选修八 Unit 4 高考提能练阅读理解·组块专练——练速度(限时：35 分钟)Ⅰ.阅读理解A(·甘肃省高三第一次诊断)When Shakespeare was twentyone, he went to London, a very interesting place, to try his fortune.There were the famous London Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral, and palaces and markets and long streets full of shops.Then, too, there were the daily crowds where could be seen people from all over the world. Knights, scholars and highwaymen ( 拦 路 强 盗 ) or thieves who had been infamous for their clever robberies, passed by each other.Here, also, were noblemen dressed in gold, from Italy, Spain and France; slaves from Spanish America, sea captains and ministers, soldiers and servants — all held by chances or interests within the gray walls which circled London, and whose gates gave welcome to as strange a crowd as could be found in the world.Into this curious crowd came Shakespeare, quick to see and eager to learn. And before long all these strange sights were as familiar to him as the faces of his own town’s residents. Each one told its story to him so plainly that, as before he had learned the secrets of the fields and woods, so now he learned men and men’s interests that make up the great world.And he learned these lessons so well that when he came to write his plays, he made such use of them as no writer ever made before or since; for it is the use of this knowledge of the world, combined with his own genius, that makes Shakespeare the greatest dramatist that has ever lived.语篇解读：本文重要讲述了莎士比亚到伦敦后的经历，他很快适应了那里的生活，并把自己所观测到的事情融入自己的创作中。1．What was London like in Shakespeare’s eyes when he first went there?A．Dirty and small. B．Strange and inter...
