Many people who work in London prefer to live outside it, and to go in to their offices or schools every day by train, car or bus, even though this means they have to get up early in the morning and reach home late in the evening. 
One advantage of living outside London is that houses are cheaper. Even a small flat in London without a garden costs quite a lot to rent. With the same money, one can get a little house in the country with a garden of one’s own. 
Then, in the country one can rest from the noise and hurry of the town. Even though one has to get up earlier and spend more time in trains or buses, one can sleep better at night and during weekends and on summer evenings, one can enjoy the fresh, clean air of the country. If one likes gardens, one can spend one’s free time digging, planting, watering and doing the hundred and one other jobs which are needed in a garden. Then, when the flowers and vegetables come up, one has the reward of one who has shared the secret of Nature. 
Some people, however, take no interest in country things: for them, happiness lies in the town, with its cinemas and theatres, beautiful shops and busy streets, dance-halls and restaurants. Such people would feel that their life was not worth living if they had to live it outside London. An occasional walk in one of the parks and a fortnight’s (two weeks) visit to the sea every summer is all the country they want: the rest they are quite prepared to leave to those who are glad to get away from London every night. 
【小题1】Which of the following statements is NOT true? 

LONDON: The Edinburgh Festival, the biggest arts festival of its kind in the world, got under way in the Scotland capital on Sunday with a concert that included Hector Berlionz's To Deum, under the direction of Christoph von Dohnanyi.
The festival, which runs until August 31 this year, includes as its high points Peter Stein’s staging of Wagner’s Parsifal, with Claudio Abbado directing the Gustav Mahler youth orchestra. The concert programme includes American pianist Richard Goode, bass baritone Thomas Quasthoff and violinist Christian Tetzlaff. New to the programmes this year will be 25 late evening classical music concerts.
Earlier this month, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest show-case in the world for performance art, officially got under way with theatre, dance, poetry and music presentations.
Many of the fringe artists, who can enter the fringe festival upon payment of a small fee, were inspired this year by the event of September 11.
Thousands of people flock to Edinburgh from around the world during the festival, which is over 50 years old. It aims to promote and encourage arts and to reflect international culture. It consists of various dance, music, opera, and theatre presentation taking place across the city during the three-week run.
【小题1】Who will perform in the concert on Sunday?

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 beatific   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   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.”

My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company. I’d be a subway guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis（危机）. Obviously I’d be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges — those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.
The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about fifty candidates. The interviewer sat at a desk. Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.
I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job?” “Why did you leave your job before that?” “And the one before that?” I can’t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed（显示） a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position.”
Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs — being a postman is another one I still desire — demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.
【小题1】．The writer applied for the job chiefly because _________.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Thursday that his country hopes to deepen ties with China, which have been strained over French President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama.
"We need China, the world needs China to get out of the recession(衰退) " Fillon told parliament.Relations between the two countries hit a low after Sarkozy refused to call off a meeting with the Dalai Lama in December.
Beijing then pulled out of a summit（峰会） with the European Union (EU) that was supposed to have taken place on Dec 1 in France, which held the rotating EU presidency at the time.
Fillon stressed that Tibet is part of China, but insisted that the French president had every right to meet the Dalai Lama.
"For us, this incident does nothing to distract（转移） from our desire to reinforce our strategic partnership with China."
Former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is scheduled to visit China next week following earlier attempts to improve relations.
China, which has said it is up to France to repair ties with Beijing, agreed with the EU last week to hold a summit soon, after the London G20 summit on April 2.
France was excluded from Premier Wen Jiabao's recent European visit.
"We all know why," Wen said when asked why he had omitted France from his journey, China News Service reported.
"I looked at a map of Europe on the plane. My trip goes around France," Wen said.
"The reason (for not visiting) doesn't lie with China", he told a group of reporters. He urged Paris to "mend and improve ties" with China.
44.Premier WenJiabao didn’t visit France because_______.
A.he promised to visit France later
B.former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is scheduled to visit China soon
C.France didn’t attend the summit of the EU
D.Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama
45.According to France, ____________.
A.the president has the right to meet the Dalai Lama
B.the meeting will strengthen the strategic partnership with China
C.they don’t know why Premier WenJiabao didn’t visit France
D.China don’t care much for the ties with France
46.From paragraphs 2,3 and 4, the important conclusion is that _______.
A. Tibet is part of China
B. France and the world need China
C. Sarkozy refused to call off a meeting with the Dalai Lama in December.
D. Beijing pulled out of a summit with the Dalai Lama in December.
47.The main idea of the news is that_______.
A. It’s France’s fault to affect the relation between the two countries
B. France seeks to repair relations with China
C. Premier Wen urged Paris to “mend and improve ties” with China
D. Relations between China and France are going smoothly.