【正确答案】 1、正确答案：Nobody Knows the Litchi Was Drawing Near If someone wants to eat the fresh litchi, he can find it on the fruit market last week. It was a new situation for its coming into the market:it all contributed to the increase of litchi planters in South China and the improvement of the transportation to the North. Several centuries ago, the litchi which came to the capital city was exclusively enjoyed by the emperor and the royal family, it was said that the litchi had played an important role in the anecdote of the imperial harem of the emperor. Or we could say that the appearance, fragrance and the sweetness and refreshing of litchi make it have no parallel in the fruits. Inside the red peel, the sparkling fruit meat was juicy and its pit was oval and brown, smooth as the Buddha beads. Or other fruits were incomparable with the position which litchi had taken in the folklore and poetry. For example, early in the first years of Tang dynasty, litchi had its fame for its delicious taste. Emperor Xuanzong"s favorite imperial concubine particularly loved it. In order to please the imperial concubine, Emperor Xuanzong sent some people to the south and took the litchi back to Chang"an. Because the litchi was very easy to get rot in the hot summer, Emperor Xuanzong gave an order—sealing the litchi in the bamboo cube, marking the word of"military plan" , and sending them on their roundabout trip to Chang"an by the posthouse. The drivers all believed. If someone delayed, they would be sentenced to death. So the horse drivers and horses often died in the half way. The poet Du Mu of Tang Dynasty was touched by this and wrote a poem: "I look back Chang"an hilltop embroidered in multicolor, Its palace gates consecutively open one after another. Whipping the horse galloping up dust is the rider, No one knows the concubine smiled for the litchi drawing near. " The smile of the imperial concubine did not last long. The debauchery and neglecting of the national affairs of Emperor Xuanzong infuriated a general, so a mutiny happened...The Emperor Xuanzong ordered a eunuch to strangle the imperial concubine to death. The tragedy of the imperial concubine indeed did not originate from loving the litchi so much. But this legend made people know that at that time it was not easy to keep the litchi fresh.