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Covering an area of 720,000 square metre, the Forbidden City used to be the home of the emperors in Ming and Qing dynasties. Its construction(建造) work started in 1406 and finished in 1420. The painting and decorating of the Forbidden City kept changing over the years, but the meanings of some colors have never changed.

Blue, green and black can be found everywhere in the Forbidden City Blue is a symbol of trust, relaxation and calmness. Green stands for growth, health and balance. Black is the color of blood ties (血缘关系), water and knowledge.

White is an unlucky color in Chinese culture. It represents death and sadness. It is not a popular color in the Forbidden City.

The two most important colors in the Forbidden City are yellow and red.

Yellow was the color of the emperor. It represented his power of ruling over the country. The seat of the emperor was yellow. Many of the buildings were decorated in yellow inside. The roofs (屋) of the buildings in the Forbidden City are almost all yellow except for several places. One of them is the library. Its roof is black, which is connected with water and fire-prevention. Another example is the palaces where young princes used to live. They have green roofs, which represents wood and growth.

Much of the Forbidden City was painted red as well. Well-known as China’s luckiest color, red is connected with happiness and treasure. Red can be found on columns(柱子), window frames(框架) and walls all over the palaces. The wooden columns were painted red also for another purpose -to make the wood stay longer.

1．Which question is answered in the first paragraph?

A．Where is the Forbidden City?

B．How long did it take to build the Forbidden City?

C．How can people get to the Forbidden City?

2．What can we learn about the colors in the Forbidden City?

A．White represents coldness.

B．Black is not a lucky color.

C．Blue can be used to show trust.

3．The underlined word “them” refers to ________.

A．buildings with yellow roofs

B．places where princes studied

C．buildings with roofs in a different color

4．Which of the following items are red?
①window frames             ② walls of the palaces     ③the wooden columns
④the roof of the library          ⑤the seat of the emperor

A．①②③

B．②⑤④

C．②③⑤

5．The passage mainly talks about ________.

A．the history of the Forbidden

B．different colors in the Forbidden City

C．the connection between colors and buildings