A．They were from South Africa.

　　B．They are in the same museum.

　　C．They are record­breaking items.

　　D．They were from the 19th century.

　　解析：选C　细节理解题。根据文中的largest, first, longest等词的描述可知，该博物馆的这几件藏品都堪称世界之最。

　　8．All of Smithsonian museums ________.

　　A．are open at 10 a．m.

　　B．charge an entrance fee

　　C．are closed on Christmas Day

　　D．ask for your membership cards

　　解析：选C　细节理解题。根据倒数第二段的"Smithsonian museums are open every day of the year except December 25"可知，该博物馆圣诞节闭馆。

　　C

　　There are many types of tombs (坟墓) in Egypt.However, throughout Egypt's past, the tombs of kings and high officials, upper class artists and craftsmen, and poor people were very different.For poor people, the types of tombs they used stayed about the same, but the tombs of kings and high officials changed a lot over time.

　　At first, the kings of Egypt were buried in what are known as mastabas in southern Egypt, mainly at a place called Abydos.They had a pit (深坑) where the dead were buried in the ground covered by stones above ground.Later mastabas sometimes had many rooms below and above ground to store the items that the dead person wished to take with him or her into the afterlife.

　　Later, during a period known as the Old Kingdom, the kings decided to be buried in a more northern location around the capital of Egypt.It was a city called the White Walls, but the Greeks called it Memphis.There were several cemeteries (墓地) around Memphis.The first was a place called Saqqara, where the earliest pyramids were located.These were not true pyramids, as they had stepped sides rather than being smooth.

　　Later kings experimented with true pyramids at a place called Dashure, where they finally built the first true pyramid tomb.However, the largest and grandest pyramids were later built at a place called the Giza Plateau, which is now just outside of the modern city of Cairo, Egypt.However, there were a number of other locations where the kings of Egypt built pyramids, but almost all of them were built near Memphis in the north or only as far south as a place called the Fayoum.

9．With time passing by, the tombs of poor people in Egypt ________.