1 . Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when English rulers tried to conquer Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English. Finally, in 1921,the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result is that today there are two “Irelands”. Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland, in the south, is an independent country.

In the 1840s, the main crop, potatoes, were affected by disease and about 750,000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage (短缺) of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result of these problems, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.

For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people still work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.

The Irish are famous for being warm-hearted and friendly. Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were “the greatest talkers since the Greeks”. Since independence, Ireland has revived (复兴) its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.

4 . Levi Strauss did not invent jeans, but he is considered the first person to make and sell great numbers of them. He was born in Bavaria, an area that is part of Germany. In 1847 he and his family moved to the United States.

Levi Strauss opened a small dry goods store, first in New York, then in San Francisco, California. Among the products he sold were jeans. These pants were especially useful for miners in California. They needed clothing made from a strong material. Jeans are usually made from a heavy cotton cloth called denim.

Levi Strauss partnered with a clothing maker named Jacob Davis. Davis had invented a process for making rivets (铆钉) for jeans. These little metal connectors helped hold the pieces of cloth together to make the jeans stronger.

In 1875, the government gave Strauss and Davis a patent (专利) for their invention. That meant no one else could legally copy it without their permission. In 1928 the Levi Strauss company registered (注册) the word “Levi’s” as a trademark for their product.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington has one of the oldest known pairs of Levi’s. Writer James Sullivan published a book called “Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon.” In the book, he says jeans show two American values, creativity and rebellion.

Cowboys wore jeans in the old Wild West. In the 1950s, people saw famous Hollywood actors like James Dean and Marlon Brando wearing jeans in movies.

Today jeans come in blue but also lots of other colors and in many styles and at all prices.

7 . Valencia is in the east part of Spain. It has a port on the sea, two miles away on the coast. It is the capital of a province that is also named Valencia.

The city is a market centre for what is produced by the land around the city. Most of the city’s money is made from farming. It is also a busy business city, with ships, railways, clothes and machine factories.

Valencia has an old part with white buildings, coloured roofs, and narrow streets. The modern part has long, wide streets and new buildings. Valencia is well known for its parks and gardens. It has many old churches and museums. The university in the centre of the city was built in the 13th century.

The city of Valencia has been known since the 2nd century. In the 8th century it was the capital of Spain. There is also an important city in Venezuela (委内瑞拉) named Valencia.

The European Union is     1     organization of European countries. The countries are     2     (depend) and are governed in different     3     (way). In the United Kingdom,     4     example, the head of state is a king or queen. In France, on the other hand, the head of state is a president. But each of them     5     (send) representatives to the European Parliament,     6     has some control over what happens in each of the member countries.

The idea of the European Union     7     (begin) in the 1950s. The first members were France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy. Little by little, the number increased during the second half of the     8     (twenty) century. By the year 2000, there were 15 member countries. The new countries were Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

In 2004, the European Union increased to 25 members. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, plus the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta all became members. The     9     (expand) European Union has a population of more than half a billion people, twice     10     big as the population of the United States.

10 . Architectural history can take you through the evolution of those structures that served as a mark to remote civilizations, like the Egyptians and their architecture, reflected in pyramids, tombs, and many other ancient buildings along the Nile River．

In fact, the first big architectural design recorded in history was the work of Imhotep, Egyptian high priest（主教）, who designed and built the complex（综合建筑群） that took the name of his king, between the years 2630 to 2611 BC．

Ruins of the most varied architecture speak for themselves about the most varied civilizations, traditions, and beliefs around the world．Without architecture, the history of mankind would be incomplete．

Many surviving buildings of the ancient world are examples of the great things that architecture can do for the world．Among them, we can name the Great Pyramid, listed as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and the great Wall of China, built between the years 221 to 206 BC．

As time passed, all buildings and designs began to take special characteristics, becoming symbols of different eras identified as architectural styles．In ancient Greece, where buildings seemed to always be the same, there were three types of columns to identify each period of time．

The Romans inherited from the Greeks most of their traditions, beliefs, and customs, including architecture, but they also developed their own．

Architectural history was influenced by artistic, economic, politic, and socio-cultural events throughout the centuries, and Europe became the cradle（摇篮） of many well-known architects in the years following the fall of the Roman Empire．

As time passes, the actual architecture differs in shape, materials, construction methods, and designing goals, but the work of the architects will continue for generations to come．