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The River flows south into a gulf called the Gulf of Lyons, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. Thechief city on the Gulf of Lyons is Marseilles. It is the next largest city to Paris, but it was a city long before there was any Paris, for it was a port for ships that sailed the sea long, long ago, and it still is one ofthe great ports for ships. It is near, but not quite at, the mouth of the Rh渀攀.

Another thing that women love is perfume—sweet perfume! The French are famous for making perfume from flowers andfrom sweet grasses and even from weeds. French perfume is very expensive, because it often takes a whole field of flowers to make but a very few bottles of perfume. A dollar for a thimbleful! It always seemed wonderful tome that both flowers and their perfume come out of the ground—that the beautiful colors and sweet perfume are both made from mud!

French farmers raise other things, of course, besides grapes and silkworms and flowers for perfume. They raise manyof the same things that our own farmers raise. Most of the people in France are farmers, but they don’t live in farm-houses on their farms; they live in houses in a village and walk out and back to their farms, which oftenare a long way off.

When I was five years old I was given a penny bank, “to save for my old age.” When, at the age of twelve, I hada hundred dollars, I felt like a millionaire. The French are very saving. Even a man who earns very little saves some of that little, so that even poor people have money saved up for their old age when they can no longer work.

A girl saves her money so that when she marries she will have enough to buy furniture and perhaps a house or evenmore. This is called her “dot.” Sometimes her father and mother give it to her, and sometimes the girl earns it herself; sometimes her “dot” is only a few hundred dollars, sometimes it is thousands of dollars, butseldom can a girl marry who hasn’t some “dot.” “And they lived happily ever afterward.”

参考译文

罗讷河往南流入一个海湾，叫做里昂湾，它是地中海的一部分。里昂湾最重要的城市是马赛。马赛是仅次于巴黎的法国第二大的城市，但是历史比巴黎悠久，因为在很久很久以前它就是航海船只停泊的一个港口，现在仍然是港口之一。它靠近罗讷河河口，但并不正位于河口。

女人喜欢的另一个东西是香水——芬芳的香水！法国人以制造香水而闻名于世，他们用鲜花、香草、甚至野草制造香水。法国香水非常昂贵，因为生产很少几瓶香水往往就需要一整块田的鲜花。一美元只能买到一点点香水！在我看来，花和用花制出来的香水都来自于土地似乎太神奇了——美丽的颜色和芬芳的香水都产自于泥土！当然，除了葡萄、蚕和用来制香水的鲜花之外，

法国农民还种养其他东西。美国农民种植的很多东西，他们也同样种植。法国大部分人都是农民，但他们不住在农场的农舍里；他们住在乡村的房屋里，每天往返于家和农场之间，农场离家往往很远。

我5岁时得到一个储钱罐，用来“存钱养老”。到了12岁时，已经存了100美元，我觉得自己就像个百万富翁。法国人非常节俭，即使挣得很少，也要存起一部分，因此即使是穷人也把钱存入银行为将来老了不再能工作时做准备。

法国女孩也存钱，到结婚时，可用来买家具、房子甚至更多的东西。就是法国人所说的“嫁妆”。有时父母会给女儿一份嫁妆，有时是女孩自己挣钱置办；有时她的“嫁妆”只是几百美元，有时是几千，但很少有女孩子出嫁时是没有“嫁妆”的。带着这份嫁妆结婚，“从此以后过上了幸福的生活”。