I fell in love with England because it was quaint （古雅）—all those little houses, looking terri??bly old-fashioned but nice, like dolls’ houses．I loved the countryside and the pubs, and I loved London．I’ve slightly changed my mind after seventeen years because I think it’s an ugly town now．

Things have changed. For everybody, England meant gentlemen, fair play, and good man??ners．The fair play is going, unfortunately, and so are the gentlemanly attitudes and good man??ners—people shut doors heavily in your face and politeness is disappearing．

I regret that there are so few comfortable meeting places．You’re forced to live indoors．In Paris I go out much more, to restaurants and nightclubs．To meet friends here it usually has to be in a pub, and it can be difficult to go there alone as a woman．The cafes are not terribly nice．

As a woman, I feel unsafe here．I spend a bomb on taxis because I will not take public trans??port after 10 p．m．I used to use it, but now I’m afraid．

The idea of family seems to be more or less non-existent in England. My family is well united and that’s typically French．In Middlesex I had a neighbour who is 82 now．His family only lived two miles away, but I took him to France for Christmas once because he was always alone．

The writer doesn’t like London because she ______．

       A．is not used to the life there now

       B．has lived there for seventeen years

       C．prefers to live in an old-fashioned house

       D．has to be polite to everyone she meets there

Where do people usually meet their friends in England?

       A．In a cafe．     B．In a restaurant．      C．In a nightclub.  D．In a pub．

The underlined part “it” （in Par      A．4） refers to______．

       A．a taxi                     B．the money        C．a bomb           D．public transport

The writer took her neighbour to France for Christmas because he ______．

       A．felt lonely in England                         B．had never been to France

       C．was from a typical French family         D．didn't like the British idea of family

完形填空 (共15小题，每小题2分，满分30分)

阅读下面短文，从短文后所给各题的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

Every year on my birthday, a white gardenia (栀子花) was     1     to my house. But no card or note came with it. Calls to the flower shop were always     2     -- it was a cash purchase. After a while I stopped trying to discover the sender’s identity and just     3     in the beauty and heady perfume of that one magical, perfect white flower lying in soft pink paper.

But I never stopped     4     who the giver might be. My mother     5      to these imaginations. She asked me if there was someone for whom I had done a special kindness who might be showing     6     . I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy I fell in love with or one who had     7     me even though I didn’t know him.

One month before my high-school graduation, my father died. My feelings      8      from sorrow to fear and     9    : my dad was missing some of the most important events in my life. I became completely     10     in my coming graduation, the senior-class play and the ball. But my mother would not hear of my losing any of those things. Mother and I had gone shopping and found an impressive dress, but it was the     11     size. When my father died, I forgot about the dress.

The day before my ball, I found that dress-- in the right size—hanging over the living room sofa. It was     12      to me so lovingly. I didn’t     13     if I had a new dress or not. But my mother did. She wanted her children to feel     14    , filled with a sense that there was a beauty even in the face of     15   .

My mother died ten days after I was married. The following year the gardenia stopped coming.

1. A. given         B. delivered            C. taken            D. brought

2. A. useful            B. helpful          C. in vain      D. hopeful

3. A. delighted     B. pleasant         C. pleasing     D. satisfied

4. A. considering       B. remembering      C. imagining        D. recalling

5. A. referred      B. led              C. preferred        D. contributed

6. A. appreciation  B. honor            C. grateful     D. respect

7. A. observed      B. watched          C. noticed      D. hated

8. A. ranged            B. differed         C. suffered     D. judged

9. A. shock         B. happiness            C. depressing   D. anger

10. A. uninterested B. interested           C. unhappy      D. disappointing

11. A. wrong            B. false                C. proper       D. right

12. A. provided     B. presented            C. introduced   D. awarded

13. A. doubt            B. wonder           C. desire       D. care

14. A. loving           B. loved                C. respected        D. honored

15. A. trouble      B. despair          C. problem      D. sorrow

it was because of his kind nature _______I fell in love with Peter.

I fell in love with Yosemite National Park the first time I saw it, when I was 13. My parents took us there for camping. On the way out, I asked them to wait while I ran up to E1 Capitan, a  16  rock of 3,300 feet straight up. I touched that giant rock and knew  17 I wanted to climb it. That has been my life’s passion (钟爱) ever since 18 the rocks and mountains of Yosemite. I’ve long made Yosemite my  19 .
About 15 years ago I started seeing a lot of  20 , like toilet paper, beer cans, and empty boxes, around the area. It’s   21  me why visitors started respecting the place 22 and treated such a beautiful home-like place this way.
I tried  23  trash(垃圾)myself, but the job was too big. I would  24  an hour or two on the job, only to find the area trashed all over again weeks later. Finally, I got so  25  it that I decided something had to change.
As a rock-climbing guide, I knew 26  about organizing any big event. But in 2004, together with some climbers, I set a date for a 27 . On that day, more than 300 people  28 . Over three days we collected about 6,000 pounds of trash. It was amazing how much we were able to  29 . I couldn’t believe the  30  we made—the park looked clean!
Each year volunteers come for the cleanup from everywhere. In 2007 alone, 2,945 people  31 42,330 pounds of trash.
I often hear people  32   about their surroundings. If you are one of them, I would say the only way to change things is by     33 rather than complaining. We need to teach by  34   . You can’t blame others  35  you start with yourself.

I did very badly at school. My headmaster thought I was   36   and when I was 14 he said, “You’re never going to be   37   but a failure.”

After five years of   38   jobs, I fell in love with a very nice middle-class girl. It was the beat   39   that could have happened to me. I   40   I wanted-to do something positive (积极地) with my life because I wanted to prove to   41   that what people said about me was   42 . Especially her mother, who had said to me, “Let’s   43   it, you’ve failed at everything you’ve ever done.”  So I tried hard with my  44   and went to college. My first novel (小说)  45   while I was at college.

After college I taught during the   46   in high schools and attended evening classes at London University,  where I got a    47   in history. I became a lecturer at a college and was thinking of  48   that job to write full time   49   I was offered a part-time job at Leeds University. I began to feel proud of myself ―  50   was a working-.class boy who’d   51   school early, now teaching at the university

My writing career (职业) took off when I discovered my own style. Now I’m rich and   52  , have been on TV, and met lots of film stars.   53   what does it mean? I   54   wish all the people that have put me down had  55  : “I believe in you. You’ll succeed.”