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When you land in France you see French flags flying; they are red, white, and blue, the same colors as our own flag,but their flags have only three stripes and the stripes are up and down, not from side to side, and the colors are backward—blue, white, red, instead of red, white, blue. The street signs and signs on the buildings are ina different language, the people are talking a different language, and of course the money is different too. It is called “francs.”

You have probably heard some one say, “You look like your father or mother,” but they don’t say that your fatheror mother looks like you. Well, up the River Seine is the capital and largest city of France, spelled “Paris,” but called “Paree” by the French people. Some call it the most beautiful city . People often say some othervery beautiful city looks “like Paris,” but they never say Paris looks like any other city.

London is up a river too, but it is only a short way and quite large ships can get up to London. But Paris is a longdistance up the Seine, and the river is too shallow and too narrow for large steamships to go up so far, although smaller boats can do so. The Seine runs straight through Paris, or rather I should say it runs crooked throughParis, for it curves as it passes through.

On a small island in the river is a great church—a cathedral, built to the Virgin Mary, whom the French call NotreDame, which means Our Lady. Notre Dame was built many hundreds of years ago of stone and stained glass, with two towers in front and a thin spire in the center “like a finger pointing to heaven.” Long props made of stonehold up the roof. They are called flying buttresses, and if these props were taken away the roof would tumble down. Around on the edge of the roof of Notre Dame are perched strange animals made of stone. They are hideous creatures,different from any real animals you have ever seen or heard of, part bird, part beast, part devil. They are called “gargoyles,” and they were made as hideous as possible and put there on the edge of the roof because itwas thought they would scare away evil spirits from the church.

参考译文

到了法国，你就看到法国国旗在各处飘扬；法国国旗有红、白和蓝三种颜色，和美国国旗一样，但是他们的国旗只有三个简单的竖条并列在一起，三个竖条的颜色顺序从左到右是——蓝、白、红，而不是红、白、蓝。街道的标牌和建筑物的招牌上写着法语，不是英语，人们说着法语，也不是英语，当然用的钱也和我们不一样，叫做“法郎”。

你也许听人说过：“你长得像你爸爸（或妈妈）。”但他们不会说你爸爸或妈妈长得像你。塞纳河上游有法国的首都，也是法国最大的城市，拼写是“Paris”，但法国人叫它“巴黎”。有人说巴黎是世界上最美丽的城市。人们常说其他某个美丽的城市看起来“就像巴黎”，但他们从不说巴黎像其他城市。

伦敦也位于一条河的上游，但离海很近，大型船只都可以驶到伦敦。但巴黎在塞纳河上游很远的地方，河水很浅，河道狭窄，大轮船根本驶不到那么远的地方，不过小船倒可以。塞纳河直接流经巴黎，确切地说塞纳河是弯弯曲曲地流经巴黎，因为在这段流程，河道是弯曲的。

在塞纳河的一个小岛上有座大教堂，是为供奉圣母玛丽亚而建的，法国人称她“诺特拉戴姆”，意思是“我们的女士”。巴黎圣母院建于好几百年前，是用石头和彩色玻璃建造的，教堂前面有两个塔，教堂中央有一个细长的塔尖顶，就像“一根指向天空的手指”。长长的石柱支撑起屋顶。这些柱子叫做扶拱垛，如果柱子被拿走，屋顶就会倒塌。在巴黎圣母院屋顶边缘的四周“栖息”着奇怪的石头动物。它们都是些很丑陋的动物，跟你见过或听说过的任何普通动物都不一样，像鸟，像兽，又像魔鬼。这些东西叫做“怪兽状滴水嘴”，它们的样子被造得尽可能丑陋可怕，放在屋顶的边缘，因为据信它们能把恶鬼从教堂吓跑。