阅读提高：限时阅读训练1

词数：about 290  难度 ★★  建议用时：3.5minutes   

Unlike most of the other non-foolish holidays, the history of April Fool’s Day, sometimes called All Fools’ Day, is not totally clear. There really wasn’t a “first April Fool’s Day” that can be pinpointed on the calendar. Some believe it came from celebrations involving the first day of spring. The closest point in time that can be identified as the beginning of this tradition was in 1582, in France. Before that year, the new year was celebrated for eight days, beginning on March 25. The celebration culminated （达到高潮） on April 1. With the reform of the calendar under Charles IX, the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year’s Day was moved to January 1. 
However, in those days news traveled by foot, so many people did not receive the news until several years later. Others, the more obstinate （顽固的） crowd refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the new year on April 1. These backward folk were labeled as “fools” by the general populace （民众）. They were subject to some ridicule （嘲笑）. The tradition eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century. It was later introduced to the American colonies of both the English and French. April Fool’s Day thus developed into an international fun fest (联欢会), so to speak, with different nationalities specializing in their own brand of humor at the expense of their friends and families.
Pranks performed on April Fool’s Day range from the simple, (such as saying, “Your shoe’s untied!”), to the elaborate(精心制作的). Setting a roommate’s alarm clock back an hour is a common trick. Whatever the prank, the trickster usually ends it by yelling （大叫） to his victim, “April Fool!”
April Fool’s Day is a “for-fun-only” observance （风俗习惯）. Nobody is  expected to buy gifts or to take their “significant other” out  to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets off work or school. It’s simply a fun little holiday, but a holiday on which one must remain forever vigilant （警觉的）, for he may be the next April Fool!

1. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. New Year’s Day was celebrated on March 25 after 1582.
B． April Fool’s Day was the first day to celebrate new year before 1582.
C. Many people didn’t know the New Year’s Day fell on January 1 until several years later.
D. Only the obstinate people got involved in celebrating April Fool’s Day.

2. The underlined word “pranks”(in Paragraph 3) most probably means “______”.
A. fools          B. tricks
C. projects      D. plans

3. “April fools” first referred to ______.
A. those who continued to celebrate the new year on April 1
B. those who accepted the new calendar
C. those who were fooled on April 1
D. those who always did foolish things on April 1

Key: 1-3 CBA