The story of Madame Tussaud is as fascinating as that of the exhibition itself. From a housekeeper's daughter to a successful business woman, her life has all the marks of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Madam Tussaud was born in 1761 and named Marie Grosholtz. Her father was killed in battle only two months before Mane's birth. For the first five years of her life, Marie lived in Berne with her mother, who worked as housekeeper for Dr Philippe Curtius. A doctor, with a talent for wax modeling, Curtius became her teacher.

It was Curtius who opened the original wax exhibition in Paris in 1770 and introduced Marie to some famous people. At only 17, she modeled the famous writer Francois Voltaire, followed by a portrait of American statesman Benjamin Franklin when he was in Paris as US ambassador. Both figures are still on display at Madame Tussaud's, London today.

Her work at Curtius successful wax exhibition led to an invitation to the court of Louis XVI and his queen. For nine years she lived at the palace of Versailles guiding the artistic education of the king's sister. Meanwhile the French Revolution was about to erupt. Aware of the political  nrest,Philippe Curtius called Marie back to Paris. Marie7 s connection with the royal family made her guilty. Both she and her mother were arrested. After she was set free, Marie was forced to make death masks (a death mask is a model of a dead person's face, made by coving their face with a soft substance and letting it become hard) of executed (被处决的) nobles. Many were former friends at court, including her former employers, the king and queen.

By 1800 Marie was married with two young children and a poor business inherited from Curtius. Madame Tussaud made the decision to take her exhibition on tour. In 1802, she left France. For the next 33 years, Madame Tussaud traveled the British Isles, exhibiting her growing collection of portraits. In those pre-television days, this was the only way most people had direct contact with the famous people of the time. The exhibition became permanently based in London in 1835, moving to its present site in Marylebone Road in 1884. Her last work, a remarkable self – portrait that is still on show, was completed only eight years before her death aged 89.

1.The underlined part in Para. 1 implies that Madame Tussaud’s life was         .

2.Marie got a job at that court of Louis XVI because of        .

3.Marie was arrested during the French Revolution because         .

4.The last paragraph is mainly about         .

5.According toe the passage, how many of the following statements about Marie are TREU?

a. She hadn’t seen his father since she was born.

b. She modeled the portrait of Francois Voltaire.

c. She modeled the portrait of Francois Voltaire.

d. She guided the artistic education of the king’s daughter.

e. In 1842, she completed her last work.

第二节 信息匹配(共5小题; 每小题2分, 满分10分)

阅读下列应用文及相关信息，并按照要求匹配信息。请在答题卡上将对应题号的相应选项字母涂黑。

以下是关于中国传统节日的起源介绍：

A. One day, Emperor Mingdi had a dream about a gold man in his palace. When he was about to ask the mysterious figure who he was, the gold man suddenly rose to the sky and disappeared in the west. The next day, Emperor Mingdi sent a scholar to India to locate Buddhist scriptures and ordered that a temple be built to house a statue of Buddha and serve as a repository for the scriptures. So Emperor Mingdi ordered his subjects to display lighted lanterns during what was to become the Festival.

B. The earth once had ten suns circling it. However, one day all ten suns appeared together. The heat was so scorching and unbearable. A strong archer named Hou Yi came out and succeeded in shooting down nine suns. He was later made the emperor but after that he became a tyrant. In order to save the people from his tyranny, his wife Chang-E stole the elixir and consumed it herself and floated to the moon taking along her pet rabbit with her.

C. Qu Yuan was a minister in the kingdom of Chu.He was upright , loyal and highly esteemed for his wise counsel that had brought peace and prosperity to the kingdom. Realizing that the country was now in the hands of evil and corrupt officials, Qu Yuan clasped a large stone and leaped into the Mi Lo river on the fifth day of the fifth moon. The people of Chu, mourning the death of Qu Yuan, threw rice into the river to feed his hungry ghost on this day every year.

D. One of the most famous legends is Nian, an extremely cruel and ferocious beast that the ancients believed would devour people on New Year's Eve. To keep Nian away, red-paper couplets are pasted on doors, torches are lit, and firecrackers are set off throughout the night, because Nian is said to fear the color red, the light of fire, and loud noises. Early the next morning, as feelings of triumph and renewal fill the air at successfully keeping Nian away for another year, the most popular greeting heard is "gong xi fa cai", or "congratulations."

E. On this evening, two lovers will meet on a bridge of magpies across the Milky Way. Chinese grannies will remind children that they would not be able to see any magpies on that evening because all the magpies have left to form a bridge in the heavens with their wings.

F. The Festival itself was created by the Tang Emperor Xuanzong in 732. It is said that because the wealthy held too many expensive, elaborate ancestor-worshipping ceremonies, in a needed effort to lower this expense, Emperor Xuanzong declared that respects could be formally paid at ancestor's graves only on the day.

以下是中国传统节日的庆祝活动，请匹配庆祝活动和该传统节日的起源介绍：

56. The Qingming Festival: The most important activity on the Festival is tomb sweeping to remember and honour one's ancestors at grave sites. Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, (joss) paper accessories, and/or libation to the ancestors. The rites are very important to most Chinese and especially farmers.

57. The Lantern Festival: According to the Chinese tradition, at the very beginning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousands of colorful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate. At this time, people will try to solve the puzzles on the lanterns and eat yuanxiao (glutinous rice ball) and get all their families united in the joyful atmosphere.

58. The Dragon-boat Day: The Festival was also noted for its dragon-boat races, especially in the southern provinces, where there are many rivers and lakes and a glutinous rice pudding called Zongzi was eaten

59. The Valentine’s Day: There is not so much emphasis on giving chocolates, flowers and kisses. Instead, Chinese girls prepare fruits, melons and incense as offerings to the weaving maiden, praying to acquire high skills in needlecraft, as well as hoping to find satisfactory husbands. In the evening, people sit outdoors to observe the stars. Chinese grannies would say that, if you stand under a grapevine, you can probably overhear what the weaving maiden and her husband are talking about.

60. The New Year’s Day:  It is traditional to decorate the homes with new year paintings. The most popular paintings are Door Gods pasted on the front doors to keep ghosts and monsters away. Spring couplets are traditionally written with black ink on red paper. They are hung in storefronts and often stay up for two months. A reunion dinner is held where members of the family, near and far, get together for celebration.

When Jackie Robinson walked onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, on April 15, 1947, he changed baseball forever. As the first African American to play in the Major League in modern times, many believe he changed the country forever.

Robinson was born in 1919. He lived in a time when rules controlled what African Americans could do. He was a top athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball. But playing for a major League team was off limits to Robinson because of his race.

Branch Rickey, president and manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed (和……签约) Robinson in 1947. He believed that Robinson not only had the skills, but the courage to face the challenge of becoming modern baseball’s first black player.

It wasn’t easy. Robinson sometimes faced boos (嘘声) from fans. But he became a star, anyway. In 1962, he became the first African-American player chosen to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2005, he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award Congress can give to an American.

By breaking baseball’s color barrier (肤色障碍), Robinson opened the door for many to follow his footsteps, not only in baseball, but in other areas of life as well. After he stopped playing the game, Robinson worked as a manager for a coffee company. He wrote a newspaper column (专栏). He also  started a bank.

1.Before Jackie Robinson, no African-American players could __________.

2.According to Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson was __________.

3.We can know that Jackie Robinson’s story __________.

4.Which of the following is NOT what he once did?