题目内容：

第二节  根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Marco Polo was born in Italy in 1254. When he was 17, he traveled along the Silk Road with his father, who wanted to trade with the Chinese. Finally, they arrived in Beijing. They were guests at the Emperor s Palace. 1.. The Emperor was impressed by him and they became friends. He asked Marco to serve in his court (宫殿) and sent him to do many important jobs all over the country. 2. . He was impressed by Beijing and the Emperor’s Palace, especially the Summer Palace which was described as “The greatest palace that I’ve ever seen”. The walls were covered with gold and silver and the hall was so big that it could easily hold 6,000 people for dinner.

3. . Marco was surprised to see Chinese people using paper money in the markets. In Europe, people paid for goods (货物) with gold and silver. He could not understand how people paid 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.

After he served the Emperor for 17 years, in 1291, Marco returned to Italy. 4.. 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.

People enjoyed the book, but many of them thought that Marco’s stories about China were too fantastic to be true.5.. 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!”

 

A Marco was also attracted (吸引) by the inventions and developments in China which couldn’t be found in Europe at that time.

B. Marco was very clever and could speak four languages.

C. However, Marco always stood by his tales.

D. Marco was amazed by how beautiful China was.

E. He was a very wealthy man then.