William Shakespeare:Sonnet 18

William Shakespeare was a writer of plays and poems. Some of his most famous plays are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth. He wrote thirty-seven plays in all. They are still popular today.
He was born in 1564 in England. At school he liked watching plays. He decided to be an actor when he finished school at the age of fourteen. In 1582, he married a farmer’s daughter. She was eight years older than he was. Their first child was a daughter. Later they had twins. In 1585, Shakespeare left his hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon. His wife and children stayed behind. No one knows why he left or what he did between 1585 and 1592.
At twenty-eight he moved to London and joined a theatre company which opened the Globe Theatre in 1599. He became an actor, and he also wrote plays. He usually acted in his own plays. He earned almost no money from his writing. But he made a lot of money from acting. With the money he bought a large house in his hometown.
At the age of forty-nine, Shakespeare retired (退休) and went to live in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died at the age of fifty-two. He left his money to his family. He left his genius to the world. You still see his plays in English and in many other languages. He is one of the most famous writers in the world.
小题1:Shakespeare wrote many famous plays except _______.

A．Hamlet	B．Macbeth
C．Romeo and Juliet	D．Man and Superman

小题2:Shakespeare decided to be an actor in _______.

A．1578

B．1582

C．1599

D．1616

小题3:In 1585, Shakespeare left his hometown Stratford-upon-Avon _______.

A．with his wife	B．with his daughter
C．with his wife and children	D．alone

小题4:Shakespeare got much money from _______.

A．writing

B．plays

C．acting

D．retirement

小题5:According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE? ________.

A．Shakespeare had two children

B．Shakespeare wrote both plays and poems

C．Shakespeare left his money to the Globe Theatre

D．Shakespeare wrote plays in English and some other languages

The famous writer William Shakespeare was born 1564.
A. in B. on C at .D of

William Shakespeare was one of the world’s great writers. He lived in England 21 1564 to 1616. Shakespeare is famous for his 22 and poems. His plays are all about love and feelings. Some, like Julius Caesar , are about history. 23 , like Romeo and Juliet , are about love and romance. The plays are very interesting, and the writing is beautiful. Sometimes it’s hard to understand them. English today is very different from 24 it was 400 years ago. Also, people in the plays often speak like they’re in a poem. There are many movies about Shakespeare’s plays. When you don’t have the chance to see a live play(现场演出), you can 25 one of the movies.

小题1:	A．in B．from C．since D．for

小题2:	A．novels B．plays C．stories D．songs

小题3:	A．Another B．The other C．Others D．Either

小题4:	A．what B．that C．which D．how

小题5:	A．make B．enjoy C．write D．play

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William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in England. At school，he liked watching plays. He decided to be an actor when he finished school at the age of 14.
At 28, he moved to London and joined a theater company which opened the Globe Theater in 1599. He became an actor and he also wrote plays. He usually acted his own plays. He got almost no money from his writing. But he made a lot of money from acting.
Shakespeare died at the age of 52. He is a famous writer in the world.
根据以上短文内容，完成下列句子，每空限填一个单词。
小题1:William Shakespeare was a great writer and an _________ .
小题2:William Shakespeare liked watching plays when he was at __________
小题3:William Shakespeare joined a _________ company when he was 28.
小题4:William Shakespeare didn’t make a lot of money from his _________ but acting.
小题5:Shakespeare died in __________ .

III. 阅读理解
William Shakespeare is the most famous playwright (剧作家). Although he died in 1616, people still go to see his plays. Among the most popular are ＲｏｍｅｏａｎｄＪｕｌｉｅｔ, ＡＭｉｄｓｕｍｍｅｒＮｉｇｈｔ’ｓＤｒｅａｍ and Ｈａｍｌｅｔ — the story of a prince who struggles to respond to the crimes around him.
Shakespeare, who was born in 1564, was an actor as well as a writer. Most of his ideas for plays were taken from history, people’s conversation, ancient stories, and also from other writers. He wrote not only about kings and queens and princes, but also about friends and ordinary people. He wrote about the cruelty of war and the bravery of heroes, as well as about jealousy, joy, hate, ambition and love. His stories live on. The tragedy ＲｏｍｅｏａｎｄＪｕｌｉｅｔ was reborn as the musical ＷｅｓｔＳｉｄｅＳｔｏｒｙ and more recently as the movie ＲｏｍｅｏａｎｄＪｕｌｉｅｔ with the wonderful performance of Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
He invented a number of great characters: powerful magicians, thrilling witches, smart women and both wise and wicked men. He also invented some great phrases. If you’ve ever said, “Oh, for goodness sake!” you can thank Shakespeare for that. Other examples of common phrases adapted from Shakespeare: “as luck would have it”, “your own flesh and blood”, “too much of a good thing”, “good riddance”, “in one fell swoop”, and “in the twinkling of an eye”. “To be, or not to be: that is the question,” Hamlet says. “Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it is morrow,” says Juliet to her Romeo.
Don’t be surprised if you don’t understand everything when reading Shakespeare or watching one of his plays because the meanings of many words have changed over the years. And Shakespeare’s characters speak in poetry, so their speeches can be complicated.
It does help to find out a little bit about the story before reading a Shakespeare play. It’s worth the effort. As Shakespeare wrote, “All the world is a stage.” And in his plays you’ll find that an entire world is waiting for you.
1. Shakespeare created the following characters EXCEPT ________.
A. Juliet B. Hamlet C. Claire Danes D. Romeo
2. From Paragraph 3 we can learn that ________.
A. most of the characters created by Shakespeare were negative ones
B. most of the phrases used today were invented by Shakespeare
C. “Oh, for goodness sake!” is what Juliet says to Romeo
D. Shakespeare contributed greatly to the development of English
3. Which of the following is a reason why it’s difficult to understand some of Shakespeare’s plays?
A. There are many new words in his plays.
B. He wrote his plays using uncommon words.
C. The characters in his plays speak in poetry.
D. Most of the words in his plays are outdated.
4. We can infer from the passage that ______.
A. most of Shakespeare’s plays have been made into films
B. language changes with the development of society
C. Shakespeare made lots of money from his works
D. it is more useful to read Shakespeare’s works than to watch them