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公共英语三级英语教材
lesson 1
Kip
Keino
Kipchoge Keino is a modest
man
，
and it takes prodding to
get the great Kenyan runner to
recall
how he felt on Oct
，
20
，
1968
—
when he won his first gold
medal
，
in the 1,500 meters in
Mexico day hadn't started out
well
，
Keino was suffering
from stomach pains that later
turned
out to be a severe gallbladder infection. His
doctors advised against
running
；
he ignored
the race
，
Keino
was so focused on competing against American ace
Jim Ryun that
，
in retrospect<
/p>
，
“
Without watching
a video, I wouldn't know what happened at the
finish.
”
He does
remember what happened next.
“
I ran an honor lap. I ran
it to celebrate and to let my body
recover. I felt overcome by the
excitement.
”
It
was not the only memorable event in his life that
day. Back home, his wife, Phyllis, gave
birth to their third daughter, named Milka Olympia
Chelagat in celebration of her father's
victory.
Keino
went on to win a silver medal in the 5,000 meters
in Mexico City and a gold and a silver
four years later in Munich. He then
became Kenya's Olympic running coach from 1976 to
1986,
furthering his nation's dominance
in distance events. Kenyan runners have captured
32 Olympic
track medals since 1964 and
won the last six consecutive Boston Marathons.
This summer, Keino
will be in Atlanta
as chief of the 120-athlete Kenyan delegation,
which could include his son
Martin, 23,
a former NCAA 5,000-meter champion at the 1,5000
meters.
But
Keio's athletic accomplishments are not the only
reason he is a hero in the town of
Eldoret in northwestern Kenya. Thirty
years ago, Keino and his
wife
—
who now have seven
children of their
own
—
began taking orphans
into their home. Their house became so crowded
that they raised funds to build a
dormitory and a dining hall on a nearby farm Keino
owns.
Income to support the facility
comes from the farm, his sports shop and fees he
has received
from the Kenyan government
over the years. Today, 73 children and young
adults
—
aged 2 to
22
—
live on the farm.
“
I think I have been
lucky,
”
Keino
says.
“
Now what is important
is how I use
what I have to help
others.
”
Lesson 1
Kip Keino
克普乔格·凯诺是一个很谦虚的人，
要使这位伟大的肯尼亚长跑运动员回想起他在
1968
年
10
月
20
日
那一天的感受不是一件很容易的事情——（当天他）在墨西哥城参加
1
500
米长跑比赛中赢得了一生中的
第一枚金牌。那天天未亮，
凯诺忍受着剧烈的胃痛，后来证实他患了严重的胆囊炎。
（鉴于这种特殊情况）
他的保健医生们都反对他参加长跑，然而他却不予理会。在赛跑中，凯诺集中精力，全力以赴与美
国长跑
能手吉木姆·润恩竞赛，后来他回忆说，“如果没有看实况录像，我都不知道比赛
的最后时刻发生了什么事
情。”但他确实记得下面的事情，“为了庆祝胜利并恢复体力，
我光荣地跑了一圈，兴奋得精疲力竭。”
那天，这不是唯一值得他纪念的事情，回到家，
妻子菲利生了一个女儿，为了纪念他的胜利，就给她取名
为米尔卡·奥林匹克·克拉哥特
。
接着
，凯诺在墨西哥城举行的
5000
米长跑比赛中赢得一枚银牌，
而四年后在慕尼黑的比赛中又赢得
一枚金牌和一枚银牌。
197
6
到
1986
年，他成为肯尼亚奥运长
跑教练，使得肯尼亚继续在长跑比赛中保持
绝对的优势地位。
自
1964
年以来，
肯尼亚长跑运动员已
经获得
32
枚奥运田径奖牌，
而且在波
士顿马拉松
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比赛中赢得了六连冠。今年
夏天，凯诺将以
120
名肯尼亚运动员代表团团长的身份去亚特
兰大，代表团中
包括他的儿子马丁。马丁，
23
岁，亚利桑那州大学的全美大学生运动会
5000
米前
冠军，有希望在
1500
米长跑比赛中获胜。
< br>
但是，凯诺的运动成就不
是他成为肯尼亚西北方埃尔多雷特市镇英雄的唯一理由。
30
年
前，凯诺和他
的妻子开始收养孤儿，现在她已经是七个孩子的母亲。他们的房子变得如此
拥挤，以致它们在凯诺自己的
农场附近集资建造了宿舍和餐厅。维持这些设施的经费来自
他的农场、体育用品商店以及多年从肯尼亚政
府获得的酬金。今天，仍有
2
到
22
岁不同年龄段的
73
个孩子和年轻的成年人继续生活在农场。
“我想我
是幸运的”，凯诺这样说道，“现在重要的是如何用我所拥有的去帮助其他人
。”
Lesson 2
A
Gift of New Life
First came a boy weighing 3
pounds 14 ounces: Robert Jared Screws. After
Robert Jared came
his three sisters:
Briannia Rae, 3 pounds 1 ounce; Brinkley Faye, 3
pounds 13 ounces; and Buckley
Lenay, 4
pounds 2 ounces. All were tiny, but they were
strong, healthy babies. In the hallway
outside the operating room, friends and
relatives wept and cheered as the quad wheeled
them by,
one by one, in their
incubators.
The
babies stayed in the hospital about a month. Keith
went there too, for more
chemotherapy,
and the nurses took one or two babies at a time to
his room for a visit. That
seemed to
help him more than the medication.
Then came a wonderful
surprise. When we were ready to go home, we
learned that a
physicians' fund had
provided a brand-new van for us, complete with
four infant car seats. Keith
was
waiting for us at hone, frail mow and in constant
pain, but also very happy.
The whole community of Swainsboro and
surrounding towns united in trying to help us.
Countless women offered to baby-sit.
Members of Keith's high school class prepared
dinners for
us twice a week. All sorts
of fund-raising events were organized. A Kroger
store on Wilmington
Island near
Savannah donated a year's supply of diapers and
other baby needs. That helped,
because
the quads required 40 to 50 diapers a day!
A man named
Ricky Stevens came to measure our farmhouse for
central air-conditioning,
but went away
concerned that the house was too small for six
people. That night he could not
sleep.
He consulted a friend in real estate, Ken Warnock,
and the two of them invited a group of
Swainsboro businessmen to lunch. By the
time Lunch was over, they had enough pledges to
begin building a new house.
There was a site on our
land with a view of the pasture and grazing
cattle. Our new house
would be built
there, a spacious home with five bedrooms-a master
bedroom and one for each of
the quads.
As spring came
to Georgia, Keith's health continued to decline.
Still, he took great delight in
his
four babies. In the mornings he would hold them
and play with them and help feed them. He
got to be good at handling two bottles
at a time. Before we left home for a chemo-
treatment or
doctor's appointment Keith
would spend time alone with each baby.
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Later in the spring another operation
was necessary, and complications followed. It
became
difficult for Keith to talk or
breathe, and at last consciousness. His final
words to me were,
“
I love
you.
”
The doctors
put him on a respirator, but they said it was only
as matter of hours. I sat beside
him
holding his hand and
whispering,
“
Be at peace. Be
at peace.
”
And finally, on
June 11, peace
did come. He was 32
years old.
Life
went on. Ground was broken for the new house on a
blue-and-gold day in December.
The
quads were old enough to stand, and each was old
enough to stand, and each was given a
little gilded shovel to mark the
occasion. Many friends and neighbors were there,
and the mayor
of Swainsboro put our
feelings into words:
“
We hope
that when these babies are grown, they will
look at this house and understand how
much their father was respected and admired by
everyone who knew
him.
”
I have gone back to
teaching. Devoted friends and relatives and fully
qualified helpers take
good care of the
quads while I am away. Without Keith's illness we
never would have recognized
the amazing
goodness that lies in people. The outpouring of
love and compassion and caring
that has
surrounded us is almost beyond belief. One life
was taken away from me, but four other
lives were given to me to sustain and
to comfort me. Facing death with Keith made me
realize
how precious life is. I cherish
it and am grateful for it every single day.
lesson 3
The
Cause of the El Nino Phenomenon
El Nino is the
Spanish name for the baby Jesus. The phenomenon is
so-called because warm
water moving
across the Pacific traditionally reaches South
America around Christmas. Scientists
have now applied the term El Nino to
the major warming episodes over large South
American
coastal areas and westernly
along the equator and the Dateline area.
Scientists noted the El Nino
has a
return period of four to five years and lasts
between 12
—
18 months.
In the late
1960s, it became apparent that the year-to-year
variations in the sea surface
temperature and consequently El Nino
events, were closely linked to the Southern
Oscillation, a
relationship between
atmospheric pressure over the southeastern Pacific
and Indian Ocean.
When pressure is high
in the Pacific Ocean, it tends to be low in the
Indian Ocean from Africa to
Australia.
These conditions are associated with low
temperatures in both these areas and rainfall
varies in the direction opposite the ,
the combination of El Nino and Southern
Oscillation
（
ENSO
）
is the linkage atmospheric and oceanic
events and involves changes in
circulations of the atmosphere and
oceans across the Pacific Basin. The strongest El
Nino this
century occurred in
1982
—
1983 and resulted in
droughts and disastrous forest fires in Indonesia
and Australia, wreaking economic damage
of at least US $$8 billion.
A major warming of the ocean waters
across the eastern and central tropical Pacific
Ocean,
known as ENSO, has developed
since March 1997. The El Nino developed very
rapidly during
April
—
May, and
reached strong intensity by June. This event is
currently comparable in
magnitude and
extent to the 1982/1983 episode.
lesson
4
Our Changing Diet
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What do most Americans and Canadians
usually eat? Many people think that the typical
North American diet consists of fast
food-hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, pizza,
fried chicken,
and so on. They think
Americans and Canadians also eat a lot of
convenience foods, usually
frozen or
caned, and junk food-candy, cookies, potato chips,
and other things without much
nutritional value. Unfortunately, this
description is mot totally inaccurate. The
American diet is
generally high in
sugar, salt, fat, and cholesterol, and these
substances can cause health
problems.
However, some
people's eating habits are changing. They are
becoming more interested in
good
health, and nutrition is an important part of
health. North Americans are eating less red
meat and fewer eggs, and they are
eating more chicken and fish. Chicken and fish
contain less fat
than meat and eggs.
Many people are also buying more fresh vegetables
and eating them raw or
cooked quickly
in very little water in order to keep the
vitamins.
Restaurant menus are also changing to
reflect people's growing concern with good
nutrition.
The
“
t
ypical
”
North
American diet now includes food from many
different countries. More
ethnic
restaurants are opening in big cities in the
United States and Canada. Foods from China,
Japan, Korea, Thailand, India and the
Middle East are very popular. Even fast-food
places now
offer
“
lean
”
（
low-
fat
）
hamburgers,
broiled or roasted
（
instead
of fried
）
chicken, and salad
bars with
a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.
How are we
going to eat in the future? Because we now know
about the importance of
nutrition, we
will probably continue to eat more fish and
vegetables and less meat. We will still
buy convenience foods in supermarkets,
but frozen foods may be more nutritious and canned
foods may have less salt and sugar. Our
junk food will not be
“
junk
”
at all because instead of
candy bars we will eat
“
nutrition
bars
”
with a lot
of vitamins and protein. In the future, our diet
will probably be even more interesting
and healthful than it is now.
In the United States and
Canada, food is a very common topic of
conversation. People are
always
discussing new dishes, restaurants, diet plans,
and ideas about nutrition. The arguments
about the best diets and foods will
continue: Are vegetables better than a diet of
cooked foods?
Is a little alcohol good
for relaxation, or is all alcohol harmful? Is some
caffeine good for energy,
or is
caffeine always bad? Can yellow vegetables really
prevent cancer? Will eating garlic help
avoid heart attacks? One thing we do
know for sure:the key to good nutition is balance.
How do
we achieve that balance? We can
choose foods from a variety of sources, control
the quantities
that we eat, limit fats,
and exercise.
lesson 5
I Did It
“
I did
it.
”
This is what
newly-crowned Olympic gymnastics champion Li
Xiaoshuang wanted
to say most after his
victory here on Sunday night at the 25th Olympic
Games.
Li
scored 9.925 points by successfully completing his
somersault tuck, becoming the first
male gymnast ever to execute this
maneuver in the optional apparatus finals. The
program was
extremely difficult.
Failure could have been met by his head slamming
the mat. Former Soviet
Valery Liukin
had once done this tuck in the team competition.
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“
all the gymnasts before me
had pretty high scores and this was the only way
out for me,
”
said
Li.
“
I knew I could end up
either first or last.
”
Li also won a bronze in the rings with
a 9.862.
Grigori Misutin of the Unified Team
scored 9.875 points to share second place with
Japanese
Yukio Iketani.
Right after his safe
landing, Li rushed to his coach and former world
parallel bars champion
Huang Yubing.
The two broke into tears and embraced each other
after the final gymnast, Vitali
Scherbo
of the Unified Team, failed to surpass Li.
Li's gold was
China's first in the floor exercises since 1984,
when Li Ning won at the Los
Angeles
Olympic Games. Until the 1987 World Championships
in Amsterdam where Lou Yun won
the
floor exercise, the event was dominated by the
former Soviet Union gymnasts.
“
Though the
floor
is his specialty, Li still performed above his
normal level,
”
said coach Huang, who shed from
the award ceremony and watched it on TV
at the back of the gymnasium.
“
It's not an
easy job,
”
Li
said.
“
It's the result of my
hard training. And that three backward
somersaults was the first rime that I
have done it successfully.
”
“
I
want to thank my parents and especially my coach
Huang who contributed greatly to my
success.
”
Li joined the
national team at the end of 1989 and his highest
international achievement was
first
place in the floor exercises of the Beijing Asian
Games.
At last
year's Indianapolis World Championships, he was
the best non-Soviet gymnast in the
all-
around competition, placing fourth, though he
failed to score higher than 9.75 points in any
apparatus. He was only sixth in the
floor competition. He was still so little-known
that even with
his World Championship
achievement here at the Olympics, computer
statistics erroneously
listed him as
having done badly competing in two women's events,
the uneven bars and the
balance beam.
Li said he
learned a lot here in Barcelona, both in
gymnastics and manhood. He said in the
team all-around competition, he
repeatedly got low scores, and did not get the
amount of points
he should get for the
degree of difficulty and execution of routines.
But he kept the complaints to
himself.
Yet his
execution in the floor final was so perfect that
nobody doubted he was the gold
medal
winner.
The
18-year-old from Hubei Province said that his
regular training was not only technical but
also mental. He said to himself three
times,
“
Start and leap,
accelerate and land,
”
which he said
was crucial in
winning.
Li
also took part in the 1990 Seattle Goodwill Games
and finished second in the floor
exercises, and is now regarded as the
Chinese team's best all-around gymnast, especially
after
former best Li Ning missed both
in the pommel horse and high bar finals Sunday
night.
lesson 6
Our Changing
Lifestyles:Trends and Fads
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These days urban lifestyles seem to
change very fast. It is more than just clothing
and
hairstyles that are in style one
year and out of date the next; it's a whole way of
living. One year
people wear sunglasses
on top of their heads and wear jeans and boots;
they drink white wine
and eat sushi at
Japanese restaurants; for exercise they jog
several miles a day. However, the next
year everything has changed. Women wear
long skirts; people drink expensive water from
France
and eat pasta at ltalian
restaurants; everyone seems to be exercising at
health clubs. Then,
suddenly, it has
changed again. People wear only natural fabric
（
safe for the
environment
）
; they
drink gourmet coffee and eat Thai food;
for both leisure and exercise, they go
rollerblading.
Almost nothing in modern life escapes
the influence of fashion; food, music, exercise,
book,
slang words, movies, furniture,
places to visit, even names go in and out of
fashion. For a while, it
seems that all
mew parents are naming their babies Heather, Dawn,
Eric, or Adam. These names
are
“
in.
”
then, suddenly, these names are
“
out,
”
and Tiffany and Jason are
“
in.
”
It's almost
impossible to
write about specific fads because these interests
that people enthusiastically follow
can
change very quickly.
In the United States, even people can
be
“
in
”
or
“
out.
”
Like people in any country,
Americans enjoy following the lives of
celebrities: movie stars, sports heroes, famous
artists,
politicians, and the like. But
Americans also pay a lot of attention to people
who have no special
ability and have
done nothing very special. In 1981, for example,
an unknown elderly woman
appeared in a
TV commercial in which she looked at a vary small
hamburger and complained
loudly,
“
Where's the
beef?
”
These
three words made her famous. Suddenly she appeared
in
magazines and newspapers and on TV
shows. She was immediately popular. She was
“
in.
”
In
1987, an exterminator in
Dallas, Texas, decided that he would be very happy
if he could find more
customers for his
small business; he needed more people to pay him
to kill the insects and rats in
their
put an unusual advertisement in a Dallas
newspaper. He offered to pay $$1,000 to
the
person who could find
the biggest cockroach. This strange offer made him
suddenly famous.
There were stories
about him nationwide-from New York to California.
He was
“
in.
”
However,
this kind of fame
does not last long. Such people are famous for a
very short time.
This is the essence, the central,
quality,of a fad. It doesn't last long. Some fads
disappear
before we have all even heard
of them. How many people remember Green peace
swimsuits?
They changed color to
indicate polluted water. And then there was
“
Beethoven
Bread.
”
Popular
in Japan in 1994, it was expensive-$$20
for one loaf. It was made while classical music
played in the
kitchen. The woman who
created this bread emphasized that
“
bread doesn't like rock
music.
”
A person who participates
in fads should remember that they come and go very
fast, and
they often come back in style
after 10 to 15 years of being
“
out.
”
It might be a good idea never
to throw anything away. Mickey Mouse
watches and Nehru Jackets may soon be
“
in
”
again!
lesson 7
Compulsive Spenders
Are you a
compulsive spender, or do you hold on to your
money as long as possible? Are you
a
bargain hunter? Would you rather use charge
accounts than pay cash? Your answer to those
questions will reflect your
personality. According to psychologists, our
individual money habits
not only show
our beliefs and values, but can also develop from
past problems.
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Experts in psychology believe that for
many people, money is an important symbol of
strength and influence. Husbands who
complain about their wives' spending habits may be
afraid
that they are loosing power in
their marriage. Wives, on the other hand, may
waste huge
amounts of money because
they are angry with their husbands. In addition,
many people
consider money a symbol of
love. They spend it on
their families
and friends to express love, or
they
buy themselves expensive presents because they
need love.
People can be addicted to different
things, for example, alcohol, drugs, certain
foods, or even
television. They are
compulsive in their addictions, that is, they must
a satisfy these needs to feel
comfortable. In the same way, according
to psychologists, compulsive spenders must spend
more money. For those who buy on
credit, further more, charge accounts are even
more exciting
than money: in other
words, these people feel that with credit they can
do anything. Their
pleasure at spending
enormous amounts is actually greater than the
pleasure they get from the
things they
buy.
There is
even a special psychology of bargain hunting. To
save money, of course, most
people look
for sales, low prices, and discounts. Compulsive
bargain hunters, however, often buy
things that they don't need just
because they are cheap. They want to believe that
they are
helping their budget, but they
are really playing an exciting game: when they can
buy something
for less than other
people, they are winning.
It is not only scientists, of course,
who understand the psychology of spending habits,
but
also business people. Stores,
companies, and advertisers use psychology to
increase business.
They consider
people's need for love, power or influence, as
well as their values, beliefs and
opinions, in their advertising and
sales methods.
Psychologists often use a method called
“
behavior
therapy
”
to help
individuals solve their
personality
problems. In the same way, they can help people
who feel that they have problems
with
money. They give them
“
assig
nments.
”
If a
person buys something in every store that he
enters, for instance, a therapist might
teach him self-discipline in this way. On the
first of his
therapy, he must go into a
store, for five minutes, and then leave. On the
second day, he should
stay for ten
minutes and try something on. On the third day he
stays for fifteen minutes, asks the
sales clerk a question, but does not
buy anything. Soon he will learn that nothing bad
will happen
to him if he doesn's buy
anything, and he can solve the problem of his
compulsive buying.
lesson 8
Stories of
Christmas
In many countries of the world, The
celebration of Christmas on December 25th is a
high
point of the year. From November
onward, it is impossible to forget that Christmas
is coming.
Colored lights decorate many
town centers and shops, along with shimmy
decorations and
artificial snow painted
on shop windows. In streets and shops,
“
Christmas
trees
”
（
real or plastic
evergreen conifer
trees
）
will also
be decorated with lights and Christmas ornaments.
Shopping
centers become busier as
December approaches and often stay open till late.
By mid-December,
most homes will also
be decorated with Christmas trees, colored lights
and paper or plastic
decorations around
the rooms. These days many more people also
decorate garden trees or
house walls
with colored electric lights, a habit, which has
been long popular in USA. In many
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countries,
most people post Christmas greeting cards to their
friends and families, and these
cards
will be hung on the walls of their homes.
The custom of
sending Christmas cards started in Britain in 1840
when the first
“
Penny
Post
”
public
postal deliveries began.
（
Helped by the new railway
system, the public postal service was
the 19th century's communication
revolution, just as e-mail is for us
today.
）
As
printing method
improved, Christmas
cards were produced in large numbers from about
1860. Today, pictures are
often about
jokes, winter pictures, Father Christmas, or
romantic scenes of life in past times.
Father Christmas
（
or Santa
Claus
）
has become
the symbol of Christmas. Pictures will be
seen everywhere of the old man with
long white beard, red coat, and bag of toys.
Children are
taught that he brings them
presents the night before Christmas, and many
children up to the age
7 or 8 really
believe this is true. In most countries, it is
said that he lives near the North Pole, and
arrives through the sky on a sledge
（
snow-
cart
）
pulled by
reindeer. He comes into houses down
the
chimney at midnight and places presents for the
children in socks or bags by their beds or in
front of the family Christmas tree. In
shops or at children's parties, someone will dress
up as
Father Christmas and give small
presents to children, or ask them what gifts they
want for
Christmas. Christmas can be a
time of magic and excitement for children.
Father
Christmas is based on a real person, St. Nicholas,
which explains his other name
“
Santa
Claus
”
which
comes from the Dutch
“
Sinter
klaas.
”
Nicholas
was a Christian leader from
Myra
（
in modern-day
Turkey
）
in the
4th century AD. He was very shy, and wanted to
give
money to the poor people without
their knowing about it. It is said that one day,
he climbed up
the roof of a house and
dropped a purse of money down the chimney. It
happened to land in the
stocking which
a girl had put to dry by the fire! This may
explain the belief that Father Christmas
comes down the chimney and places gifts
in children's stockings.
In English speaking countries, the day
following Christmas Day is called
“
Boxing
Day.
”
This
word comes from the custom which
started in the Middle Ages around 800 years ago:
Churches
would open their
“
alms
box
”
（
boxes in which people had
placed gifts of money
）
and distribute
the contents
to poor people in the neighborhood on the day
after Christmas. The tradition
continues today.
lesson 9
White House
The USA Chief Executive
Mansion, White House, stands on a knoll on the
Pennsylvania
Avenue in Washington
overlooking the Potomac River. The cornerstone was
laid in 1792 and in
1800 it was
initially completed. Since the second President
John Adams first moved into the
house,
all the US presidents have lived and worked there.
However, in 1814, when the English was
at war with America, the White House
was set on fire by the British army. Only its
enclosing wall
survived but stained
with scorch marks. It took three years to hide the
White House renovated
and be available
for order to hide the scars of war, the burnt
wall was covered with many
layers of
white paint, hence the name White House was given.
It was President Theodore
Roosevelt who
officially named it first in 1902.
The White House is an
18-acre-estate, yet the major of the ground is
filled with lawns,
gardens, tennis
courts, outdoor swimming pools, bowling alleys,
game rooms, movie theaters,
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horseshoe
pits and other subsidiary facilities. The 26-meter
highs 3-floored main section
consisting
of 132 rooms is mot quite spacious. In the west
are the magnificent State Dining Room
and the bright and commodious East Room
which is the place for balls and art performances.
The
other three smaller rooms are
resplendent in their decorations. Each of them has
its distinctive
features and has its
name matching the colors of the wall, ceilings,
carpets, and the like in it. The
Blue
Room in the middle is an oval office used
officially for receiving heads of state and
foreign
diplomats. The Red Room in the
west characterized in the US style in early 19th
century, is a
family parlor, and the
Green Room is used as an all-purpose parlor for
playing cards and chess or
having a
chat. The second floor is president family's
private living quarters, and on the third floor
are offices of president's secretaries'
store rooms and service center.
President's office complex
is in the west wing. In addition to the Cabinet
Room, The Diplomat
Reception Room, the
Treaty Room, etc., the most important one is the
Oval Office, the heartland
for
president to formulate policies and make
decisions. Just outside the Oval Office is the
charming Rose blooming with flowers and
plants, where state dinners and ceremonial events
are
sometimes held. In the East Wing,
are offices of First Ladies' and wording staffs.
The Kennedy
Garden lying outside of
those offices is for press conferences and tea
parties. The well-known
South Lawn is
often used for arrival ceremonies in honor of
visiting heads of state.
lesson 10
Paris,
France
A short time later our plane began to
slow and bank. Lovely, green England came into
view,
but we soon left England behind.
After watching the English Channel slip by, France
appeared,
the land carved into squares
of green and brown.
Paris, lovely, green romantic Paris, a
city of contrasts-I fell in love with her as so
many others
have before me. Magnificent
modern buildings were everywhere, but in between
them stood tiny
ancient shops and
apartments. As long as I live, I'll remember my
first night in Paris when I stood
on
Montamarte, the highest hill in the city, the
lights of Paris spread in a panorama below while
the cool autumn breeze whispered
through the trees. I could not believe I was
really there!
The next morning, we enjoyed a tour of
Paris, which is just as beautiful by day as by
night.
The tree-lined streets were
spotless, for each morning, water from the River
Seine flows from
drains onto the
streets where shopkeepers with long reed brooms
sweep the streets clean. We
drove past
many famous restaurants, shops and apartment
houses. At the end of the most
famous
street in Paris, the Champs Elysse, stood the
golden Arch of Triumph through which the
Allies in World War
Ⅱ
marched after
driving defeated Germans from the city.
As we walked
through the grounds around Notre Dame, I gazed
above me at imposing
Gothic towers
silhouetted like giant sentinels against the gray
sky. From the top of the Cathedral
wall
rain spouts jutted about every twelve feet, each
spout made in the face of an animal, the rain
pouring from its mouth.
Inside the Cathedral,
exquisite, elegant rosette stained glass windows
gleamed from a
sudden burst of sunlight
forcing its way through the clouds as though
heaven had opened long
enough to light
them for us. One of the windows had been badly
damaged during World War
Ⅱ
.
All the colors in the replacement glass
perfectly match the undamaged window except blue;
the
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