The white House began to be built in 1792, but it was not completed until ten years later. Every American president lived in it except for George Washington, although he did have a 1.________ majority part in designing it. 2.________ The government held a competition to choose the best design for the president"s house. The winner was a young man of 3.________ South Carolina, James Hoban. His design was a three-level house of stone. And President Washington made some changes in the winning design. He made the house long and wider, and 4.________ changed it into a two-storied house instead of three.The second president, John Adams, was first to live in the 5.________ White House. When he and his wife moved onto the new house 6.________ in November, 1800, work was still going on, although the main live area was completed. The whole work did not finish until the 7.________ administration of the 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson.Twelve years later, the British army invaded Washington and burned the White House. The fire completely destroyed the inside of the building and experts said the White House was so 8.________ dangerous to live in. Later on workers rebuilt the inside of the White House. More offices were added, most of which underground. 9.________ None of the work, however, changed the appearing of 10.________ the building. Many people asked why the president"s house is called the White House. Historians say it has been so called simply because it was painted white.
1.for → ／ 在句子中说明前后两个相等成份的关系时用except，否则用except for。本句是说每位美国总统，除了乔治·华盛顿，都曾在白宫居住过，“Every American president”与“George Washington”为对等成分，故应去掉for。 2.majority → major majority意为“大多数”、“半数以上”，一般后接复数名词，而major则为“主要的”。本句意为“华盛顿在设计白宫中起了主要作用”，故应用major。 3.of → from 要表示一个人的家乡在哪里，介词应为from。 4.long → longer 本句意思是说华盛顿把白宫设计得比原来更长，更宽了一些。与原来作比较，long当然应用比较级，而且and连接的两个形容词也应为对等成分，既然wider是比较级，long也应为比较级。 5. was ∧ first → the the 序数词具有名词意味，在这里the first即表示the first president。 6. onto → into “搬进新居”应为“move in”或“move into”,move on意为“继续前进”，而“move onto”则是不存在的。 7.live → living live (a)意为“活着的”，而“living”则是“适于居住的”、“生活的”。the living area意为“适于居住的地区”。 8. so → too 原文说，战火把楼房的内部完全烧毁了，专家们说白宫太危险了，不能居住了，所以后来工人们才又重修白宫内部。“太……太……”应为“too…too…”。 9. which ∧ underground → were 或which → them 本句有两种改法，若想使这部分成为非限制性定语从句，则which引导一个句子，后面应加一个“were”；若想使这部分为独立成分，则改which为them。 10. appearing → appearance 原句意思是说，重建白宫的工作并未改变它的外貌。appearing为appear(出现)的v. ing形式，appearance意为“外观，外貌”。