It's not every week that England's greatest playwright William Shakespeare hits the headlines, but the Bard of Avon （艾芬河的吟游诗人） has been the subject of two news stories in recent days as new information has come to light about the writer and his working environment．

In the first development, a portrait of Shakespeare, which is believed to be the only picture painted of him during his lifetime, was unveiled in London．

The artwork has been dated back to 1610, meaning it was painted six years before the writer's death．

The painting had been owned by a family descended from Shakespeare's literary patron （文学赞助人） tor hundreds of years without them ever knowing who the man in the picture was．

Alec Cobbe, who inherited the portrait, realized that the painting was a likeness of Shakespeare after visiting an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery where he saw a portrait that had, until 70 years ago, been accepted as a life portrait of Shakespeare．

Mr Cobhe immediately realized he was looking at a copy of the painting that had been in his family for centuries．

The painting will now go on display in Shakespeare's hometown Stratford-upon-Avon．

In a separate story, archaeologists in London believe they have unearthed the remains of Shakespeare's first theatre．

The site was excavated（发掘） by a team from the Museum of London last summer, and is believed to have been built in 1576．

Experts think that Shakespeare himself acted at the theatre, which may have been where the play Romeo and Juliet was premiered （首次公演）．

It is believed that 25 years after construction, the building was pulled down and moved timber by timber to the South Bank of the Thames, where a reconstruction of the theatre now stands．

1.．What is the story mainly about?

    A．The remains of the first theatre．  B．Shakespeare's portrait．

    C．Early life of Shakespeare．        D．Great works of Shakespeare．

2.．What does the underlined word "unveiled" mean in the passage?

    A．made public      B．found out       C．on sale           D．sold out

3.．Before visiting the exhibition, Alec Cobbe ___    _．

    A．knew his painting was a copy of the portrait of Shakespeare

    B．thought his painting was a little like Shakespeare

    C．realized his painting was very valuable

    D．was unknown who the man in the painting was

4.．Which of the following is true?

    A．The site was the first theater Shakespeare built．

    B．Romeo and Juliet was first put on in 1576．

    C．The theatre was pulled down to make place for a new one．

    D．The theatre rebuilt stands on the South Bank of the Thames．

 

 

66. We have to get the job done ____________(秘密地). We don't want others to know about it.

67. My train was 20 minutes late in the morning and there was a ___________(相似的)delay in the evening. ? ???

68.Miss Li speaks English with excellent _______________(语音). ?

69. This company is one of the Post Office's biggest _____________(顾客.客户).

70. The drowning swimmer required the lifeguard's _______________(即刻的)attention.

71. Our victory was ________________(庆祝) with music and dancing.

72. I've never seen a Shakespeare's play ______________(表演) so wonderfully.

73. Nowadays most people use paper _________________(手帕) .

74. The boy spoke in a very low voice , ___________(承认) he had broken the glass.

75.The_______________(大多数)of people in my neighborhood are Italian.

 

第三部分  阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40分）

The writing of Shakespeare are today little read by young people in Britain．His young readership is limited to those who choose to study literature at university．

Shakespeare’s work, together with most other classics, is seen as remote, and written in a 400-year- old version of English that is about as inviting as toothache．

Still, in British schools, it is necessary to study the poet, and when something is made compulsory, usually the result is boredom, resentment（憎恨） or both．

This was my experience of the classics at school．But when I reached my late teenage years, I had a change of heart．Like every other young person since the dawn of time, the world confused me．I wanted answers, so I turned to books to find them．

I went on to take a PhD in literature and have taught it in Britain and China．I have never regretted it．There is something in literature that people want, even if they don’t read books．You see this in the popularity of TV and movie adaptations of great works, the recent film version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice being a case in point．These popular adaptations may help increase people’s interest in the classics．

Reading a simplified Romeo and Juliet may perhaps lead to a reading of Shakespeare’s actual plays．If that is the case, then I welcome the trend．But do not make the mistake of thinking that it is the same thing．Shakespeare is a poet．His greatness is in his language．Reading someone else’s rewriting of his works is like peeling a banana, throwing away the fruit, and eating the skin．Take on the original．It really is worth the effort．

1．Which of the following is true according to the passage?

     A．The language used in classics is no longer in use today．

     B．British students usually find compulsory reading dull．

         C．Only those studying literature read Shakespeare’s works．

         D．For British people, Shakespeare’s works are no longer classics．

2．According to the passage, the writer _____ ．

         A．has liked literary classics since an early age

         B．was forced to read the classics for a PhD

         C．turned to literature to seek answers in his teens

         D．thinks only people who read books like literature

3．The underlined phrase “a case in point” in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to “_____”．

         A．a great hit                    B．a good example

         C．a movie adaptation                  D．a popular phenomenon

4．What does the writer intend to tell us in the last paragraph?

         A．The fruit of a banana is more useful than its skin．

         B．The rewriting trend does more harm than good．

         C．Readers should try to read the original versions．

         D．Readers need to learn the language in the classics．

 

Birthdays often bring surprises. But this year’s surprise on the birthday of the great British playwright William Shakespeare is __21__ one of the most surprising.

       On April 22, one day before his 441^st birthday anniversary, experts __22__ that one of the most recognizable __23__ of William Shakespeare is a fake (赝品).

       This __24__ that we no longer have a good __25__ of what Shakespeare looked like. “It’s very possible that many pictures of Shakespeare are unreliable because many of them are __26__ of this one,” said an expert from Britain’s National Portrait Gallery.

      The _27_ comes after four months of testing. Experts from the gallery say the image — commonly known as the “Flower portrait” — was actually __28__ in the 1800s, two centuries __29_  Shakespeare’s death.

       The art experts who work at the gallery say they used modern chemistry technology to __30__ the paint on the picture. These checks found traces (痕迹) of paint deep in the picture __31__ about 1814.

       Shakespeare __32__ in 1616, and the date that appears on the portrait is 1609.

       “We now think the portrait dates back to around 1818 to 1840. This was __33__ there was a new interest in Shakespeare’s__ 34__ ,” Tanya Cooper, the gallery’s 16^th century curator (馆长) said.

       The __35__ picture has often been used as a cover for __36__ of his plays. It is called the “Flower portrait” because one of its __37__, Desmond Flower, gave it to the Royal Shakespeare Company.

       “There have always been __38__ about the authenticity (真实性) of the painting,” said David Howells, curator for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

       “Now we know the truth, we can put the image in its proper place in the history of Shakespearean portraiture (画像技法),” he said.

       Two other images of Shakespeare are also being studied as part of the investigation and the results will __39__later in May. But for now what Shakespeare really looked like will remain a __40__.

1.A. surely         B. never        C. hardly          D. only

2.A. wondered           B. doubted      C. found            D. considered

3.A. plays           B. masterpiecesC. portraits        D. photos

4.A. recommends   B. advises       C. decides           D. means

5.A. news           B. idea         C. design         D. expression

6.A. bargains      B. productions       C. copies           D. prints

7.A. justice         B. discovery   C. invention        D. deed

8.A. cloned         B. developed   C. painted           D. copied

9.A. after           B. before      C. since           D. until

10.A. try         B. remove      C. wash           D. check

11.A. looking back B. dating from       C. getting along     D. starting with

12.A. died         B. was born    C. succeeded        D. was buried

13.A. why         B. when      C. how             D. what

14.A. stories        B. pictures      C. plays            D. photos

15.A. real         B. original      C. valuable          D. fake

16.A. requirements B. collections  C. consequences     D. playwrights

17.A. owners       B. painters      C. writers               D. readers

18.A. causes        B. problems    C. questions        D. orders

19.A. go about           B. come out    C. turn up          D. break out

20.A. surprise       B. problem     C. secret           D. mystery    

 

 ---How did you find the book?

   ---.Great, and also the book review says Shakespeare ________ all his characters in the play vivid and alive.

A. made        B. makes      C. had made      D. has made