The French Quarter, also known as the Vieux Carré and Barrio Francés, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. The influences from a number of different cultures can be spotted in it.
The city of New Orleans was first colonized by the French. After New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around a walled town, which is today called the French Quarter. The plan of the French Quarter was created by the French in the eighteenth century. It shows the formal organization that was popular in France at the time. Though very few buildings that are purely French in design remain, the overall design of the area is completely French.
Spain took possession of New Orleans from France in 1762. During the period that Spain was in control of New Orleans, there were Spanish influences in the architecture of the French Quarter. Spanish-style courtyards, which were full of plants and flowers, were added to houses, and wrought iron was used to decorate the houses in the Spanish style of the time.
Another influence on the architecture of New Orleans came from the West Indies. Wealthy planters from the West Indies began opening houses in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The weather in the West Indies is very hot, and houses in the West Indies were built in ways that would help keep them cool. Planters who came to the French Quarter from the West Indies influenced the architecture of the French Quarter by making their houses there more able to keep the people living in them cool. Two ways that planters from the West Indies influenced houses in the French Quarter to make them cooler in the heat was to build ground floors out of stone and to add wide verandas, or covered porches, on second stories.
As with other parts of the city developed before the late 19th century, and on higher land predating New Orleans' levee systems, the French Quarter remained substantially dry following Hurricane Katrina. [A] Its elevation is five feet (1.5 m) above sea level. [B] Some streets had minor flooding, and several buildings suffered significant wind damage. [C] In addition, the Quarter largely escaped the looting and violence that occurred after the storm; nearly all of the antique shops and art galleries in the French Quarter, for example, were untouched. [D] The district as a whole has been designated as a National Historic Landmark, with numerous contributing buildings that are separately deemed significant. It is a prime tourist destination in the city, as well as attracting local residents.
1. It can be inferred from paragraph 1 that the French Quarter
2. The word "spotted" in paragraph 1 can best be replaced by
3. According to paragraph 2, it is NOT true that
4. It is stated in paragraph 3 that Spain
5. A home in Spain in the late eighteenth century would most likely
6. Why does the author say that “The weather in the West Indies is very hot” in paragraph 4?
7. The word “them” in paragraph 4 refers to
8. Why does the author mention the West Indies in paragraph 4?
9. The word “verandas” in paragraph 4 most nearly means
10. In which space (marked [A], [B], [C] and [D] in the passage) will the following sentence fit? “Most of the major landmarks suffered only minor damage.”