The desire to maintain standards is best seen on any holiday in the summer. Where the Italians, the British, and even the Germans, relax sufficiently to leave there faces unshaven, or mealtimes become irregular, or dresses become strange, the French behave as though they were still under the microscope of real life.

French men and women take two hours over their morning making up. Watch any Frenchman at a campsite in the summer and see how long he spends shaving, trimming his moustache, and on general showers.

Wives cook three-course lunches which they serve to their husbands in the stuffy heat at little tables with linen napkins and polished dishware. The white wine must stand in an ice bucket. Everything is correct--the bread, the cheese, the sauce.

Mr, eats greedily , Mrs. stands behind him, and a little to the side, nodding happily. She will do the washing-up immediately after the meal is finished. All will be neat and tidy before any other activity is even considered.

33. Which people are keen on order, according to the passage?

34. What will the wife do after the meal?

35. What is characteristic of French people’s lives according to the passage?

Section C

Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.

The Romans built great “aqueducts” to carry fresh water from the mountains to the cities. Many of these aqueducts are still standing today. The Roman Emperors even set up a government health service. They built the first great public hospitals in Europe, and they paid doctors to look after poor people.

When the Roman Empire fell to pieces, these civilized methods of treatment disappeared from most of Europe, for more than a thousand years. People went back to the old ways. They lived in dirty conditions, which helped to cause diseases; and they asked God to cure the diseases. They shut up mentally sick people in prisons. Or they burnt them alive because they were supposed to have magic powers. But the work of the Greek and Roman doctors was not lost.

Over a thousand years ago, the Arabs moved into many of the Mediterranean countries. They took big parts of the old Roman lands. They translated the Greek and Roman medical books into Arabic. Arab doctors themselves made many new discoveries.

When civilization at last came back to Europe, men once again translated the Greek and Roman works on medicine into Latin. Slowly, European doctors discovered again the things that the Greeks and Romans had known so long ago. Slowly, they began to make new discoveries and found out more about the way the body works.