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新概念英语第二册
Lesson 1 A
private conversation
私人谈话
Last week I
went to the theatre. I had a very good seat. The
play was very interesting. I did
not enjoy it. A young man and a young
woman were sitting behind me. They were talking
loudly. I
got very angry. I
could not hear the actors. I turned round. I
looked at the man and the woman
angrily. They did not pay any
attention. In the end, I could not bear it. I
turned round again. 'I can't
hear a word!' I said angrily.
'It's none of your
business,' the young man said rudely. 'This is a
private conversation!'
Lesson 2 Breakfast or lunch?
早餐还是午餐?
It was Sunday.
I never get up early on Sundays. I sometimes stay
in bed until lunchtime. Last
Sunday I got up very late. I looked out
of the window. It was dark outside. 'What a day!'
I thought.
'It's raining
again.' Just then, the telephone rang. It was my
aunt Lucy. 'I've just arrived by train,'
she said. 'I'm coming to
see you.'
'But I'm still
having breakfast,' I said.
'What are you doing?' she asked.
'I'm having breakfast,' I
repeated.
'Dear me,' she
said. 'Do you always get up so late? It's one
o'clock!'
Lesson 3 Please send me a card
请给我寄一张明信片
Postcards always spoil my
holidays. Last summer, I went to Italy. I visited
museums and sat
in public
gardens. A friendly waiter taught me a few words
of Italian. Then he lent me a book. I
read a few lines, but I did not
understand a word. Everyday I thought about
postcards. My
holidays
passed quickly, but I did not send cards to my
friends. On the last day I made a big
decision. I got up early and bought
thirty-seven cards. I spent the whole day in my
room, but I did
not write a
single card!
Lesson 4 An exciting trip
激动人心的旅行
I have just received a
letter from my brother, Tim. He is in Australia.
He has been there for
six
months. Tim is an engineer. He is working for a
big firm and he has already visited a great
number of different places
in Australia. He has just bought an Australian car
and has gone to Alice
springs, a small town in the centre of
Australia. He will soon visit Darwin. From there,
he will fly
to Perth. My
brother has never been abroad before, so he is
fending this trip very exciting.
Lesson 5 No wrong
numbers
无错号之虞
Scott
has
a
garage
in
Silbury
and
now
he
has
just
bought
another
garage
in
Pinhurst.
Pinhurst is only five miles from
Silbury, but Mr. Scott cannot get a telephone for
his new garage,
so he has
just bought twelve pigeons. Yesterday, a pigeon
carried the first message from Pinhurst
to Silbury. The bird
covered the distance in three minutes. Up to now,
has sent a great
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新概念英语第二册
many requests for spare parts and other
urgent messages from one garage to the other. In
this way,
he has begun his
own private 'telephone' service.
Lesson 6 Percy Buttons
珀西
.
巴顿斯
I have just
moved to a house in Bridge Street. Yesterday a
beggar knocked at my door. He
asked me for a meal and a glass of
beer. In return for this, the beggar stood on his
head and sang
songs. I gave
him a meal. He ate the food and drank the beer.
Then he put a piece of cheese in his
pocket and went away. Later a neighbour
told me about him. Everybody knows him. His name
is
Percy Buttons. He calls
at every house in the street once a month and
always asks for a meal and a
glass of beer.
Lesson 7 Too late
为时太晚
The plane was late and detectives were
waiting at the airport all morning. They were
expecting a valuable parcel
of diamonds from South Africa. A few hours
earlier, someone had told
the police that thieves would try to
steal the diamonds. When the plane arrived, some
of the
detectives were
waiting inside the main building while others were
waiting on the airfield. Two
men took the parcel off the plane and
carried it into the Customs House. While two
detectives
were keeping
guard at the door, two others opened the parcel.
To their surprise, the precious parcel
was full of stones and sand!
Lesson 8 The
best and the worst
最好的和最差的
Joe Sanders has
the most beautiful garden
in our town. Nearly everybody enters
for 'The
Nicest Garden
Competition' each year, but Joe wins every time.
Bill Frith's garden is larger than
Joe's. Bill works harder than Joe and
grows more flowers and vegetables, but Joe's
garden is more
interesting.
He has made neat paths and has built a wooden
bridge over a pool. I like gardens too,
but I do not like hard
work. Every year I enter for the garden
competition too, and I always win a
little prize for the worst garden in
the town!
Lesson 9 A cold
welcome
冷遇
On Wednesday evening, we
went to the Town Hall. It was the last day of the
year and a large
crowd of
people had gathered under the Town Hall clock. It
would strike twelve in twenty
minutes' time. Fifteen minutes passed
and then, at five to twelve, the clock stopped.
The big
minute hand did not
move. We waited and waited, but nothing happened.
Suddenly someone
shouted.
'It's two minutes past twelve! The clock has
stopped!' I looked at my watch. It was true.
The big clock refused to
welcome the New Year. At that moment, everybody
began to laugh and
sing.
Lesson 10 Not
for jazz
不适于演奏爵士乐
We
have
an
old
musical
instrument.
It
is
called
a
clavichord.
It
was
made
in
Germany
in
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新概念英语第二册
1681.
Our
clavichord is kept in the living room. It has
belonged to our family for a long time. The
instrument was bought by my
grandfather many years ago. Recently it was
damaged by a visitor.
She
tried to play jazz on it! She struck the keys too
hard and two of the strings were broken. My
father was shocked. Now we
are not allowed to touch it. It is being repaired
by a friend of my
father's.
Lesson 11 One
good turn deserves
another
礼尚往来
I
was having dinner at a restaurant when Tony Steele
came in. Tony worked in a lawyer's
office years ago, but he is now working
at a bank. He gets a good salary, but he always
borrows
money from his
friends and never pays it back. Tony saw me and
came and sat at the same table.
He has never borrowed money from me.
While he was eating, I asked him to lend me twenty
pounds. To my surprise, he
gave me the money immediately. 'I have never
borrowed any money
from
you,' Tony said, 'so now you can pay for my
dinner!'
Lesson
12 Goodbye and good
luck
再见,一路顺风
Our neighbour, Captain
Charles Alison, will sail from Portsmouth
tomorrow. We'll meet him
at
the harbour early in the morning. He will be in
his small boat, Topsail. Topsail is a famous
little
boat. It has sailed
across the Atlantic many times. Captain Alison
will set out at eight o'clock, so
we'll have plenty of time. We'll see
his boat and then we'll say goodbye to him. He
will be away
for two
months. We are very proud of him. He will take
part in an important race across the
Atlantic.
Lesson 13 The Greenwood
Boys
绿林少年
The Greenwood Boys are a
group of pop singers. At present, they are
visiting all parts of the
country. They will be arriving here
tomorrow. They will be coming by train and most of
the young
people in the
town will be meeting them at the station. Tomorrow
evening they will be singing at
the Workers' Club. The Greenwood Boys
will be staying for five days. During this time,
they will
give five
performances. As usual, the police will have a
difficult time. They will be trying to keep
order. It is always the
same on these occasions.
Lesson 14 Do you speak English?
你会讲英语吗?
I had an amusing experience
last year. After I had left a small village in the
south of France, I
drove on
to the next town. On the way, a young man waved to
me. I stopped and he asked me for a
lift. As soon as he had got into the
car, I said good morning to him in French and he
replied in the
same
language. Apart from a few words, I do not know
any French at all. Neither of us spoke
during
the
journey.
I
had
nearly
reached
the
town,
when
the
young
man
suddenly
said,
very
slowly,
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新概念英语第二册
Lesson 15 Good
news
佳音
The secretary told me that
Mr. Harmsworth would see me. I felt very nervous
when I went
into his
office. He did not look up from his desk when I
entered. After I had sat down, he said that
business was very bad. He
told me that the firm could not afford to pay such
large salaries. Twenty
people had already left. I knew that my
turn had come.
'orth,' I said
in a weak voice.
'Don't interrupt,' he said.
Then he smiled and told me I would
receive an extra thousand pounds a year!
Lesson 16 A
polite request
彬彬有礼的要求
If you park
your car in the wrong place, a traffic policeman
will soon find it. You will be very
lucky if he lets you go without a
ticket. However, this does not always happen.
Traffic police are
sometimes very polite. During a holiday
in Sweden, I found this note on my car: 'sir, we
welcome
you to our city.
This is a
our street signs.
This note is only a reminder.' If you receive a
request like this, you cannot fail to
obey it!
Lesson 17 Always
young
青春常驻
My aunt Jennifer is an
actress. She must be at least thirty-five years
old. In spite of this, she
often appears on the stage as a young
girl. Jennifer will have to take part in a new
play soon. This
time, she
will be a girl of seventeen. In the play, she must
appear in a bright red dress and long
black stockings. Last year in another
play, she had to wear short socks and a bright,
orange-coloured dress. If
anyone ever asks her how old she is, she always
answers, 'Darling, it
must
be terrible to be grown up!'
Lesson 18 He often does
this!
他经常干这种事!
After I had had lunch at a
village pub, I looked for my bag. I had left it on
a chair beside the
door and
now it wasn't there! As I was looking for it, the
landlord came in.
'Did you have a good meal?
'Yes, thank you,' I answered, 'but I
can't pay the bill. I haven't got my bag.'
The landlord
smiled and
immediately went out. In a few minutes he returned
with my bag
and gave it
back to me.
'I'm very
sorry,' he said. 'My dog had taken in into the
garden. He often does this!'
Lesson 19 Sold
out
票已售完
'The play may begin at any
moment,' I said.
'It
may have begun already,' Susan answered.
I hurried to the ticket
office. 'May I have two tickets please?' I asked.
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新概念英语第二册
'I'm sorry, we've sold out,' the girl
said.
'What a pity!'
Susan exclaimed.
Just then, a man hurried to the ticket
office.
'Can I return
these two tickets?' he asked.
'Certainly,' the girl said.
I went back to the ticket office at
once.
'Could I have
those two tickets please?' I asked.
'Certainly,' the girl said, 'but
they're for next Wednesday's performance. Do you
still want
them?'
'I might as well have
them,' I said sadly.
Lesson 20 One man in a
boat
独坐孤舟
Fishing is my favourite
sport. I often fish for hours without catching
anything. But this does
not
worry me. Some fishermen are unlucky. Instead of
catching fish, they catch old boots and
rubbish. I am even less
lucky. I never catch anything -- not even old
boots. After having spent
whole mornings on the river, I always
go home with an empty bag. 'You must give up
fishing!' my
friends say.
'It's a waste of time.' But they don't realize one
important
thing. I'm not
really
interested in
fishing. I am only interested in sitting in a boat
and doing nothing at all!
Lesson 21 Mad or not?
是不是疯了
Aeroplanes are slowly
driving me mad. I live near an airport and passing
planes can be heard
night
and day. The airport was built years ago, but for
some reason it could not be used then. Last
year, however, it came into
use. Over a hundred people must have been driven
away from their
homes by
the noise. I am one of the few people left.
Sometimes I think this house will be knocked
down by a passing plane. I
have been offered a large sum of money to go away,
but I am
determined to stay
here. Everybody says I must be mad and they are
probably right.
Lesson 22 A glass
envelope
玻璃信封
My daughter, Jane, never
dreamed of receiving a letter from a girl of her
own age in Holland.
Last
year, we were travelling across the Channel and
Jane put a piece of paper with her name and
address on it into a
bottle. She threw the bottle into the sea. She
never thought of it again, but ten
months later, she received a letter
from a girl in Holland. Both girls write to each
other regularly
now.
However, they have decided to use the post office.
Letters will cost a little more, but they
will certainly travel
faster.
Lesson
23 A new house
新居
I had a letter from my
sister yesterday. She lives in Nigeria. In her
letter, she said that she
would come to England next year. If she
comes, she will get a surprise. We are now living
in a
beautiful new house in the
country. Work on it had begun before my sister
left. The house was
completed five months ago. In my
letter, I told her that she could stay with us.
The house has
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新概念英语第二册
many
large rooms and there is a lovely garden. It is a
very modern house, so it looks strange to
some people. It must be the
only modern house in the district.
Lesson 24 If could be
worse
不幸中之万幸
I entered the hotel
manager's office and sat down. I had just lost $$50
and I felt very upset. 'I
left the money in my room,' I said,
'and it's not there now.' The manager was
sympathetic, but he
could
do nothing. 'Everyone's losing money these days,'
he said. He started to complain about this
wicked world but was
interrupted by a knock at the door. A girl came in
and put an envelope on
his
desk. It contained $$50. 'I found this outside this
gentleman's room,' she said. 'Well,' I said to the
manager, 'there is still
some honesty in this world!'
Lesson 25 Do the English
speak English?
英国人讲的是英语吗?
I arrived in
London at last. The railway station was big, black
and dark. I did not know the
way to my hotel, so I asked a porter. I
not only spoke English very carefully, but very
clearly as
well. The
porter, however, could not understand me. I
repeated my question several times and at
last he understood. he
answered me, but he spoke neither slowly nor
clearly. 'I am a foreigner,' I
said. Then he spoke slowly, but I could
not understand him. My teacher never spoke English
like
that! The porter and I
looked at each other and smiled. Then he said
something and I understood it.
'You'll soon learn English!' he said. I
wonder. In England, each person speaks a different
language.
The English
understand each other, but I don't understand
them! Do they speak English?
Lesson 26 The best art
critics
最佳艺术评论家
I am an art student and I
paint a lot of pictures. Many people pretend that
they understand
modern art.
They always tell you what a picture is 'about'. Of
course, many pictures are not 'about'
anything. They are just pretty
patterns. We like them in the same way that we
like pretty curtain
material. I think that young children
often appreciate modern pictures better than
anyone else.
They notice
more. My sister is only seven, but she always
tells me whether my pictures are good
or not. She came into my room
yesterday.
'What are you
doing?' she asked.
'I'm hanging this picture on the wall,'
I answered. 'It's a new one. Do you like it?'
She looked at it critically
for a moment. 'It's all right,' she said, 'but
isn't it upside down?'
I
looked at it again. She was right! It was!
Lesson 27 A wet
night
雨夜
Late in the afternoon, the
boys put up their tent in the middle of a field.
As soon as this was
done,
they cooked a meal over an open fire. They were
all hungry and the food smelled good.
After a wonderful meal, they told
stories and sang songs by the campfire. But some
time later it
began to
rain. The boys felt tired so they put out the fire
and crept into their tent. Their sleeping
bags were warm and
comfortable, so they all slept soundly. In the
middle of the night, two boys
woke up and began shouting. The tent
was full of water! They all leapt out of their
sleeping bags
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新概念英语第二册
and
hurried outside. It was raining heavily and they
found that a stream had formed in the field.
The stream wound its way
across the field and then flowed right under their
tent!
Lesson 28
No parking
禁止停车
Jasper White is one of
those rare people who believes in ancient myths.
he has just bought a
new
house in the city, but ever since he moved in, he
has had trouble with cars and their owners.
When he returns home at
night, he always finds that someone has parked a
car outside his gate.
Because of this, he has not been able
to get his own car into his garage even once.
Jasper has put
up 'No
Parking' signs outside his gate, but these have
not had any effect. Now he has put an ugly
stone head over the gate.
It is one of the ugliest faces I have ever seen. I
asked him what it was and
he told me that it was Medusa, the
Gorgon. jasper hopes that she will turn cars and
their owners to
stone. But
none of them has been turned to stone yet!
Lesson 29 Taxi!
出租汽车
Captain Ben Fawcett has bought an
unusual taxi and has begun a new service. The
'taxi' is a
small Swiss
aeroplane called a 'Pilatus Porter'. This
wonderful plane can carry seven passengers.
The most surprising thing
about it, however, is that it can land anywhere:
on snow, water, or even
on
a ploughed field. Captain Fawcett's first
passenger was a doctor who flew from Birmingham to
a lonely village in the
Welsh mountains. Since then, Captain Fawcett has
flown passengers to
many
unusual places. Once he landed on the roof of a
block of flats and on another occasion, he
landed in a deserted car
park. Captain Fawcett has just refused a
strange request from a
businessman. The man wanted
to fly to Rockall, a lonely island in the Atlantic
Ocean, but Captain
Fawcett
did not take him because the trip was too
dangerous.
Lesson 30 Football or polo?
足球还是水球?
The Wayle is a small river
that cuts across the park near my home. I like
sitting by the Wayle
on
fine afternoons. It was warm last Sunday, so I
went and sat on the river bank as usual. Some
children were playing games
on the bank and there were some people rowing on
the river.
Suddenly, one of
the children kicked a ball very hard and it went
towards a passing boat. Some
people on the bank called out to the
man in the boat, but he did not hear them. The
ball struck him
so hard
that he nearly fell into the water. I turned to
look at the children, but there weren't any in
sight: they had all run
away! The man laughed when he realized what had
happened. He called out
to
the children and threw the ball back to the bank.
Lesson 31
Success story
成功者的故事
Yesterday
afternoon Frank Hawkins was telling me about his
experiences as a young man.
Before he retired, Frank was the head
of a very large business company, but as a boy he
used to
work in a small
shop. It was his job to repair bicycles and at
that time he used to work fourteen
hours a day. He saved money for years
and in 1958 he bought a small workshop of his own.
In his
twenties Frank used
to make spare parts for aeroplanes. At that time
he had two helpers. In a few
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新概念英语第二册
years
the small workshop had become a large factory
which employed seven hundred and
twenty-eight people. Frank smiled when
he remembered his hard early years and the long
road to
success. He was
still smiling when the door opened and his wife
came in. She wanted him to
repair their grandson's bicycle!
Lesson 32
Shopping made easy
购物变得很方便
People are not
so honest as they once were. The temptation to
steal is greater than ever before
-- especially in large shops. A
detective recently watched a well-dressed woman
who always went
into a
large store on Monday mornings. One Monday, there
were fewer people in the shop than
usual when the woman came in, so it was
easier for the detective to watch her. The woman
first
bought a few small
articles. After a little time, she chose one of
the most expensive dresses in the
shop and handed it to an assistant who
wrapped it up for her as quickly as possible. Then
the
woman simply took the
parcel and walked out of the shop without paying.
When she was arrested,
the
detective found out that the shop assistant was
her daughter. The girl 'gave' her mother a free
dress once a week!
Lesson 33 Out
of the darkness
冲出黑暗
Nearly a week
passed before the girl was
able to explain what had happened to
her. One
afternoon she set
out from the coast in a small boat and was caught
in a storm. Towards evening,
the boat struck a rock and the girl
jumped into the sea. Then she swam to the shore
after spending
the whole
night in the water. During that time she covered a
distance of eight miles. Early next
morning, she saw a light ahead. She
knew she was near the shore because the light was
high up on
the cliffs. On
arriving at the shore, the girl struggled up the
cliff towards the light she had seen.
That was all she remembered. When she
woke up a day later, she found herself in
hospital.
Lesson 34 Quick work
破案“神速”
Dan Robinson has been
worried all week. Last Tuesday he received a
letter from the local
police. In the letter he was asked to
call at the station. Dan wondered why he was
wanted by the
police, but he went to
the station yesterday and now he is not worried
anymore. At the station, he
was told by a smiling policeman that
his bicycle had been found. Five days ago, the
policeman
told him, the
bicycle was picked up in a small village four
hundred miles away. It is now being
sent to his home by train. Dan was most
surprised when he heard the news. He was amused
too,
because he never
expected the bicycle to be found. It was stolen
twenty years ago when Dan was a
boy of fifteen!
Lesson 35 Stop thief!
捉贼!
Roy Trenton used to drive a taxi. A
short while ago, however, he became a bus driver
and he
has not regretted
it. He is finding his new work far more exciting.
When he was driving along
Catford Street recently, he saw two
thieves rush out of a shop and run towards a
waiting car. One
of them
was carrying a bag full of money. Roy acted
quickly and drove the bus straight at the
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新概念英语第二册
thieves.
The one with the money got such a fright that he
dropped the bag. As the thieves were
trying to get away in their car, Roy
drove his bus into the back of it. While the
battered car was
moving
away, Roy stopped his bus and telephoned the
police. The thieves' car was badly damaged
and easy to recognize.
Shortly afterwards, the police stopped the car and
both men were arrested.
Lesson 36 Across the
Channel
横渡海峡
Debbie Hart is going to
swim across the English Channel tomorrow. She is
going to set out
from the
French coast at five o'clock in the morning.
Debbie is only eleven years old and she
hopes to set up a new world
record. She is a strong swimmer and many people
feel that she is sure
to
succeed. Debbie's father will set out with her in
a small boat. Mr. Hart has trained his daughter
for years. Tomorrow he will
be watching her anxiously as she swims the long
distance to England.
Debbie
intends to take short rests every two hours. She
will have something to drink but she will
not
eat
any
solid
food.
Most
of
Debbie's
school
friends
will
be
waiting
for
her
on
the
English
coast.
Among
them will be Debbie's mother, who swam the Channel
herself when she was a girl.
Lesson 37 The Olympic
Games
奥林匹克运动会
The Olympic Games will be
held in our country in four years' time. As a
great many people
will be
visiting the country, the government will be
building new hotels, an immense stadium, and
a new Olympic-standard
swimming pool. They will also be building new
roads and a special
railway
line. The Games will be held just outside the
capital and the whole area will be called
'Olympic City'. Workers
will have completed the new roads by the end of
this year. By the end of
next year, they will have finished work
on the new stadium. The fantastic modern buildings
have
been designed by Kurt
Gunter. Everybody will be watching anxiously as
the new buildings go up.
We
are all very excited and are looking forward to
the Olympic Games because they have never
been held before in this
country.
Lesson
38 Everything except the
weather
唯独没有考虑到天气
My old friend, Harrison,
had lived in the Mediterranean for many years
before he returned to
England. He had often dreamed of
retiring in England and had planned to settle down
in the
country. He had no
sooner returned than he bought a house and went to
live there. Almost
immediately he began to complain about
the weather, for even though it was still summer,
it
rained continually and
it was often bitterly cold. After so many years of
sunshine, Harrison got a
shock. He acted as if he had never
lived in England before. In the end, it was more
than he could
bear. He had
hardly had time to settle down when he sold the
house and left the country. The
dream he had had for so many years
ended there. Harrison had thought of everything
except the
weather.
Lesson 39 Am I
all right?
我是否痊愈?
While John
Gilbert was in hospital, he asked his doctor to
tell him whether his operation had
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新概念英语第二册
been
successful, but the doctor refused to do so. The
following day, the patient asked for a bedside
telephone. When he was
alone, he telephoned the hospital exchange and
asked for Doctor
Millington. When the doctor answered
the phone, Mr. Gilbert said he was inquiring about
a certain
patient, a Mr.
John Gilbert. He asked if Mr. Gilbert's operation
had been successful and the doctor
told him that it had been. He then
asked when Mr. Gilbert would be allowed to go home
and the
doctor told him
that he would have to stay in hosptial for another
two weeks. Then Dr. Millington
asked the caller if he was a relative
of the patient. 'No,' the patient answered, 'I am
Mr. John
Gilbert.'
Lesson 40 Food
and talk
进餐与交谈
Last week at a dinner
party, the hostess asked me to sit next to Mrs.
Rumbold. Mrs. Rumbold
was a
large, unsmiling lady in a tight black dress. She
did not even look up when I took my seat
beside her. Her eyes were
fixed on her plate and in a short time, she was
busy eating. I tried to
make conversation.
'A new play is coming to
'No,' she answered.
'Will you be spending your holidays
abroad this year?' I asked.
'No,' she answered.
'Will you be staying in England?' I
asked.
'No,' she
answered.
In despair, I
asked her whether she was enjoying her dinner.
'Young man,' she answered,
'if you ate more and talked less, we would both
enjoy our
dinner!
Lesson 41 Do you call that a hat?
你把那个叫帽子吗?
'Do you call that a hat?' I
said to my wife.
'You needn't be so rude about it,' my
wife answered as she looked at herself in the
mirror.
I sat down on
one of those modern chairs with holes in it and
waited. We had been in the hat
shop for half an hour and my wife was
still in front of the mirror.
'We mustn't buy things we don't need,'
I remarked suddenly. I regretted saying it almost
at
once.
'You needn't have said that,' my wife
answered. 'I needn't remind you of that terrible
tie you
bought yesterday.'
'I find it beautiful,' I
said. 'A man can never have too many ties.'
'And a woman can't have too
many hats,' she answered.
Ten
minutes later we walked out of the shop together.
My wife was wearing a hat that looked
like a lighthouse!
Lesson 42 Not very musical
并非很懂音乐
As we had had a long walk
through one of the markets of old Delhi, we
stopped at a square to
have
a rest. After a time, we noticed a snake charmer
with two large baskets at the other side of the
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square,
so we went to have a look at him. As soon as he
saw us, he picked up a long pipe which
was covered with coins and opened one
of the baskets. When he began to play a tune, we
had our
first glimpse of
the snake. It rose out of the basket and began to
follow the movements of the pipe.
We were very much surprised when the
snake charmer suddenly began to play jazz and
modern
pop songs. The
snake, however, continued to 'dance' slowly. It
obviously could not tell the
difference between Indian music and
jazz!
Lesson 43
Over the South Pole
飞越南极
In 1929, three
years after his flight over the North Pole, the
American explorer, R.E. Byrd,
successfully flew over the South Pole
for the first time. Though, at first, Byrd and his
men were
able to take a
great many photographs of the mountains that lay
below, they soon ran into serious
trouble. At one point, it seemed
certain that their plane would crash. It could
only get over the
mountains
if it rose to 10,000 feet. Byrd at once ordered
his men to throw out two heavy food
sacks. The plane was then able to rise
and it cleared the mountains by 400 feet. Byrd now
knew
that he would be able
to reach the South Pole which was 300 miles away,
for there were no more
mountains in sight. The aircraft was
able to fly over the endless white plains without
difficulty.
Lesson 44 Through the forest
穿过森林
Mrs. Anne Sterling did not think of the
risk she was taking when she ran through a forest
after two men. They had
rushed up to her while she was having a picnic at
the edge of a forest
with
her children and tried to steal her handbag. In
the struggle, the strap broke and, with the bag
in their possession, both
men started running through the trees. Mrs.
Sterling got so angry that she
ran after them. She was soon out of
breath, but she continued to run. When she caught
up with
them, she saw that
they had sat down and were going through the
contents of the bag, so she ran
straight at them. The men got such a
fright that they dropped the bag and ran away.
'The strap
needs mending,'
said Mrs. Sterling later, 'but they did not steal
anything.'
Lesson 45 A clear
conscience
问心无愧
The whole village soon
learnt that a large sum of money had been lost.
Sam Benton, the local
butcher, had lost his wallet while
taking his savings to the post office. Sam was
sure that the wallet
must
have been found by one of the villagers, but it
was not returned to him. Three months passed,
and then one morning, Sam
found his wallet outside his front door. It had
been wrapped up in
newspaper and it contained half the
money he had lost, together with a note which
said: 'A thief,
yes, but
only 50 per cent a thief!' Two months later, some
more money was sent to Sam with
another note: 'Only 25 per cent a thief
now!' In time, all Sam's money was paid back in
this way.
The last note
said: 'I am 100 per cent honest now!'
Lesson 46 Expensive and
uncomfortable
既昂贵又受罪
When a plane
from London arrived at Sydney airport, workers
began to unload a number of
wooden boxes which contained clothing.
No one could account for the fact that one of the
boxes
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新概念英语第二册
was
extremely heavy. It suddenly occurred to one of
the workers to open up the box. He was
astonished at what he found. A man was
lying in the box on top of a pile of woolen goods.
He was
so surprised at
being discovered that he did not even try to run
away. After he was arrested, the
man admitted hiding in the box before
the plane left London. He had had a long and
uncomfortable trip, for he
had been confined to the wooden box for over
eighteen hours. The man
was
ordered to pay $$3,500 for the cost of the trip.
The normal price of a ticket is $$2,000!
Lesson 47 A
thirsty ghost
嗜酒的鬼魂
A public house
which was recently bought by Thompson is up for
sale. on
is going to sell
it because it is haunted. He told me that he could
not go to sleep one night because
he heard a strange noise coming from
the bar. The next morning, he found that the doors
had been
blocked by chairs
and the furniture had been moved. Though on had
turned the lights
off
before he went to bed, they were on in the
morning. He also said that he had found five empty
whisky bottles which the
ghost must have drunk the night before. When I
suggested that some
villagers must have come in for a free
drink, on shook his head. The villagers have
told him that they will not
accept the pub even if he gives it away.
Lesson 48 Did
you want to tell me something?
你想对我说什么吗?
Dentists always
ask questions when it is impossible for you to
answer. My dentist had just
pulled out one of my teeth and had told
me to rest for a while. I tried to say something,
but my
mouth was full of
cotton wool. He knew I collected match boxes and
asked me whether my
collection was growing. He then asked
me how my brother was and whether I liked my new
job in
London. In answer to
these questions I either nodded or made strange
noises. Meanwhile, my
tongue was busy searching out the hole
where the tooth had been. I suddenly felt very
worried, but
could not say
anything. When the dentist at last removed the
cotton wool from my mouth, I was
able to tell him that he had pulled out
the wrong tooth.
Lesson 49 The end of a
dream
美梦告终
Tired of sleeping on the
floor, a young man in Teheran saved up for years
to buy a real bed.
For the
first time in his life, he became the proud owner
of a bed which had springs and a mattress.
Because the weather was very hot, he
carried the bed on to the roof of his house. He
slept very
well for the
first two nights, but on the third night, a storm
blew up. A gust of wind swept the bed
off the roof and sent it crashing into
the courtyard below. The young man did not wake up
until the
bed had struck
the ground. Although the bed was smashed to
pieces, the man was miraculously
unhurt. When he woke up, he was still
on the mattress. Glancing at the bits of wood and
metal that
lay around him,
the man sadly picked up the mattress and carried
it into his house. After he had
put it on the floor, he promptly went
to sleep again.
Lesson 50 Taken for a
ride
乘车兜风
I love travelling in the
country, but I don't like losing my way.
I went on an excursion
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新概念英语第二册
recently, but my trip took me longer
than I expected.
'I'm going to Woodford
Green,' I said to the conductor as I got on the
bus, 'but I don't know
where it is.'
'I'll tell you where to get
off.' answered the conductor.
I sat in the
front of the bus to get a good view of the
countryside. After some time, the bus
stopped. Looking round, I realized with
a shock that I was the only passenger left on the
bus.
'You'll have to get off here,' the
conductor said. 'This is as far as we go.'
'Is
this Woodford Green?' I asked.
'Oh dear,' said
the conductor suddenly. 'I forgot to put you off.'
'It
doesn't matter,' I said. 'I'll get off here.'
'We're going back now,' said the
conductor.
'Well, in that case, I prefer to stay
on the bus,' I answered.
Lesson 51 Reward for
virtue
对美德的奖赏
My friend, Hugh, has always
been fat, but things got so bad recently that he
decided to go on
a diet. He
began his diet a week ago. First of all, he wrote
out a long list of all the foods which
were forbidden. The list included most
of the things Hugh loves: butter, potatoes, rice,
beer, milk,
chocolate; and
sweets. Yesterday I paid him a visit. I rang the
bell and was not surprised to see that
Hugh was still as fat as ever. He led
me into his room and hurriedly hid a large parcel
under his
desk. It was
obvious that he was very embarrassed. When I asked
him what he was doing, he
smiled guiltily and then put the parcel
on the desk. He explained that his diet was so
strict that he
had to
reward himself occasionally. Then he showed me the
contents of the parcel. It contained
five large bars of chocolate and three
bags of sweets!
Lesson 52 A pretty
carpet
漂亮的地毯
We have just moved into a
new house and I have been working hard all
morning. I have been
trying
to get my new room in order. This has not been
easy because I own over a thousand books.
To make matters worse, the
room is rather small, so I have temporarily put my
books on the floor.
At the
moment, they cover every inch of floor space and I
actually have to walk on them to get in
or out of the room. A short
while ago, my sister helped me to carry one of my
old bookcases up
the
stairs. She went into my room and got a big
surprise when she saw all those books on the
floor.
'This is the
prettiest carpet I have ever seen,' she said. She
gazed at it for some time then added,
'You don't need bookcases at all. You
can sit here in your spare time and read the
carpet!'
Lesson
53 Hot snake
触电的蛇
At last firemen have put
out a big forest fire in California. Since then,
they have been trying
to
find out how the fire began. Forest fires are
often caused by broken glass or by cigarette ends
which people carelessly
throw away. Yesterday the firemen examined the
ground carefully, but
were not able to find any
broken glass. They were also quite sure that a
cigarette end did not start
the fire. This morning, however, a
firemen accidentally discovered the cause. He
noticed the
remains of a
snake which was wound round the electric wires of
a 16,000-volt power line. In this
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