25．What does the underlined sentence mean?

　A．We are proud to live in Mandela's time. B．Mandela is as great as a god.

　C．We are proud to know Mandela. D．Mandela lives together with us all.

26．What can we infer from the article?

　A．The Statue of Freedom has been built to celebrate Mandela's birthday.

　B．The article may have appeared in a newspaper on Mandela's birthday.

　C．Most articles focused on Mandela's shortcomings.

　D．Mandela is loved by people as a very skilled statesman

　.

27．How many years ago is it that Mandela retired from his president position?

　A．24.　　　B．27.　　　C．16.　　　D．19.

C

　　The Taj Mahal(泰姬陵) is a love story, a sad and beautiful one. If it didn't exist, we would easily imagine that the story of its construction was simply a fairy tale.

　　Three hundred years ago, there lived an Indian emperor called Shah Jahan. His wife was a beautiful and bright woman whom he loved greatly. Her title was Mumtaz Mahal: its shortened form Taj Mahal, means "pride of the palace". In the year 1630 this beloved wife of the emperor died. He was so broken-hearted that he thought of giving up his throne(王位). He decided out of his love for his wife to build her the most beautiful tomb(墓穴) that had ever been seen.

He invited the best artists and architects from India, Turkey, Persia and Arabia and finally, the design was completed. It took more than twenty thousand men working over a period of 18 years to build the Taj Mahal, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

The building itself stands on a marble platform, 29 meters' square and 6-7 meters' high. Towers rise from each of the four corners. The Taj itself soars another 61 meters into the air. It is an eight-sided building made of white marble.

The emperor planned to build an identical tomb of black marble for himself on the other side of the river connected by a silver bridge. However, his son put him into prison in the palace before he could finish, and for the rest of his life, he could only gaze across river at the tomb of his beloved wife.

28. Which of the following statements is True according to the passage?