Queen Victoria was monarch of Great Britain from 1837 until her death in 1901. This period is often called the Victorian Age.
Queen Victoria was a stern and serious woman. One reason she was so serious was that she had suffered a great loss. When she was twenty years old, she married a German prince named Albert. Victoria and Albert were deeply in love, and their marriage was extremely happy. In 1861, after they had been married for twenty-one years, Albert died, leaving Queen Victoria heartbroken. For the rest of her life, the lonely Victoria mourned his loss. It was customary in those days for a widow to dress in black for a short time after the death of her husband. But Queen Victoria dressed in black for forty years. And for forty years, as another sigh of her grief, she wrote her letters white paper edged in black.
Even before Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria was known as a very serious woman. She had a strong sense of duty and worked very hard at all her tasks. In her diary she wrote, “I love to be employed; I hate to be idle.” She never forgot that she was Britain’s queen and always acted with great dignity. Victoria had high ideals and moral standards that sometimes made her seem stuffy. She was also very sure of herself. She always thought that she was right, and she expected everyone to agree with her.
小题1:Which of the following statements about Queen Victoria is NOT true?
A．She had great confidence in herself.
B．She ruled Great Britain for sixty-four years.
C．She enjoyed her marriage to a German prince.
D．She became a serious woman after her beloved husband died.小题2:Queen Victoria wrote her letters on white paper edged in black because______
A．she was a very serious woman.
B．black was her favorite color.
C．that was one way to show her feeling of sadness.
D．it was a custom among monarchs of Great Britain.小题3:All of the following characteristics except ______ can be used to properly describe Queen Victoria.
A．moral
B．lonely
C．workaholic( 工作狂)
D．compromising (妥协)
