If there is a building which symbolizes a country—such as the Eiffel Tower for France and Sydney Opera House for Australia—then it has to be the Taj Mahal for India.
It was set up by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1653 in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. From the time they got married, they wouldn't be separated. She followed him to wars, advised him on affairs of state, and was loved by his people for her good work. But she died in 1631 during childbirth. The emperor was heart－broken and had the Taj Mahal built as a sign of his love.
It took more than 20 years for the Taj Mahal to be built. Workers were brought in, not only from all over India, but from Central Asia too. A total of 20,000 people worked on the building.
In 1657, Shah Jahan fell ill, and in 1658 his son Aurangzeb, imprisoned (囚禁) his father and seized power. Shah Jahan stayed in prison until his death in 1666. He was finally buried there with his wife he could never forget.
The Taj Mahal is definitely worth more than a single visit. As it is built with white marble stones, its character changes in different lights. It looks more beautiful at sunrise and sunset. At sunset, for example, the colour of the Taj changes from white to yellow, then to pink. As the moon rises, it turns a silvery white.
To show respect to the Taj, tourists are asked to take off their shoes during their visit.
1.Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal to ________.
A．make it symbolize India B.memorise his wife
C．show his great power D．give his wife a present
2.Which of the following about the Taj Mahal is NOT true?
A．It is a symbol of India.
B．It took over 20 years to build the Taj Mahal.
C．All workers building the Taj Mahal came from Central Asia.
D．The Taj Mahal was built with white marble stones.
3.According to the passage, we know that Shah Jahan ______.
A．lived a hard life in his last few years
B．lost his life just because of his old age
C．was not popular with his people at that time
D．treated his son badly when he was young
4.The word “seize” in the fourth paragraph may most probably mean ________.
A．throw B．memorise C．give D．capture
The 92－year－old, thin, calm and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, even though she is nearly blind, moved to a nursing home today.
Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the hall of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.
As she walked slowly to the elevator, I provided a true description of her tiny room, including the old sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it.” she said with the happiness of an eight－year－old having just been presented with a new puppy.
“Mrs Jones, you haven't seen the room...just wait.”
“That doesn't matter.” she replied.“Happiness is something you decide ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged. It's how I arranged my mind. I have already decided to love it. It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away.”She went on to explain，“Old age is like a bank account. You take what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to put in a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my memory bank.”And with a smile, she said，“All my memories are happy ones.”
1.We can infer from the passage that the author ________.
A．is one of Mrs Jones' children
B．works in the nursing home
C．is a relative of Mrs Jones
D．is the owner of the nursing home
2.Mrs Jones was very happy when told about her room because she ________.
A．couldn't see what her room was like
B．thought the nursing home was her home
C．had already made up her mind to be happy
D．would have to live in the nursing home
3.Which of the following words can best describe Mrs Jones?
A．Proud. B．Determined. C．Cheerful. D．Honest.
If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice: There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills you should first master the skills of reading and listening.
Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meaning of the unfamiliar words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come_across,_but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.
As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practise listening.
For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programmes every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.
If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve automatically, and you can be sure that with a little effort they will become perfect.
1.To improve your reading, when you read you should ________.
A．think about what you are reading actively
B．look up all the new words in the dictionary
C．spend more time studying grammars
D．copy as many words and sentences as possible
2.The underlined phrase“come across” in the second paragraph can probably be replaced by“________”．
A．find on purpose B．Discover
C．meet by accident D．look for
3.The author seems to agree with the view that ________.
A．everyone should listen to VOA or BBC programmes every day
B．you needn't practise listening if you keep on reading every day
C．you should take notes of whatever you are hearing
D．being good at reading is helpful in improving your listening
4.The passage is mainly about how to ________.
A．become fluent in speaking and writing English
B．choose suitable listening materials
C．deal with new words in reading
D．improve your English as quickly as possible
书面表达
假如你是李华。你的两位朋友Tom与Peter几天前发生了争吵。3月9日是Peter生日，Tom想送他一个礼物来缓和关系，修复友情，特地发来邮件寻求你的建议。请你根据以下要点给Tom回一封邮件：
1．礼物选择：
2．你的理由；
3．其它和解建议。
注意：
1．词数100左右：
2．可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯：
3．开头和结尾己给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Tom,
I'm glad to hear that you are considering making up with Peter．
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
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Best wishes,
Li Hua
短文改错
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(﹨)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
I got up early this morning, so I went to school without breakfast. I walked in so a hurry that I stepped on a banana peel dropped by an old man walk in front of me. As the result, I slipped and fell in my back. I am so angry that I wanted to blame the old man, so I controlled myself at last. I picked out the banana peel, putting it into the dustbin and ran to school. The class had begun, but I was very happy because I did that what I should do to protect our environment.
单词拼写，每空一词
1.It is widely acknowledged that students should be ________(评价) in terms of overall quality.
2.He requested help from the ________ (图书管理员) to locate the book he wanted.
3.We can’t ________(保证) the punctual arrival of trains in foggy weather.
4.We waited for news with a growing sense of ________(着急).
5.In nature, there are lots of _________(现象) which can’t be explained now.
6.I know I can trust her in any c_________.
7.On a________(平均), I spend $100 on books each month.
8.My desk mate was ________(任命) Chairman of the Students’ Union of our school.
9.Do you believe in the e________ of God?
10.If someone helps you, express your a________ to him.
