1、tourists-have been picking leaves and cutting their names on the tree-trunk. So far, not one of them has been struck down by sudden death! Lesson59 In or out ？ 进来还是出去？ Our dog, Rex, used to sit outside our front gate and bark. Every time he wanted to come into the garden he would bark until someone
2、opened the gate. As the neighbours complained of the noise, my husband spent weeks training him to press his paw on the latch to let himself in. Rex soon became an expert at opening the gate. However, when I was going out shopping last week, I noticed him in the garden near the gate. This time he wa
3、s barking so that someone would let him out ! Since then, he has developed another bad habit. As soon as he opens the gate from the outside, he comes into the garden and waits until the gate shuts. Then he sits and barks until someone lets him out. After this he immediately lets himself in and begin
4、s barking again. Yesterday my husband removed the gate and Rex got so annoyed we have not seen him since. Lesson60 The future 卜算未来 At a village fair, I decided to visit a fortune-teller called Madam Bellinsky. I went into her tent and she told me to sit down. After I had given her some money, she lo
5、oked into a crystal ball and said: A relation of yours is coming to see you. She will be arriving this evening and intends to stay for a few days. The moment you leave this tent, you will get a big surprise. A woman you know well will rush towards you. She will speak to you and then she will lead yo
6、u away from this place. That is all. As soon as I went outside, I forgot all about Madam Bellinsky because my wife hurried towards me. Where have you been hiding ? she asked impatiently. Your sister will be here in less than an hour and we must be at the station to meet her. We are late already. As
7、she walked away, I followed her out of the fair. Lesson61 Trouble with the Hubble 哈勃望远镜的困境 In future, astronauts will be required to descend from a spaceship while it is still in space and to return to it. The ability to do this will be necessary in future flights to distant planets. Scientists are
8、now trying to discover if this is possible. The spaceship Astra which left the earth a short time ago, will be travelling three hundred miles into space. At a certain point, the Astra will stop for a short time and an astronaut will attempt to leave the stationary spaceship and then return to it. We
9、 shall not know whether the experiment has been successful until we have received a radio message. The first message is expected to arrive at 7 oclock this evening. By that time, the Astra will have been flying through space for seventeen hours and will have circled the earth a great many times. Whe
10、n the first radio messages have been received, the results of the trip will be announced immediately. Lesson62 After the fire 大火之后 Firemen had been fighting the forest fire for nearly three weeks before they could get it under control. A short time before, great trees had covered the countryside for
11、 miles around. Now, smoke still rose up from the warm ground over the desolate hills. Winter was coming on and the hills threatened the surrounding villages with destruction, for heavy rain would not only wash away the soil but would cause serious floods as well. When the fire had at last been put o
12、ut, the forest authorities ordered several tons of a special type of grass-seed which would grow quickly. The seed was sprayed over the ground in huge quantities by aeroplanes. The planes had been planting seed for nearly a month when it began to rain. By then, however, in many places the grass had
13、already taken root. In place of the great trees which had been growing there for centuries, patches of green had begun to appear in the blackened soil. Lesson63 She was not amused 她并不觉得好笑 Geoffrey Hampden has a large circle of friends and is very popular at parties. Everybody admires him for his fin
14、e sense of humor-everybody, that is, except his six-year-old daughter, Jenny. Recently, one of Geoffreys closest friends asked him to make a speech at a wedding reception. This is the sort of thing that Geoffrey loves. He prepared the speech carefully and went to the wedding with Jenny. He had inclu
15、ded a large number of funny stories in the speech and, of course, it was a great success. As soon as he had finished, Jenny told him she wanted to go home. Geoffrey was a little disappointed by this but he did as his daughter asked. On the way home, he asked Jenny if she had enjoyed the speech. To h
16、is surprise, she said she hadnt. Geoffrey asked her why this was so and she told him that she did not like to see so many people laughing at him! Lesson64 The Channel Tunnel 海峡隧道 In l858, a French engineer, Aime Thome de Gamond, arrived in England with a plan for a twenty-one mile tunnel across the
17、English Channel. He said that it would be possible to build a platform in the centre of the Channel. This platform would serve as a port and a railway station. The tunnel would be well-ventilated if tall chimneys were built above sea-level. In 1860, a better plan was put forward by an Englishman, Wi
18、lliam Low. He suggested that a double railway tunnel should be built. This would solve the problem of ventilation, for if a train entered this tunnel, it would draw in fresh air behind it. Forty-two years later a tunnel was actually begun. If, at the time, the British had not feared invasion, it wou
19、ld have been completed. Recently, there has again been great interest in the idea of a Channel Tunnel. If it is built, it will connect Britain to Europe for the first time in history. Lesson65 Jumbo versus the police 小象对警察 Last Christmas, the circus owner, Jimmy Gates, decided to take some presents
20、to a childrens hospital. Dressed up as Father Christmas and accompanied by a guard of honour of six pretty girls, he set off down the main street of the city riding a baby elephant called Jumbo. He, should have known that the police would never allow this sort of thing. A policeman approached Jimmy
21、and told him he ought to have gone along a side-street as Jumbo was holding up the traffic. Though Jimmy agreed to go at once, Jumbo refused to move. Fifteen policemen had to push very hard to get him off the main street. The police had a difficult time, but they were most amused. Jumbo must weigh a
22、 few tons, said a policeman afterwards, so it was fortunate that we didnt have to carry him. Of course, we should arrest him, but as he has a good record, we shall let him off this time. Lesson66 Sweet as honey! 像蜜一样甜！ The Hatheld Puffin is a modern aero-plane, but its designer, Mr John Wimpenny, is
23、 finding it difficult to get it off the ground. The reason for this is that this plane is also a bicycle. Its pilot has to pedal hard to get it into the air. After Mr Wimpenny had the plane built, it was tested thoroughly. In 1961, it was the first man-powered aircraft to fly half a mile. While bein
24、g flown by a champion amateur cyclist in 1963, the plane crashed on an airfield. Since then, Mr Wimpenny has had it rebuilt. He has had the length of the wings increased so that they now measure 93 feet-almost as long as those of a Dakota. Many people have shown interest in this new and unusual spor
25、t. But though air cyclists may learn how to fly over short distances, and may, eventually, even get across the English Channel, it is doubtful whether they will ever cycle across the Atlantic. Lesson67 Volcanoes 火山 Haroun Tazieff the Polish scientist, has spent his life-time studying active volcanoe
26、s and deep caves in all parts of the world. In 1948, he went to lake Kivu in the Congo to observe a new volcano which he later named Kituro. Tazieff was able to set up his camp very close to the volcano while it was erupting violently. Though he managed to take a number of brilliant photographs, he
27、could not stay near the volcano for very long. He noticed that a river of liquid rock was coming towards him. It threatened to surround him completely, but Tazieff managed to escape just in time. He waited until the volcano became quiet and he was able to return two days later. This time, he managed
28、 to climb into the mouth of Kituro so that he could take photographs and measure temperatures. Tazieff has often risked his life in this way. He has been able to tell us more about active volcanoes than any man alive. Lesson68 Persistent 纠缠不休 I crossed the street to avoid meeting him, but he saw me
29、and came running towards me. It was no use pretending that I had not seen him, so I waved to him. I never enjoy meeting Bert Dykes. He never has anything to do. No matter how busy you are, he always insists on coming with you. I had to think of a way of preventing him from following me around all mo
30、rning. Hullo, Bert, I said. Fancy meeting you here ! Hullo, Elizabeth, Bert answered. I was just wondering how to spend the morning-until I saw you. Youre not busy doing anything, are you ? No, not at all, I answered. Im going to. . Would you mind my coming with you ? he asked, before I had finished
31、 speaking. Not at all, I lied, but Im going to the dentist. Then Ill come with you, he answered. Theres always plenty to read in the waiting room ! lesson69 But not murder! 并非谋tourists-have been picking leaves and cutting their names on the tree-trunk. So far, not one of them has been struck down by
32、 sudden death! Lesson59 In or out ？ 进来还是出去？ Our dog, Rex, used to sit outside our front gate and bark. Every time he wanted to come into the garden he would bark until someone opened the gate. As the neighbours complained of the noise, my husband spent weeks training him to press his paw on the latc
33、h to let himself in. Rex soon became an expert at opening the gate. However, when I was going out shopping last week, I noticed him in the garden near the gate. This time he was barking so that someone would let him out ! Since then, he has developed another bad habit. As soon as he opens the gate f
34、rom the outside, he comes into the garden and waits until the gate shuts. Then he sits and barks until someone lets him out. After this he immediately lets himself in and begins barking again. Yesterday my husband removed the gate and Rex got so annoyed we have not seen him since. Lesson60 The futur
35、e 卜算未来 At a village fair, I decided to visit a fortune-teller called Madam Bellinsky. I went into her tent and she told me to sit down. After I had given her some money, she looked into a crystal ball and said: A relation of yours is coming to see you. She will be arriving this evening and intends t
36、o stay for a few days. The moment you leave this tent, you will get a big surprise. A woman you know well will rush towards you. She will speak to you and then she will lead you away from this place. That is all. As soon as I went outside, I forgot all about Madam Bellinsky because my wife hurried t
37、owards me. Where have you been hiding ? she asked impatiently. Your sister will be here in less than an hour and we must be at the station to meet her. We are late already. As she walked away, I followed her out of the fair. Lesson61 Trouble with the Hubble 哈勃望远镜的困境 In future, astronauts will be req
38、uired to descend from a spaceship while it is still in space and to return to it. The ability to do this will be necessary in future flights to distant planets. Scientists are now trying to discover if this is possible. The spaceship Astra which left the earth a short time ago, will be travelling th
39、ree hundred miles into space. At a certain point, the Astra will stop for a short time and an astronaut will attempt to leave the stationary spaceship and then return to it. We shall not know whether the experiment has been successful until we have received a radio message. The first message is expe
40、cted to arrive at 7 oclock this evening. By that time, the Astra will have been flying through space for seventeen hours and will have circled the earth a great many times. When the first radio messages have been received, the results of the trip will be announced immediately. Lesson62 After the fir
41、e 大火之后 Firemen had been fighting the forest fire for nearly three weeks before they could get it under control. A short time before, great trees had covered the countryside for miles around. Now, smoke still rose up from the warm ground over the desolate hills. Winter was coming on and the hills thr
42、eatened the surrounding villages with destruction, for heavy rain would not only wash away the soil but would cause serious floods as well. When the fire had at last been put out, the forest authorities ordered several tons of a special type of grass-seed which would grow quickly. The seed was spray
43、ed over the ground in huge quantities by aeroplanes. The planes had been planting seed for nearly a month when it began to rain. By then, however, in many places the grass had already taken root. In place of the great trees which had been growing there for centuries, patches of green had begun to ap
44、pear in the blackened soil. Lesson63 She was not amused 她并不觉得好笑 Geoffrey Hampden has a large circle of friends and is very popular at parties. Everybody admires him for his fine sense of humor-everybody, that is, except his six-year-old daughter, Jenny. Recently, one of Geoffreys closest friends ask
45、ed him to make a speech at a wedding reception. This is the sort of thing that Geoffrey loves. He prepared the speech carefully and went to the wedding with Jenny. He had included a large number of funny stories in the speech and, of course, it was a great success. As soon as he had finished, Jenny
46、told him she wanted to go home. Geoffrey was a little disappointed by this but he did as his daughter asked. On the way home, he asked Jenny if she had enjoyed the speech. To his surprise, she said she hadnt. Geoffrey asked her why this was so and she told him that she did not like to see so many pe
47、ople laughing at him! Lesson64 The Channel Tunnel 海峡隧道 In l858, a French engineer, Aime Thome de Gamond, arrived in England with a plan for a twenty-one mile tunnel across the English Channel. He said that it would be possible to build a platform in the centre of the Channel. This platform would ser
48、ve as a port and a railway station. The tunnel would be well-ventilated if tall chimneys were built above sea-level. In 1860, a better plan was put forward by an Englishman, William Low. He suggested that a double railway tunnel should be built. This would solve the problem of ventilation, for if a
49、train entered this tunnel, it would draw in fresh air behind it. Forty-two years later a tunnel was actually begun. If, at the time, the British had not feared invasion, it would have been completed. Recently, there has again been great interest in the idea of a Channel Tunnel. If it is built, it will connect Britain to Europe for the first time in history. Lesson65 Jumbo versus the police 小象对警察 Last Christmas, the circus owner, Jimmy Gates, decided to take some presents to a childr
