Passage 16
（2006 安徽 B）

People fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor in 1944, when she starred in National Velvet—the story of Velvet brown,a young girl who wins first place in a famous horse race.At first, the producers of the movie told Taylor that she was too small to play the part of Velvet.However, they waited for her for a few months as she exercised and trained—and added three inches to her height in four months! Her acting in National Velvet is still considered the best by a child actress.

Elizabeth Taylor was born in London in 1932.Her parents, both americans, had moved there for business reasons.When World War II started, the Taylors moved to beverly Hills, california, and there Elizabeth started acting in movies.After her success as a child star, Taylor had no trouble moving into adult （成人）roles and won twice for best actress: butterfield 8 （1960）and Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf ? （1966）.

Taylor's fame （名聲）and popularity gave her a lot of power with the movie industry, so she was able to demand very high pay for her movies.In 1963, she received $1 million for her part in cleopatra—the highest pay received by any star up to that time.

Elizabeth Taylor is a legend （傳奇人物）of our time.Like Velvet brown in National Velvet, she has been lucky.She has beauty, fame and wealth.but she is also a hard worker.Taylor seldom acts in movies any more.Instead, she puts her time and efforts into her businesses, and into helping others—several years ago, she founded an organization that has raised more than $40 million for research and education.

1.The producers didn't let Taylor play the part of Velvet at first because they thought she ______.

A. was small in size

B. was too young

C. did not play well enough

D. did not show much interest

2.What Elizabeth Taylor and Velvet brown had in common was that they were both______.

A. popular all their lives

B. famous actresses

C. successful when very young

D. rich and kind-hearted

3.Taylor became best actress at the age of ______.

A. 12

B. 28

C. 31

D. 34

4.In her later life, Elizabeth Taylor devoted herself to______.

A. doing business and helping others

B. turning herself into a legend

C. collecting money for the poor

D. going about research and education work

【重點詞匯】

fall in love with 與……相愛，這里意為喜歡

star v.使成為明星，讓（一個演員）擔任主角

win first place 獲第一名

play the part of （在戲中）扮演……

popularity n.流行

up to 直到

up to that time 直到那時

have trouble 在……有困難

raise v.籌集

raise money 籌款

【疑難長句】

However, they waited for her for a few months as she exercised and trained—and added three inches to her height in four months!

這句話的難點在于as一詞。這里as 引導的是時間狀語從句，as she exercised and trained意思為在她鍛煉身體和訓練的時候。

（參考譯文）不過，他們仍然等了泰勒幾個月，那時她在鍛煉身體和訓練，4個月后她的身高增加了3英寸。