2016年浙江省杭州市外国语学校高考英语（阅读理解提分训练）每日一练43_高考复习指南

2016年浙江省杭州市外国语学校高考英语（阅读理解提分训练）每日一练43

　　Mrs. Rhodes lives on the royal farm in Windsor Great Park, in a house given to her by the Queen in 1980. She tells how it was offered out of the blue one day when she and the Queen---whose 60 years on the throne next year will be marked with many national famous people---were out riding. She suddenly turned around and said, “ Could you bear to live in the suburb?” Therefore Mrs. Rhodes is now still living here.

　　Born in 1925, the youngest daughter of the 16th Lord Elphinstone and his wife Mary, the Honorable Margaret Rhodes has led an extraordinary life. She was the childhood playmate of her cousin, the Queen; she was a wartime MI6 spy; she was a lady-in-waiting to her aunt, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, from 1991 until the latter’s death in 2002. At the Queen’s 80th birthday in April 2006, Margaret gave an interview to the BBC in which she proved that, in her own opinion and despite several false reports, the Queen would not abdicate(退位). Now, at the age of 86, she has written a charming autobiography that paints a first-time close portrait of the private world of the royal family.

　　Elsewhere in the book she reveals how the Queen Mother was a fan of the TV shows Two Fat Ladies and Dad’s Army. Perhaps more surprisingly, she was also a fan of the poet Edith Sitwell and the Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, who was a regular and favoured guest.

　　Life at Birkhall, the Queen Mother’s home of the edge of the Balmoral Estate, is described along with sometimes noisy dinners. Mrs. Rhodes recalls: “At the end of the meal, Queen Elizabeth would start a series of toasts. As well as ‘Hooray for…’ with glasses held high, there was even more of ‘ Down with…’ with glasses almost disappearing beneath the table.”