四、閱讀測驗
Passage 1
      Marco Polo undertook the journey to the Far East when he was only 15 years old. He traveledwith his father and uncle, and after the trip was over he completed a book about what he had seen. Itwas full of information about the cultures and geography of the Asian lands he had visited thisremote part of the world before, Polo’s reports were unparalleled in their level of excitement anddetail.
      Polo arrived home in Venice in 1295. Then, three years later, he was called to fight in a warbetween the cities of Venice and Genoa and had the misfortune to be taken and held by the Genoanside. While waiting to be freed, he met a writer named Rustichello da Pisa who greatly admired thestories Polo told him. Rustichello da Pisa wrote them down in the form of a book that was publishedand called The Description of the World or The Travels of Marco Polo. It became very popular andwas much admired by many people. However, some people did not believe it was true and said itshould be called The Million Lies. Despite this, the book contributed greatly to an increased interestin the Far East.
           Christopher Columbus knew about the travels of Marco Polo when he first sailed westward withthe objective of finding a new route to the Eastern lands in 1492. In fact, one writer at the timeclaimed that Columbus had read and studied the book prior to asking Portugal to finance his voyage.However, he may have got the information through word of mouth. A library in Seville has acopy of Polo’s book that was owned by Columbus. It has notes written in it, possibly by Columbushimself. However, these notes appear to have been written only after Columbus’s third trip to theAmericas, so did he read Polo’s book before 1492, or didn’t he? It’s up to future researchers to tryto discover the answer.
36. What is the passage mainly about?
(A) It gives information about the cultures and geography of the Far East.
(B) It shows how Marco Polo’s journey affected the world.
(C) It explains why Christopher Columbus decided to make his voyages.
(D) It summarizes what Marco Polo wrote about in his book.