任务型阅读；阅读短文，按要求回答问题。
Marco Polo was born in Italy in 1254. When he was 17, he travelled across Europe and Asian along the Silk Road with his father, who wanted to do trade with the Chinese. Finally they arrived in Beijing. They were guests at the Emperor’s Palace. Although Marco was young, he was very clever and could speak four languages. The Emperor was impressed by him and they became friends. He asked Marco to serve in his court and sent him to do many important tasks across the country.
Marco was amazed by how beautiful China was. He was impressed bu Beijing and the Emperor’s Palace, especially the Summer Palace which he described as “The greatest palace that ever was....” The walls were covered in gold and silver and the hall was so large it could easily seat 6,000 people for dinner.”
There were inventions and developments in China which couldn’t focused in Europe at that time. Marco was surprised to see Chinese people using paper money in the markets. In Europe, people paid for goods with gold and silver. He could not understand how people pay for food and valuable things with paper! He was also puzzled by the black stones people used to burn to produce heat. The black stones were coal, but Marco had never seen coal before!
In 1291, after 17 years of service to the Emperor, Marco returned to Italy. He was now a very wealthy man. A writer wrote down all the stories that Marco told him in a book called The Description of the World, which became one of the best-selling books in Europe.
Although people enjoyed reading the book, many of them thought that Marco’s stories about C
hina were too fantastic to be true. But Marco always stood by his tales.Just before he died, aged 70, Marco was asked the question,”Was it all true?” And this was his answer:”I have only told a half what I saw!”
1.Why did Marco Polo and his father travel to China?
2.What does Paragraph 2 mainly tell us?
3.Marco Polo saw that there were inventions and developments in China which couldn’t be found in Europe at that time. Give TWO examples.
4.Was Marco Polo the writer of the book The Description of the World?
5.What does the last sentence “I have only told a half what I saw!”mean?
答案
1. To do trade with Chinese.
只写出To do with即可得分
2.Marco was amazed by how beautiful and powerful China was.
3.① Paper money./ paper money② Coal./coal
4.No，he wasn’t. 或No.
5.言之有理即可得分。如：
It was all true. What I have seen in China is more fantastic than what is written in this book.
