Ⅰ.阅读理解
(2016·山西四校联考三)Last weekend I visited Rome for the first time. I spent three busy days in the Italian capital, seeing lots of tourist attractions and walking down streets lit with Christmas decorations. There are a lot of things I love about the city.
Rome is one of the most ancient cities in the world and is full of wonderful relics (遗迹) from its distant past. These monuments include the Roman Forum and the vast Coliseum where gladiators used to fight each other until death and hunt animals coming from another country. The ruins of buildings and temples are fascinating: you can't quite believe how old they are.
I studied the masterpieces of the Renaissance period at university and was very excited to see them in real life. I walked around the museum in Vatican City and saw plenty of famous sculptures (雕塑). The best part of the visit was, without doubt, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted in the early 16th century by the great Michelangelo. It was so breathtaking that I couldn't tear my eyes away from it.