Famous as “the king of chefs and the chef of kings,” Auguste Escoffier helped raise the position of cooking from a laborer’s task to an artist’s job. Escoffier was born on October 28, 1846, in the small village of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice, France. Among the key figures in the boy’s life was his father, who worked primarily as a blacksmith（铁匠）. His grandmother, an enthusiastic cook, was perhaps more responsible than anyone for introducing the boy to an appreciation of the delights of cooking.
Young Escoffier attended the local school until age 12, upon which time his father thought it necessary that the boy learn a trade. In school he had shown a talent for drawing, yet he was told to regard this art only as a hobby, and to find his career in a more practical profession. Thus his father took him to Nice in 1859, where he would work as an apprentice（学徒）in his uncle’s restaurant, the respectable Le Restaurant Francais.
At Le Restaurant Francais, Escoffier was not treated as the close relative of the boss. Rather, he experienced a classically demanding apprenticeship. For this strictness of training he would later, in his memoirs（回忆录）, express gratefulness. During this time Escoffier also attended night school, and had to deal with his studies as well as the demands of a promising career.
When Escoffier was 19 and had taken on yet more responsibilities in his uncle’s restaurant, a customer recognized his skills and offered him work in Paris. This was the owner of Le Petit Moulin Rouge, one of the finest restaurants in Paris, where Escoffier was to become a sous-chef, ranking below the head chef. After three years in this position, he rose to the level of head chef, wearing the respected chef’s hat.
【小题1】It was his __________ who first influenced Escoffier to be interested in cooking.

THE BRONTE FAMILY

Yorkshire, England was the setting for two great novels (小说) of the 19th century. These were Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The youngest sister, Anne, was also a gifted novelist, and her books have the same extraordinary quality as her sisters’.

Their father was Patrick Bronte, born in Ireland. He moved with his wife, Maria Bronte, and their six small children to Haworth in Yorkshire in 1820. Soon after, Mrs. Bronte and the two eldest children died, leaving the father to care of the remaining three girls and a boy.

Charlotte was born in 1816. Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817. Left to themselves, the children wrote and told stories and walked over the hills. They grew up largely self-educated. Branwell showed a great interest in drawing. The girls were determined to earn money for his art education. They took positions as teachers or taught children in their homes.

As children they had all written many stories. Charlotte, as a young girl, alone wrote 22 books, each with 60 to 100 pages of small handwriting. Therefore, they turned to writing for income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; and Anne, Agnes Grey. After much difficulty Anne and Emily found a publisher(出版商), but there was no interest shown in Charlotte’s book. (It was not published until 1859.) However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her works. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it. It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847.

Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the other two, however, did not do so well. People did not like Wuthering Heights. They said it was too wild, too animal-like. But gradually it came to be considered one of the finest novels in the English language. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of the book, and Anne died in 1849.

Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis(肺结核) as her sisters had.

We know from the text that      .

A. Jane Eyre was published in 1847    

B. Charlotte Bronte wrote 22 books in all

C. the Bronte sisters received good education     

D. Patrick Bronte helped his daughters with their writing

The underlined words “the other two” in the 5 th paragraph refer to      .

       A. Shirley and Villette   B. The Professor and Agnes Grey

       C. Agnes Grey and Wutheriing Heights   D. The Professor and wuthering Heights

What do we know about the Bronte sisters from the text?

       A. Their novels interested few publishers.

       B. None of them had more than two books published.

       C. None of them lived longer than 40 years old.

       D. Emily was the least successful of the three.

Famous as “the king of chefs and the chef of kings,” Auguste Escoffier helped raise the position of cooking from a laborer’s task to an artist’s job. Escoffier was born on October 28, 1846, in the small village of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice, France. Among the key figures in the boy’s life was his father, who worked primarily as a blacksmith（铁匠）. His grandmother, an enthusiastic cook, was perhaps more responsible than anyone for introducing the boy to an appreciation of the delights of cooking.

Young Escoffier attended the local school until age 12, upon which time his father thought it necessary that the boy learn a trade. In school he had shown a talent for drawing, yet he was told to regard this art only as a hobby, and to find his career in a more practical profession. Thus his father took him to Nice in 1859, where he would work as an apprentice（学徒）in his uncle’s restaurant, the respectable Le Restaurant Francais.

At Le Restaurant Francais, Escoffier was not treated as the close relative of the boss. Rather, he experienced a classically demanding apprenticeship. For this strictness of training he would later, in his memoirs（回忆录）, express gratefulness. During this time Escoffier also attended night school, and had to deal with his studies as well as the demands of a promising career.

When Escoffier was 19 and had taken on yet more responsibilities in his uncle’s restaurant, a customer recognized his skills and offered him work in Paris. This was the owner of Le Petit Moulin Rouge, one of the finest restaurants in Paris, where Escoffier was to become a sous-chef, ranking below the head chef. After three years in this position, he rose to the level of head chef, wearing the respected chef’s hat.

1.It was his __________ who first influenced Escoffier to be interested in cooking.

2.We can infer that as a schoolboy, Escoffier might hope to be __________.

3.According to Paragraph 3, Escoffier __________.

4.Which of the following can best describe Escoffier?

5.What is the text mainly about?

The great   46  scientist, Charles Darwin, was born on February 12, 1809. His father was a well-known doctor, and   47  that his son also would become a doctor.
As a boy, Charles liked to go for walks in the fields and   48  ,   49  nature and comparing what he saw with everything he had read in natural science books. He was fond    50   collecting animal and plant specimens   51   insects, birds, flowers and leaves.
At sixteen, Charles   52   Edinburgh University   53 . But he was interested in 54    . Then he was sent to Cambridge University,    55   he graduated in1831.
56    he heard that the ship Beagle(贝格尔号) was   57  to South America and wanted a naturalist. His biology professor advised him to go. He said the journey would be just the thing for Charles. So the Beagle left England in December 1831, Charles Darwin was   58  .
The expedition   59  almost five years. The Beagle   60   the waters near the east and west   61   of South America, and many other places. He    62  all kinds of plants and animals, which he sent home from the    63   he visited.
After returning from the expedition, Darwin continued his studies of changes in nature. Darwin understood that plants and animals do not    64   the same, that they always change.
By 1859 Darwin had finished his famous book “The Origin of Species”. It made a great noise in the word of science. Darwin was attacked by the    65   and even by some scientists. But later, more and more scientists agreed with him.
Darwin tirelessly continued his scientific studies until he died on April 19,1882.

THE BRONTE FAMILY