. Still, the Bastille was hated by the people. It was a symbol of the King's complete power. The Bastille had been a prison _ . A) since the time of Charles V B) since the time of Cardinal Richelieu C) before the seventeenth century D) since 1370
B
Four people in England back in 1953, stared at Photo 51,It wasn't much--a picture showing a black X. But three of these people won the Nobel Prize for figuring out what the photo really showed -the shape of DNA The discovery brought fame and fortune to scientists James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins. The fourth, the one who actually made the picture, was left out. Her name was Rosalind Franklin."She should have been up there," says historian Mary Bowden." If her photos hadn't been there, the others couldn't have come up with the structure." One reason Franklin was missing was that she had died of cancer four years before the Nobel decision. But now scholars doubt that Franklin was not only robbed of her life by disease but robbed of credit by her competitors At Cambridge University in the 1950s, Watson and Click tried to make models by cutting up shapes of DNA's parts and then putting them together. In the meantime, at King's College in London, Franklin and Wilkins shone X-rays at the molecule . The rays produced patterns reflection the shape. But Wilkins and Franklin's relationship was a lot rockier than the celebrated teamwork of Watson and Crick, Wilkins thought Franklin was hired to be his assistant .But the college actually employed her to take over the DNA project. What she did was produce X-ray pictures that told Watson and Crick that one of their early models was inside out. And she was not shy about saying so. That angered Watson, who attacked her in return, "Mere inspection suggested that she would not easily bend. Clearly she had to go or be put in her place." As Franklin's competitors, Wilkins, Watson and Crick had much to gain by cutting her out of the little group of researchers, says historian Pnina Abir-Am. In 1962 at the Nobel Prize awarding ceremony, Wilkins thanked 13 colleagues by name before he mentioned Franklin, Watson wrote his book laughing at her. Crick wrote in 1974 that "Franklin was only two steps away from the solution." No, Franklin was the solution. "She... What is the writer's attitude toward Wilkins, Watson and Crick? A) Disapproving. B) Respectful. C) Admiring. D) Doubtful.
A
Q: Snapshots, the new fashion for an artistic portrait photo: Take it underwater. Zhang Xiaomei, a 20 something Shanghai native who works in the media industry, tried it out twice. "It was a completely different experience," says Zhang of her first such experience last May. "You get the feeling that you're cut off from the rest of the world. But also it s romantic and like a fairy tale." She then successfully convinced her husband to be to have their wedding photos taken underwater a couple of months after her first try. "Can you imagine a 1.87-meter-tall man trying out something like a fishtail under the water?" Zhang says, laughing. A commercial underwater photo portrait is perfect for post 80 and post 90 generations who adore taking snapshots, but are looking for new ways to be artistic, says Ai Cheng, owner and photographer of No.55 Underwater Photography in Shanghai. Ai opened a studio in Shanghai's suburb of Songjiang two years ago, building a 5-meter- deep, fan-shaped pool equipped with heating facilities to start up the business. A 30-minute training on how to smile under the water so that you won't drink too much water and how to open your eyes underwater is offered in his studio for those who don't know how to swim. Ai says most of his customers are female--half of them coming for an artistic portrait photo and the rest for wedding pictures. "Some of them drag their boyfriends or husband-to-be, who are unwilling to go down to the water, to shoot as well," he says. Who are most likely to take photos underwater? A) Young people eager to be special. B) Senior people to recall their old days. C) Couples to celebrate their anniversary. D) Artists to create new styles.
A: A
*Question*
The pound new Library of Birmingham(LoB)will be the most visible sign of the way the city is accepting the digitalization of everyday life. Set to open in 2013, the PS188 m LoB is already beginning to tale shape next to the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, with which it will share some equipment. As digital media is important to _ . the project is already providing chances for some of the many small new local companies working at the new technologies. Brian Gambles, the LoB project director, says it is about giving people the right tools for learning, "The aim is to mix the physical with the digital. Providing 24-hour services which can be used through many different ways. It is important to enable us to reach more people, more effectively." The digital library will, he says, be as important as the physical one, allowing the distant use of the services, making sure that it is never closed to the public. Even before the LoB is complete, the public has been able to go online to visit the Virtual LoB, designed by Baden, the Birmingham virtual worlds specialists. Not only have the public been able to learn about LoB, but the virtual one has also enabled those working on the LoB to understand the building and how it will work before it even opens. Two other small Birmingham-based digital companies are working on the LoB projects. Substrat, a digital design company, is developing what it calls "enlarge reality" project. It is about the use of an exciting smart phone, an important part of the LoB which is in the early stages of development is an online library of figures of the city being built by a digital content company in Cahoots, in which users will be encouraged to add to and comment on the material. Gambles says: "Technology will enable us to make the library's content and services open to citizens as sever before." This text is most probably taken from _ . A) a put book B) a library guide C) a handbook D) a newspaper report
**Answer**
D