3 . The Taj Mahal(泰姬陵)is a love story, a sad and beautiful one. If it didn’t exist, we would easily imagine that the story of its construction was simply a fairy tale. Three hundred years ago, there lived an Indian emperor called Shah Jahan. His wife was a beautiful and bright woman whom he loved greatly. Her title was Mumtazl

Mahal: its shortened form Taj Mahal, means “pride of the palace”. In the year 1630 this beloved wife of the emperor died. He was so brokenhearted that he thought of giving up his throne(王位). He decided out of his love for his wife, to build her the most beautiful tomb that he had ever seen.

He summoned the best artists and architects from India, Turkey, Persia and Arabia and finally, the design was completed. It took more than twenty thousand men working over a period of 18 years to build the Taj Mahal, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

The building itself stands on a marble platform 29 meters square and 6—7 meters high. Towers rise from each of the four comers. The Taj Mahal itself soars another 61 meters into the air. It is an eight-sided building made of white marble.

The emperor planned to build an identical(相同的)tomb of black marble for himself on the other side of the river connected by a silver bridge. However, his son put him into a prison in the palace before he could finish, and for the rest of his life, he could only gaze across river at the tomb of his beloved wife.

1. Why was the Taj Mahal built according to the passage? Because________.

A．Shah Jahan was heartbroken after the death of his wife

B．Shah Jahan loved his wife greatly

C．his wife was a beautiful and bright woman

D．his wife was the “pride of the palace”

2. From the passage we can know________.

A．the Taj Mahal was completed quickly owing to the efforts of the best artists and workers

B．a lot of people took part in the building of the Taj Mahal

C．the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan’s own tomb were built at the same time

D．the Taj Mahal is the most beautiful tomb in the world

3. The emperor’s own tomb was designed to be________.

A．four-sided

B．eight-cornered

C．black-colored

D．white-colored

4. The reason why the emperor couldn’t finish his own tomb was that________.

A．he died soon after his wife’s death	B．he was killed by his son
C．he gave up his throne	D．he was put into prison by his son

5. The whole passage tells us about ________.

A．the story of the Taj Mahal

B．a beautiful fairy tale

C．white and black marble tombs made for two emperors

D．the love story of Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife

4 . 假如你是星光中学的李华，请根据以下内容提示给某英文报社写一封信，发表自己对交通事故频繁发生的看法。
内容提示：
1. 常见的违反交通规则的现象；
2. 产生这些现象的原因及自己的看法；
3. 呼吁人们自觉遵守交通规则重视交通安全。
注意：1. 词数：120词左右；
2. 文章的开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数；
3. 可适当增加细节，以使内容完整充实，行文连贯。
参考词汇：自觉地consciously
Dear editor,

I’m Li Hua from Xingguang Middle School.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

5 . John H. Johnson was born in a black family in Arkansas City in 1918. His father died in an accident when John was six. He was reaching high school age, but his hometown offered no high school for blacks.

Fortunately he had a strong-willed, caring mother. John remembers that his mother told him many times, “Son, you can be anything you really want to be if you just believe.” She told him not to be dependent on others, including his mother. “You have to earn success,” said she. “All the people who work hard don’t succeed, but the only people who do succeed are those who work hard.”

These words came from a woman less than a third grade education. She also knew that believing and hard work don’t mean everything. So she worked hard as a cook for two years to save enough to take her son — then 15 — to Chicago.

Chicago in 1933 was not the promised land that black southerners were looking for, John’s mother and stepfather could not find work. But there John could go to school, and there he learned the power of words — as editor of the newspaper and yearbook of Du Stable High School. His wish was to publish a magazine for blacks.

While others discouraged him, John’s mother offered him more words to live by: “Nothing beats a failure but a try.” She also let him pawn (典当) her furniture to get the $500 he needed to start the Negro magazine.

It is natural the difficulties and failures followed John closely until he became very successful. He always keeps his mother’s words in mind. “Son, failure is not in your vocabulary.”

Now John H. Johnson is one of the 400 richest people in America — worth $150 million.

1. Why did John’s mother decide to move to Chicago? Because ________.

A．John’s father died in his hometown when he was very young

B．life was too hard for them to stay on in their hometown, while life in Chicago would be better for blacks

C．there were no schools for blacks in their hometown

D．John needed more education and he could go to school there

2. Which of the following is TRUE?

A．Chicago was the promised land for black southerners in 1933.

B．John’s mother worked hard as a cook to make their life better.

C．With the help of his mother, John got the money to start the Negro magazine.

D．Now John is the richest man in America.

3. What kind of woman was John’s mother? She was a ________.

A．strong woman with much knowledge

B．woman who would do anything for her son

C．woman with little school education but knew a lot about life

D．loving mother with different kinds of experience in life

4. The underlined sentence in the fifth paragraph means ________.

A．if you try, you will succeed in the end

B．a failure is difficult to beat, even if you try

C．a try is always followed by a failure

D．nothing but a try can help you out of failure

5. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．How John H. Johnson became somebody.

B．The mental support John’s mother gave him.

C．The importance of a good education.

D．The key to success for blacks.