初中生英语阅读材料

Alexander the GreatAlthough they had often made war on each other, Athens, Sparta, and the other cities in the south of Greece still thought they were the only Greeks of any importance. But soon another state became the most powerful in Greece. Its people were the Macedonians who lived in the north. They were rough, but they were very good at fighting. They conquered the rest of Greece.The most famous Macedonian was Alexander the Great. He became king at the age of twenty. When his father died, Alexander took over his powerful army. He led it to the far north and attacked the tribes that lived by the River Danube. While he was there a rumor broke out in Greece that he had been killed. Gladly the Greek cities got rid of the soldiers that Alexander’s f ather had put there to keep them loyal. Alexander was far from death. He stormed down from the north and attacked the city of Thebes. The people of Thebes refused to surrender. Alexander himself then led the attack and took the city by storm.6,000 people in the city were killed and 30,000 captured. Alexander had all men, women and children sold as slaves. The Athenians, when they heard what had happened to Thebes, very quickly surrendered.Alexander had not only inherited from his father a powerful army; he also inherited an ambitious plan. His aim was to attack Persia and punish the King for the harm the Persians had done to Greece. He left Greece in 334 B.C. Eight years later he had defeated the King of Persia to become the Great King himself. Soon afterwards, he caught a fever at Babylon and died. He was thirty-two years old.The Roman EmpireWhile the empire of Alexander the Great fell apart in the east, a new power was growing in the western Mediterranean that was soon to control the entire ancient world from Europe to Asia.By 265 B.C. the Romans had taken control of the whole peninsula. By 241 B.C. they had driven the Carthaginians out of Sicily. This island became the first of Rome’s many overseas provinces.In the following century, Roman soldiers swept through Greece, Anatolia and Syria. Under the command of Julius Caesar, they tool Gaul and all of Europe west of the Rhine. Some years later, Britain was conquered too. In 30 B.C. Octavian set himself up as emperor. By the reign of the emperor Trajan, in A.D. 117, the Roman Empire reached its greatest size ever. It stretched from the Atlantic Ocean in the west, through Europe and North Africa as far east as Persia. The city itself grew until it had a population of over a million people.Rome’s great str ength was its ability to govern the empire in an orderly way. They divided the empire into provinces. Each province was ruled by a governor. The Romans allowed their conquered people to follow their own customs. To a large extent, they were even allowed to rule themselves. In return, many people were honored by being made citizens of Rome. The provinces also received all the benefits of years of peace and order.King Henry the Eighth’s WivesKing Henry VIII of England had six wives. He divorced two of them, he executed two of them, one died while she was giving birth, and the last one lived on after Henry died.Anne Boleyn was King Henry’s second wife. When Henry married Anne, he was deeply in love with her. This soon changed. The King was getting old and wanted a son to become king when he died. Unfortunately, Anne gave birth to a daughter. Henry became angry with her, and soon after he fell in love with another woman. He ordered his soldiers to arrest Anne, and later to chop off her head.King Henry’s fifth wife was Catherine Howard. In 1541 Henry ordered his soldiers to arrest Queen Catherine because he still had no son and by this time he was in love with another woman again. The soldiers came to the palace to take poor Catherine away to the Tower of London. On the way to the Tower, they passed the chapel where King Henry was praying. Catherine escaped from the soldiers and ran towards the chapel screaming and crying, “Henry, how can you do this to me? Henry, please don’t do this to me!” The soldiers stopp ed her before she could open the door to the chapel, and Henry did not pay any attention to her screams and cries. Later he chopped off Catherine’s head, too.The French RevolutionThe French Revolution broke out in 1789. At the time France was in a crisis. The government was badly run and people’s lives were miserable. King Louis XVI tried to control the national parliament and raise more taxes. But his effort failed. He ordered his troops to Versailles. The people thought that Louis intended to put down the Revolution by force. On July 14, 1789, they stormed and took the Bastille, where political prisoners were kept. Ever since that day, July 14 has been the French National Day.Louis tried to flee the country in 1792, to get support from Austria and Prussia. However, he was caught and put in prison. In September 1792, themonarchy was abolished. In the same year, Louis was executed. A few months later his wife, Marie Antoinette, also had her head chopped off.The Revolution of France had frightened the other kings of Europe. They feared that the revolutionary ideas of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity would spread into their own countries. Armies from Austria and Prussia began to march against France. The French raised republican armies to defend the nation. An officer called Rouget de Lisle wrote a song for the republican army, The Marseillaise, which has become the national song of France.Then the Revolution went through a period of terror. Thousands of people lost their lives. In the end, power passed to a young officer. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte.Napoleon BonaparteNapoleon Bonaparte was born of poor parents on the island of Corsica in 1769. He attended a military school in France. There he worked hard and read a lot about military history and military science. When the French Revolution began, he was in the French army. He soon began to impress his superiors. He showed great ability. In 1796, the French were fighting the Austrians in Italy and the government sent Bonaparte to lead the French army. As a general, he was brilliant. He drove the Austrians out of Italy and then, in 1798, Bonaparte became First Consul and the most powerful man in France.Napoleon was a capable man. He organized every part of French life, including education and religion. He was also very ambitious. Between 1802 and 1807 he created a great empire. He was crowned emperor in 1804. With his large powerful army he took control of Italy, Holland and most of Germany. At first many people in these countries welcomed the French. They thought they weregoing to be liberated from their rulers. But the French soon oppressed them just the same.Napoleon made two bad mistakes. In 1807 he sent an army to conquer Spain. He defeated the Spanish army, but the Spanish people fought against the French and the British sent an army to help them. Finally Napoleon lost the war. In 1812, Napoleon reached Moscow with a large army. But the Russians refused to surrender. The winter was terrible and Napoleon lost this whole army. After that everything went wrong. In 1815 he was beaten at the battle of Waterloo and he was deported to the island of St. Helena, where he died in 1912.American HistoryThe United States was over 230 years old. Before 1776 the United States was not an independent country; it was a colony of Great Britain. The Americans were n’t happy under British control. In 1765 England began to tax many things in the colonies. The Americans said that the taxes were unfair, and they were very angry about them. a tea party was the beginning of the American revolution. The Boston Tea Party was an angry protest against the British tax.Do you know what the Boston Tea Party was? Several British ships were in Boston Harbor that day. These ships were full of tea with the British tax on it. The Americans were angry about the tax. That night many patriotic Americans went onto the ships and threw all the tea into the sea. King George III was furious. He taxed more things and closed Boston Harbor. Two years later, on April 14, 1775, the war between America and England began.George WashingtonGeorge Washington was the commander of the American army during the Revolution. He was a brilliant soldier. He was very disappointed with his army at first. The men were brave, but they weren’t good soldiers. They were farmers and businessmen, and many of them were very young.The war with England was long and hard. The winter of 1777 was especially terrible for the American army. The army spent the winter in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. It was a very cold winter. Washington’s soldiers didn’t have warm clothing, and many of them didn’t have shoes. Many times the army had no food and no pay. Many of the men were sick, and many of them died during that winter. The soldiers were very angry, but they were loyal to Washington and stayed with him through that terrible winter.The last battle of the war was in 1781. The Battle of Yorktown was a big victory for the Americans. But King George was a stubborn man, and the English army stayed in New York for almost two more years. In 1783, King George finally took all his army back to England. After eight long years, the war was finally over. Washington was a big hero and became the first President of America.Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln is one of the most important presidents of the United States. Some people believe that he was the greatest president in American history. He was President from 1861 to 1865 during the American Civil War. This was the saddest period in American history because Americans from the North fought against Americans from the South. After one of the battles of the Civil War, he made a famous speech. The Gettysburg Address is probably the best presidential speech in American history. American school children have to study this speech in history class.Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in a house with only one room. His family was one of the poorest families in the area. He had to work hard all his life. When he was a young man, he worked in a store. One day he gave a customer the wrong change. When he found his mistake, he walked many miles to the customer’s house to give him the extra change. People began to call him Honest Abe.He was one of the tallest presidents. He was 6 feet 4 inches (190 cm) tall. He was not a handsome man. In fact, some people said he was one of the ugliest presidents of the United States. When he became President, a little girl wrote a letter to him. She wrote, “Because you are not a handsome man, I think you will look better if you grow a beard.” Lincoln followed her advice and grew a beard.Lincoln died when he was only 56 years old. John Wilkes Booth shot him when he was in a theater. It was one of the greatest tragedies in American history.。