London--A morning train rides away, across the channel. English kids discuss the Liverpool's football team in a Paris pub.

Some Parisians have started to travel to work in London.

In the 19th century, Charles Dickens compared the two cities, London and Paris, in A Tale of Two Cities. These days, it might be A tale of One City.

As there are few jobs at home over recent years, perhaps 250,000 Frenchmen moved across the channel. With an undersea tunnel, they could travel between cities in three hours. The European Union freed them from immigration and customs.

Paris, rich in beauty, is more stylish. But London feels more full of life, and more fun until the pubs shut down.

“For me, the difference is that London is real, alive,” said Trevor Wheeler, a financial expert.

Chantal Jaouen, a professional designer, agrees. “I am French, but I’ll stay in London,” she said.

There is, of course, the other view. Julie Lenoux is a student who moved to London two years ago. “I think people laugh more in Paris,” she said.

“Both cities have changed beyond recognition,” said Larry Collins, an author and sometimes a Londoner. Like most people who know both cities well, he finds the two now fit together comfortably. “I first fell in love with Paris in the 1950s. Things are so much more ordered, and life is better.”

But certainly not cheaper. In some parts of London, rents can be twice those on Avenue Foch in Paris.

Deciding between London and Paris requires a lifestyle choice. Like Daphne Benoit, a French journalism student with perfect English, many young people are happy to be close enough so they don’t have to choose. “I love Paris, my little neighborhood, the way I can walk around a centre, but life is too organized,” she said. “In London, you can be whoever you want. No one cares.”

1.It can be inferred that ___________.

A．Paris and London are the two biggest cities in the world

B．In the 19th century, Dickens told his stories in the two cities

C．London and Paris used to be separated

D．Liverpool is a big city in France

2.According to this passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A．People feel it difficult to find a job in Paris.

B．People can't travel to London without a passport.

C．Living in France is more expensive than in London.

D．People can find any job in London.

3.The underlined phrase in Para9 most probably means “_____________”

A. beyond one’s imagination    

B. so much that people don’t know them well again    

C. so little that people still know them well                

D. to people’s satisfaction

4.What’s the meaning of the last two sentences?

A．People can do everything in London.

B．People will feel lonely in London.

C．People in London enjoy living in different ways.

D．People in London enjoy a lawless life.

Getting married can be one of the happiest moments in a person’s life. Throughout the world, weddings are very important events. Let’s look at some interesting wedding customs from different countries.

         For African Americans, it is tradition for the married couple to jump over a broom covered with flowers. This represents the beginning of family life. It is interesting to note that African slaves who were brought to the USA started this tradition. African American couples were not allowed to have a legal marriage, so instead they had a ceremony where the bride and groom jumped over a broom “into marriage”.

         Making jokes about the bride and groom is a wedding tradition in both France and Germany. In France, this includes making loud noises with pots; in Germany, wedding guests break dishes. Weddings in Germany often last for three days. On Thursday, there is a simple ceremony at a government office noting the official marriage of the couple. Then the couple will have a dinner with family and close friends. On Friday, there is a party. This is when guests break dishes to represent the start of a new life. Then on Sunday, there is a ceremony in a church.

         In Greece and Italy, people eat special kinds of sweets at the wedding. Both Greece and Italy also have their own special wedding dances, which all of the guests enjoy.

         In Russia, couples tie a doll to their wedding car if they want to have a daughter, or a toy bear if they want to have a son.

         In England, it is tradition for the little girls to throw flowers on the ground on the way to the wedding ceremony. The bride and groom walk on these flowers. This represents the hope that the couples will follow the path that leads to a happy life.

Most people know that Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and the first person to win it twice. However, few people know that she was also the mother of a Nobel Prize winner.
Born in September, 1897, Irene Curies was the first of the Curies’ two daughters. Along with nine other children whose parents were also famous scholars, Irene studied in their own school, and her mother was one of the teachers. She finished her high school education at the College of Sevigne in Paris.
Irene entered the University of Paris in 1914 to prepare for a degree in mathematics and physics. When World War I began, Irene went to help her mother, who was using X-ray facilities (设备) to help save the lives of wounded soldiers. Irene continued the work by developing X-ray facilities in military hospitals in France and Belgium. Her services were recognized in the form of a Military Medal by the French government.
In 1918, Irene became her mother’s assistant at the Curie Institute. In December 1924, Frederic Joliot joined the Institute, and Irene taught him the techniques required for his work. They soon fell in love and were married in 1926. Their daughter Helene was born in 1927 and their son Pierre five years later.
Like her mother, Irene combined family and career. Like her mother, Irene was awarded a Nobel Prize, along with her husband, in 1935. Unfortunately, also like her mother, she developed leukemia because of her work with radioactivity (辐射能). Irene Joliot-Curie died from leukemia on March 17, 1956.
【小题1】Why was Irene Curie awarded a Military Medal?

读下面短文，从短文后面各题的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出适合填入对应空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Every summer a great many students travel to other countries looking for work and adventure. Most of the    26        are in seasonal work, mainly connected with wourism and    27         
The pay is usually poor, but most people work abroad for the     28    of travel. You can pick grapes on farms in France, entertain kids on American summer camps, and, of course, there are  29    jobs in hotels and restaurants.
But it is not easy now to find work. “    30   you speak the language of the country well, there will be very few openings,” says Althea Ellis, an adviser in     31       for students.
“If you work with a family in Italy, you’ll have to speak Italian. When you wash dishes in a restaurant in Pairs, the owner will expect you to speak   32    . British students only have a language     33     for jobs in the USA and Australia.”
    34     enjoys the experience. Sarah James was employed to help forty American children in Europe. The two teachers with the children had never been     35     .One child lost his passport; another became seriously ill and was      36      home; the whole group was thrown out of one hotel because of the      37      they made, and what’s worse, Sarah herself was robbed on her only    38    evening of the entire trip. “ I did visit a lot of new places,” she says,“ but it wasn’t worth it. The pay was     39     and it really was a 24-hour-a-day job. The kids never slept!”
“The troubles is, students expect to have a(n)     40    time of it.” Althea Ellis points out. “After all, they see it as a    41     .In practice,     42      ,you have to work hard. At the same time, all vacation work is casual (临时的) work. You’ll have a job when the hotel, the restaurant, or the campsite is busy. In the other words, you’ll work if it’s convenient for the company that     43    you. But you have      44    employment rights. As soon as the holiday season      45     ,they’ll get rid of you.”

Do you ever wonder how some things came about? For instance, who figured out that there was something worth eating inside a banana peel? Or how astonishing do you have to be to discover that an artichoke has edible parts? Well, we may not know how either of those foods was discovered, but we do know how potato chips were invented.

Potato chips originated in New England as one man’s variation on the French-fried potatoes, and their production was the result not of a sudden inspiration of cooking invention but of a fit of annoyance.

It was the summer of 1853 and Commodore Vanderbilt, a wealthy railroad magnate, was vacationing at a hotel named Moon Lake Lodge in New York. On the restaurant menu were French-fried potatoes, prepared in the thick-cut French style that was popularized in France in the 1700s and enjoyed by Thomas Jefferson as ambassador to that country.

At dinner one night, Vanderbilt complained that his French-fried potatoes were cut too thick and sent them back to the kitchen. Offended by his snobby guest, chef George Crum decided he would give Mr. Vanderbilt exactly what he asked for! He decided to annoy the guest by producing French fries too thin and crisp. The chef angrily gathered up some potatoes and sliced them paper-thin. He threw the slices into hot oil to fry, drained and salted them and then personally served the new dish to Mr. Vanderbilt.

Surprised to see the chef in the dining room, the other diners fell into silence and everyone held their breath, waiting for Vanderbilt’s reaction.

Vanderbilt immediately popped a crisp potato slice into his mouth and the loud “Crunch” broke the silence. He continued to crunch away, delighted with his new dish. The plan backfired. Vanderbilt was interested in the browned, paper-thin potatoes. Clapping a surprised Chef Crum on the back, Vanderbilt praised him on the impressive potatoes. And other diners requested Crum’s potato chips, which began to appear on the menu as “Saratoga Chips”, a house specialty. Soon they were packaged and sold, first locally, then throughout the New England area. Crum eventually opened his own restaurant, featuring chips. At that time, potatoes were peeled and sliced by hand. It was the invention of the mechanical potato peeler in the 1920s that paved the way for potato chips to rise quickly from a small specialty item to a top-selling snack food.

1..

The author wrote the first paragraph to         .

A. tell us how potato chips were invented

B. introduce the topic dealt with in the passage

C. give examples of how some things came about

D. explain why we do know how those foods were discovered

2..

. According to the passage, chef George Crum         .

A. invented potato chips by accident

B. opened his own restaurant, featuring potatoes

C. served the new dish to Mr. Vanderbilt in private

D. helped promote potato chips to a top-selling snack

3..

. The production of potato chips was the result of         .

A. Mr. Vanderbilt’s praise for the new dish

B. Thomas Jefferson’s appreciation of the French Fries

C. George Crum’s anger at Mr. Vanderbilt

D. the invention of the mechanical potato peeler

4..

 The underlined word “backfired” in the 6^th paragraph probably means           .

A. developed in a successful way         B. made a big difference

C. happened in a particular way          D. had an opposite result