菜鸟3问 + 一自写小短文,麻烦不忙的朋友给改改错,谢谢.

菜鸟3问 + 一自写小短文,麻烦不忙的朋友给改改错,谢谢.
1:对于take和take up,spend 我有点不明白.
首先,我知道,take有花费X人多少时间做某事的意思,如It take sb some time to do sth
比如It take me three hours to make this dish.
但至于take up是占据的意思,占据有时间和空间概念,那么应该占据也有说占据某人多少时间做……的意思吧?如果有能麻烦给个例句么?
另外,我注意到take主语只能是It,也就是说主语不能是人.那么如果说我花费三个小时做道菜,是不是可以用spend?
I spent(它是它的过去式吧?) three hours to make this dish.
2：关于打电话,连接的几个介词,我有些疑惑,on,over,by.
它们都可以连接在打电话中么?比如我正在和XX聊天通过电话,这个用什么介词?on么?
类似的,by和over能用在有电话的句子中么?类似这个位置的?
有的话,麻烦造个简单例句,谢谢
3：这句话看不太明白.
The tower will be 1776 feet (541.3 metres) high. "It represents the Declaration of Independence (《独立宣言》)," said Libeskind, referring to the year in which the US won independence from Britain.
这个塔有1776英尺（约541.3米）高.它表现独立宣言,Libeskind说.就是后面这句不明白.
referring to the year in which the US won independence from Britain.
查阅今年在美国赢得了独立自主来自英国?.偶好像是按词翻译的,结果看不明白了.
Today was Tuesday,weather was beautiful day.
I thought I should go to outside
And then,I got to Baoguosi that it is a small temple in beijing. It is not big and only about 1500 square meters.
I often with my classmate used to get there and bought some books six years ago. then there was very crowded.
However there is very cold,salesman is bigger than customer now! and There is not any cartoon books ,They are replaced
by curio,china and something what I don't like. I feel my heart was very cold. I wish It could return before 6 years!
After Almost 10 minutes I leaved to there, and decided I don't return there any more.
对于第2句,我想说出去转转怎么说,似乎应该加个around,但我不知道加在什么位置.