exam0004

2. Reading A

You arc going to read a magazine article about an English woman living in Paris. For qucstions 16-23, choose the answcr (A, B, C or D) whieh you think fits best according to the text.

I have lived in Paris sińce I was eightccn, and l‘d been on cxchange visits from the agc ol tourteen. So

when I left the Central Schooi of Speech and Drama in London (I went to study stage management but

they refused to let me take the acting coursc and 1 got thrown out) I thought I'd try my luck in France. I

went as an au pair but won an audition to drama schooi, where I was always the ugly duckling becausc of

my funny French accent. But I got my first job in my second year and did all my carly work in French.

Sometimcs my niother, my two ststers and my two brothers come to stay and I always return to England

at least once a year. I'm not homesick. I love Paris for all the reasons everybody !oves Paris - the art, the

architecture, the food, the elegance. And 1 love the Parisian attitude. The city is smali, the Metro is the

easicst way of getting around and the shops are fantastic. When I was a student I useri to spend my life

wtndow-shopping with my eyes out on stalks.

We live in a lovely Art Nouveau apartment with marble fireplaces, parquet flooring, gilt mirrors and moulded ceilings between the Luxembourg Gardens and the Sorbonne. My husband, Francois, has lived here sińce he was four and my mother-in-law now has another apartment in the same błock. Because I've decorated it myseif, pcoplc say how English it looks, but it doesn’t really because it's fuli of bright colours the hall is yellow, the dining room is red.

Francois is an obstetrician and has to be al the hospital by eight o’ciock, but the childrcn (Hannah, five and two-year-old Joseph) tcnd to wake us about six anyway. We all have breakfast together (usually just toast and coffee for me) then the nanny arrives to take Hannah to schooi and Joseph to playgroup and I lock myseif away to take phone culls, arrange rneetings and read Scripts. Mornings tend to get frantic but I always break for lunch, whlch 1 sometimes eat with the childrcn and sometimcs with friends at a favourite reslaurant. I'm an absolute foodie. When Hannah finlshes schooi at 3 p.m. we might go to the Luxernbourg Gardens or to the Louvrc. I've gol a wonderful pass which you get with your first child in France and which allows you to go to the front of the gueue in museums, administrative buildings and even at bus stops. If I go out aione I often end up in the hardware department of a shop called 8HV where I Mnger loving!y over nuts and bolts, washers and taps. I'm a great DIY-cr - 1 can fit washers, put up shclves and even manage a bit of rewiring.

The evening starts with the buttle of the bath al six o'clock. I usually cook - somcthlng simple with saiad, though the salad is never served with the meat, not in my house anyway. And we don't always drink winę. We rareiy watch television. Then its a herb tea, usually a camomile or lemon balm mfusion, and earty to bed. I like to be aslecp by ten. Weil, it can be quite exhausting, life in Paris.