One afternoon, a teacher was having a math class. However, some boys made a lot of noise in class. The teacher got angry. He kept them in the classroom after school. He told them to add (加) all the numbers from 1 to 100 together.
The boys took out their exercise books. All of them began to write the numbers down except one boy. He was seven years old and new in the school. He looked out of the window for a few minutes. Then he wrote a number in his exercise book and put up his hand.
“May I go home sir?” he asked. “I know the answer now.”
The teacher and the other boys were very surprised.
“Bring it here.” said the teacher.
The next morning the teacher asked the boy. “How did you find the answer so quickly?”
“Well sir,” he said, “I did not want to stay here so long. So I did my best to find the answer quickly. Soon I found it. You see, if you add 100 to 1, you get 101, and 99 and 2 is 101, and 98 and 3 is 101 too, and when you reach 51 and 50, you have 101 fifty times. That is 5050.”
After this when the teacher gave the class exercises to do, he gave this boy different exercises.
The boy’s name was Carl F. Gauss. When he grew up, he became a great scientist. Gauss’ achievements (成就) filled many pages in science encyclopedias (百科全书). And he was as famous as Archimedes and Newton. And he was one of the three greatest mathematicians (数学家) of all time in the world.
36. What made the teacher angry?
A.The wrong answer. | B.The noise from the boys. | C.The problem of adding numbers. |
37. Why could the seven-year-old boy go home quickly?
A.Because he was the quickest to get the correct answer. |
B.Because he was new and didn’t need to do exercise. |
C.Because he saw the right answer on the window. |
38. What can you know about Gauss according to the passage?
A.Gauss wanted to stay at school for a long time. |
B.Gauss got different exercises to do after that maths lesson. |
C.Gauss was especially famous for writing science encyclopedias. |
39. Which of the following can best describe the boy?
A.Shy and hard-working. |
B.Difficult and strange. |
C.Clever and careful. |
40. What’s the best title of the passage?
A.The Little Gauss |
B.An Angry Teacher |
C.A Funny Class |