C. His confidence in business success.

D. Affection for London architecture.

26. What was Selfridges' most impressive characteristic?

A. The number of departments.

B. The broad choice of goods.

C. The small group of guards.

D. The well-trained sales guides.

27. What is the main purpose of the article?

A. To introduce the history of Selfridge .

B. To compare different department stores.

C. To encourage readers to spend more.

D. To explain how to start a department store.

C

Top chefs aren’t known for their friendly character. Assistants who overcook food by ten seconds usually struggle to get out of the kitchen alive. My father was a top chef. We’d had a stormy relationship for years, but I decided to follow in his footsteps anyway, and train as a chef. It was better than the dead-end I ‘d reach with the job I’d been doing.

After three years, I became head chef in a restaurant called The Tortoise. As the boss, I made important decision but if anything went wrong, I was the one who should take the responsibility. Experiencing the sweaty kitchens, I learned why my father was the way he was. When I began, I didn’t have my sights set on anything much---I just wanted a regular job—but soon I realized my career was taking off. The rich and famous started to visit the restaurant and eventually came the time when I had to decide about my future: I could either open my own restaurant or go and work for one of the big ones. Then life made the decision for me. My father tried and I got his job.

On my first day, I received an unfriendly welcome. No one would talk to me. What made it worse was that I was ill—I had a cold , and my hands were shaking as I went into the kitchen. I held my breath, stood up in front of everyone and said, My name is Leah Kleist. Yoall know my father. whether yoloved him or hated him, I don’t care. He is the past. Now let’s get to work. And we did.

28. What will happen to assistants who overcook food?

A. They got punished B. They eat the food

C. They get some advice D. They get fired

29. Why did the author decide to work as a chef?

A. It was his favorite B. It was a better job.

C. He was forced to D. He lost his job.

30. What does the underline part tell us about the author?

A. He knew little about the job.

B. He misunderstood his father

C. He didn’t have a clear goal.

D. He had a very poor eyesight.

31. What caused the staff’s unfriendly attitude towards the author?

A. His lack of experience

B. His poor health condition

C. Their impression of is father

D. Their envy at his success

D

Where do yokeep ice? In die freezer, of course. That's what scientists might have thought when they were looking for a safe place to store ice from mountain glaciers from around the world. They’ve decided to store ice in Antarctica because global warming is causing some of the glaciers in places like the Alps to melt.

Jerome Chappellaz of the French National Centre for Scientific Research is involved in creating an ice vault (地下室)there. He says: “We are probably the only scientific community whose sample (样本) is in danger of disappearing from the face of the planet. If yowork on rocks or on tree rings, the raw material is still here and will be for many centuries."

And why do scientists need to study ice from the Alps, for example? Ice formed on the top of a mountain is made of snow accumulated over thousands of years. Trapped air bubbles (气泡) contain samples of the atmosphere that existed when that ice was formed. Ice is a record of climate By examining ice. we know carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher now than in the last three million years. Researchers use this kind of data to build computer models and try to predict what might happen in the future.

The ice vault will be housed in a snow cave at the Concordia Research Station, which is operated by scientists from France and Italy. The ice samples will be sealed in bags and placed 10 meters below the surface. at a constant temperature of -50*C. This will put the scientists’ minds at rest. Losing the ice samples would be a disaster, and nobody wants to see a mine of scientific knowledge lost forever in a giant pool.

32. What makes Antarctica a safe place to store ice?

A. Its large mountains.

B. Its function as a freezer.