-
Lesson1
A
puma at
large
Pumas are large, cat-
like animals which are found in America. When
reports
came into London Zoo that a
wild puma had been spotted forty-five miles south
of
London,
they
were
not
taken
seriously.
However,
as
the
evidence
began
to
accumulate, experts from the Zoo felt
obliged to investigate, for the descriptions
given by people who claimed to have
seen the puma were extraordinarily similar.
The
hunt
for
the
puma
began
in
a
small
village
where
a
woman
picking
blackberries saw 'a
large cat' only five yards away from her. It
immediately ran
away when she saw it,
and experts confirmed that a puma will not attack
a human
being unless it is cornered
（
adj.
被困得走投无路的）
. The search proved difficult, for the
puma was often observed at one place in
the morning and at another place twenty
miles away in the evening. Wherever it
went, it left behind it a trail of dead deer and
small animals like rabbits. Paw prints
were seen in a number of places and puma fur
was found clinging to bushes. Several
people complained of 'cat-like noises' at night
and a businessman on a fishing trip saw
the puma up a tree. The experts were now
fully convinced that the animal was a
puma, but where had it come from ? As no
pumas had been reported missing from
any zoo in the country, this one must have
been in the possession of a private
collector and somehow managed to escape. The
hunt went on for several weeks, but the
puma was not caught. It is disturbing to
think that a dangerous wild animal is
still at large in the quiet countryside.
美洲狮是一种体形似猫的大动物，产于美洲。当伦敦动物园接
到报告说，在伦敦以南
45
英里
处发现
一只美洲狮时，这些报告并没有受到重视。
可是，
随着证据越来
越多，
动物园的专家们感
到有必要进行一番调查，因为凡是声称
见到过美洲狮的人们所描述的情况竟是出奇地相似。
搜寻美洲
狮的工作是从一座小村庄开始的。那里的一位妇女在采摘黑莓时的看见
“
一只大
猫
”
，离她仅
5
码远，她刚看见它，它就立刻逃走了。专家证实，美洲狮非被逼得走投
无路，是
决不会伤人的。事实上搜寻工作很困难，因为常常是早晨在甲地发现那只美洲狮
，晚上却在
20
英里外的乙地发现它的踪迹。无论它走哪儿，一
路上总会留下一串死鹿及死兔子之类的小动物，
在许多地方看见爪印，灌木丛中发现了粘
在上面的美洲狮毛。有人抱怨说夜里听见
“
像猫一样的
叫声
”
；一位商人去钓鱼，看见那只美洲狮在树
上。专家们如今已经完全肯定那只动物就是美洲
狮，
但它是从哪
儿来的呢？由于全国动物园没有一家报告丢了美洲狮，
因此那只美洲狮一定是某
位私人收藏豢养的，
不知怎么设法逃出来了。
搜
寻工作进行了好几个星期，
但始终未能逮住那只
美洲狮。想到在
宁静的乡村里有一头危险的野兽继续逍遥流窜，真令人担心。
Lesson 2
Thirteen equals
one
Our vicar is always
raising money for one cause or another, but he has
never
managed to get enough money to
have the church clock repaired. The big clock
which used to strike the hours day and
night was damaged many years ago and has
been silent ever since.
'
One night, however, our vicar woke up with a
start: the clock was striking the
hours! Looking at his watch, he
saw that it was
one o'clock,
but the
bell struck
thirteen
times before it stopped. Armed with a torch, the
vicar went up into the clock
tower to
see what was going on. In the torchlight, he
caught sight of a figure whom
he
immediately
recognized
as
Bill
Wilkins,
our
local
grocer.
'Whatever
are
you
doing up here Bill ?' asked the vicar
in surprise.
' I'm trying
to repair the bell,' answered Bill.' I've been
coming up here night after
night for
weeks now. You see, I was hoping to give you a
surprise.'
'You certainly did give me a
surprise!' said the vicar. 'You've probably woken
up
everyone in the village as well.
Still, I'm glad the bell is working again.'
'That's the trouble,
vicar,' answered Bill. 'It's working all right,
but I'm afraid that at
one o'clock it
will strike thirteen times and there's nothing I
can do about it.'
'We'll
get used to that Bill,' said the vicar. 'Thirteen
is not as good as one but it's
better
than nothing. Now let's go downstairs and have a
cup of tea.'
我们
教区的牧师总是为各种各样的事筹集资金。但始终未能筹足资金把教堂的钟修好。教堂的
钟很大，以前不分昼夜打点报时，但很多年前遭到毁坏，从此便无声无息了。
一天夜里，我们的牧师突然被惊醒了，大钟又在
“
< br>打点
”
报时了！他一看表，才
1
点钟，可
是那钟一边敲了
13
下才停。牧师拿着一支电筒走上钟楼想去看看究竟发生了什么事情。
借着
电
筒光。他看见一个人，马上认出那是本地杂货店主经比尔
.<
/p>
威尔金斯。
“
你究竟
在这上面干什么，比尔？
”
牧师惊讶地问。
“
我想把这口钟修好，
”
比尔回答说。
“
好几个星期了，我天天夜里到钟楼上
来。嗯，我是想
让你大吃一惊。
”
“
你确实使我大吃了一惊！
”
牧师说，
“
也许同时你把村里所有的人都吵醒了。不
过，钟又能
报时了，我还是很高兴的。
”
“
问题就在这里，牧师，
”
比尔回答说。
“
不错，钟能报时了，但是，恐怕每
到
1
点钟，它总
要敲
< br>13
下，对此我已无能为力了。
”
“
大家慢慢就习惯了，比尔，
”
牧师说。
“13
下是不如
1
下好，但总比
1
下也不敲强。来
，
咱们下楼去喝杯茶吧。
”
Lesson 3 An
unknown goddess
Some time
ago
，
an interesting discovery
was made by archaeologists on the
Aegea
n
（
adj.
爱琴海的；
n.
）
island of
Kea
．
An American team
explored a temple which
stands in an
ancient city on the promontory of Ayia
Irini
．
The city at one time
must
have been
prosperous
，
for it enjoyed a
high level of
civilization
．
Houses--often
three
storeys high--were built of
stone
．
They had large rooms
with beautifully decorated
walls
．
The city
was even equipped with a drainage
system
，
for a great many clay
pipes were found beneath the narrow
streets
．
The
temple which the archaeologists explored was used
as a place of worship
from the
fifteenth century B.C. until Roman times. In the
most sacred room of the
temple, clay
fragments of fifteen statues were found. Each of
these represented
a
goddess
and had, at one time, been painted. The body of
one statue was found
among remains
dating from the fifteenth century B.C. Its missing
head happened to
be
among
remains
of
the
fifth
century
B.C.
This
head
must
have
been
found
in
Classical times and carefully
preserved. It was very old and precious even then.
When the archaeologists reconstructed
the fragments, they were amazed to find
that the goddess turned out to be a
very modern-looking woman. She stood three
feet high and her hands rested on her
hip. She was wearing a full-length skirt which
swept the ground. Despite her great
age, she was very graceful indeed, but, so far,
the archaeologists have been unable to
discover her identity.
不久之前，在爱琴海的基亚岛上，考
古工作者有一项有趣的发现。一个美国考古队在阿伊
亚
.
依里尼海角的一座古城里考察了一座庙宇。这座古城肯定一度很繁荣，因为它曾享有高度的
文明，房子一般有
3
层楼高，用石块修建。
里面房间很大，墙壁装饰华丽。城里甚至还敷设了
排水系统，因为在狭窄的街道底下发现
了许许多多陶土制作的排水管道。
考古工作者考察的这座庙宇从公元
前
15
世纪直到罗马时代一直是祭祀祈祷的场所。
在
庙中最神圣的一间殿堂里发现了
15
尊陶雕像的碎片。每一尊雕像代表一位女神，而且一度上过
色。其中有一尊雕
像，她的躯体是在公元前
15
世纪的历史文物中发现的，而她那
身异处的脑袋
却碰巧是在公元前
5
世纪
的文物中找到的。她的脑袋一定是在古希腊罗马时代就为人所发现，
并受到精心的保护。
却使在当时，
它也属历史悠久的珍奇之物。
考古工作者把这些碎片重新拼装
起来后，惊奇地发现那位女神原来是一位相貌十分摩
登的女郎。她身高
3
英尺，双手叉腰。身
穿一条拖地长裙，尽管上了年纪，但体态确实优美。
不过，
考
古工作者至今未能确定这位女神的
身份。
Lesson4 The double life of
Alfred Bloggs
These days,
people who do manual work often receive far more
money than
clerks who work in offices.
People who work in offices are frequently referred
to as'
white collar workers' for the
simple reason that they usually wear a collar and
tie to
go to work. Such is human
nature, that a great many people are often willing
to
sacrifice higher pay for the
privilege of becoming white collar workers. This
can give
rise to curious situations, as
it did in the case of Alfred Bloggs who worked as
a
dustman for the Ellesmere
Corporation.
When he got married,
Alf was too
embarrassed to
say anything to his wife
about his job. He simply told her that
he worked for the Corporation. Every morning,
he left home dressed in a smart black
suit. He then changed into overalls
(n.
工作服
)
and spent
the next eight hours as a dustman. Before
returning home at night, he
took a
shower and changed back into his suit.
Alf did this for over two years and his
fellow dustmen kept his secret. Alf's
wife has never discovered that she married a
dustman and she
never will,
for Alf has just found another job. He will soon
be
working in an office as a junior
clerk. He will be earning only half as much as he
used
to, but he feels that his rise in
status is well worth the loss of money. From now
on,
he will wear a suit all day and
others will call him 'Mr. Bloggs', not 'Alf'.
如今，从事体力劳动的人的收入一般要比坐办公室的人高出许
多。坐办公室的之所以常常被称
作
“
白
领工人
”
，
就是因为他们通常是穿着硬
领白衬衫，系着领带去上班。
许多人常常情愿放弃较
高的薪水以
换取做白领工人的殊荣，
此乃人之常情。
而这常常会引起种种奇
怪的现象，
在埃尔斯
米尔公司当清洁工的艾尔弗雷德
.
布洛斯就是一个例子。
艾尔弗结婚时，
感到非常难为情，
而没有将
自己的职业告诉妻子。
他只说在埃尔斯米尔公司
上班。每天早晨
，他穿上一身漂亮的黑色西装离家上班，然后换上工作服，当
8
个小时清洁工。
晚上回家前，他洗个淋浴，重新换上那身黑色西服。两年多以来，艾尔弗
一直这样，他的同事也
为他保守秘密。
艾尔弗的妻子一直不知道
她嫁给了一个清洁工，
而且她永远也不会知道了，
因为
艾尔弗已找到薪职，
不久就要坐办公室里工作了。
他将来挣的钱只有他现在的一半。
不过他觉得，
地位升高了，
损失点儿钱也值得。从此，艾尔弗可以一天到晚穿西服了。别人将称呼他为
“
布洛
格斯先生
”
，而不再
叫他
“
艾尔弗
”
了。
Lesson 5 The
facts
Editors
of
newspapers
and
magazines
often
go
to
extremes
to
provide
their
readers
with
unimportant
facts
and
statistics.
Last
year
a
journalist
had
been
instructed by a well-
known magazine to write an article on the
president's palace in
a new African
republic. When the article arrived, the editor
read the first sentence
and then
refused to publish it. The article began:
'Hundreds of steps lead to the high
wall which surrounds the president's
palace.' The editor at once
sent the
journalist a fax instructing him to find out the
exact number of steps and
the height of
the wall.
The journalist
immediately set out to obtain these important
facts, but he took
a
long
time
to
send
them.
Meanwhile,
the
editor
was
getting
impatient,
for
the
magazine
would soon go to press. He sent the journalist two
urgent telegrams, but
received no
reply. He sent yet another telegram informing the
journalist that if he
did not reply
soon he would be fired. When the journalist again
failed to reply, the
editor reluctantly
published the article as it had originally been
written. A week later,
the editor at
last received a telegram from the journalist. Not
only had the poor man
been arrested,
but he had been sent to prison as well. However,
he had at last been
allowed to send a
cable in which he informed the editor that he had
been arrested
while counting the 1084
steps leading to the
15-foot wall which
surrounded the
president's
palace.
报刊杂志的编辑常常为了向读者提供成立一
些关紧要的事实和统计数字而走向极端。去年，一
位记者受一家有名的杂志的委托写一篇
关于非洲某个新成立共和国总统府的文章。稿子寄来后，
编辑看第一句话就拒绝予以发表
。文章的开头是这样的：
“
几百级台阶通向环绕总统的高墙。<
/p>
”
编辑立即给那位记者发去传真，要求他核实一下台阶的确切数字
和围墙的高度。
记者立即出发去核实这些重要的事
实，
但过了好长时间不见他把数字寄来，
在此期间，
编辑
等得不耐烦了，因为杂志马上要付印。
他给记
者先后发去两份传真，但对方毫无反应。
于是他又
发了一份传真
，
通知那位记者说，
若再不迅速答复，
将被解雇。
但记者还是没有回复。
编辑无奈，
< br>勉强按原样发稿了。一周之后，编辑终于接到记者的传真。
那个可怜的记者不仅被
捕了，而且还
被送进了监狱。不过，他终于获准发回了一份传真。在传真中他告诉编辑，
就在他数通向
15
英
尺高的总统府围墙
的
1
，
084
级台阶时，被抓了起来。
Lesson 6
Smash-and-
grab
The expensive shops in
a famous arcade near Piccadilly were just opening.
At
this time of the morning, the arcade
was almost empty. Mr Taylor, the owner of a
jewellery shop was admiring a new
window display. Two of his assistants had been
working busily since 8 o'clock and had
only just finished. Diamond necklaces and
rings had been beautifully arranged on
a background of black velvet. After gazing at
the display for several minutes, Mr
Taylor went back into his shop.
The
silence was suddenly broken when a large car, with
its headlights on and
its horn blaring,
roared down the arcade. It came to a stop outside
the jeweler's.
One man stayed at the
wheel while two others with black stockings over
their faces
jumped out and smashed the
window of the shop with iron bars. While this was
going on, Mr Taylor was upstairs. He
and his staff began throwing furniture out of
the window. Chairs and tables went
flying into the arcade. One of the thieves was
struck by a heavy statue, but he was
too busy helping himself to diamonds to notice
any pain. The raid was all over in
three minutes, for the men scrambled back into
the car and it moved off at a fantastic
speed. Just as it was leaving, Mr Taylor rushed
out and ran after it throwing ashtrays
and vases, but it was impossible to stop the
thieves. They had got away with
thousands of pounds worth of diamonds.
皮卡迪利大街附近的一条著名拱廊街道上，几家高档商店刚刚
开始营业。在早晨的这个时候，
拱廊街上几乎空无一人。珠宝店主泰勒先生正在欣赏新布
置的橱窗。他手下两名店员从早上
8
点就开始忙碌，这时刚刚布
置完毕。钻石项链、戒指漂亮地陈列在黑色丝绒上面。泰勒先生站在
橱窗外凝神欣赏了几
分钟就回到了店里。
宁静突然被打破，一辆大轿车亮着
前灯，响着喇叭，呼啸着冲进了拱廊街，
在珠宝店门口停
了下来
。
一人留在驾驶座上，
另外两个用黑色长筒丝袜蒙面的人跳下车
来。
他们用铁棒把商店橱
窗的玻璃砸碎。这开始发生时，泰勒先
生正在楼上。他与店员动手向窗外投掷家具，椅子，桌子
飞落花流水在拱廊街上。
一个窃贼被一尊很重的雕像击中，
但由于他忙着抢钻石首饰，
竟连疼痛
都顾不上了。这场抢劫只持续了
3
分钟，因为窃贼争先恐后地爬上轿车，以惊人的速度开跑了。
就在轿
车离开的时候，
泰勒先生从店里冲了出来，
跟在车后追赶，
一边还往车上扔烟灰缸、
花瓶。
但他已无法
抓住那些窃贼了。他们已带着价值数千镑的首饰逃之夭夭了。
Lesson 7 Mutilated ladies
Children often have
far more
sense than their elders. This simple
truth was
demonstrated rather
dramatically during a civil defence exercise in a
small town in
Canada. Most of the
inhabitants were asked to take part in the
exercise during which
they
had
to
pretend
that
their
city
had
been
bombed.
Air-raid
warnings
were
sounded and thousands
of people went into special air-raid shelters.
Doctors and
nurses remained above
ground while Police patrolled the streets in case
anyone
tried to leave the shelters too
soon.
The
police
did
not
have
much
to
do
because
the
citizens
took
the
exercise
seriously. They
stayed underground for twenty minutes and waited
for the siren to
sound again. On
leaving the air-raid shelters, they saw that
doctors and nurses were
busy. A great
many people had volunteered to act as casualties.
Theatrical make-up
and artificial blood
had been used to make the injuries look realistic.
A lot of People
were lying 'dead' in
the streets. The living helped to carry the dead
and wounded to
special stations. A
Child of six was brought in by two adults. The
child was supposed
to be dead. With
theatrical make-up on his face, he looked as if he
had died of shock.
Some people were so
moved by the sight that they began to cry.
However, the child
suddenly sat up and
a doctor asked him to comment on his death. The
child looked
around for a moment and
said, 'I think they're all crazy!'
这种事情在你身上出现过吗？你有没有把裤子塞洗衣机，然后
又想在裤子的后兜有一张大面值
的纸币？当你把裤子抢救出来时，
你有没有发现那张纸币已经变得比白纸还白？当英国人犯这种
错误时，他们不必感到绝
望（而许多国家的人都有这种绝望的感觉）。对英国人来说，值得庆幸
的是英国银行有一
个残钞鉴别组，
负责理那些把钱塞进机器或塞给狗的人提出的索赔要求。
看起
来，狗很喜欢咀嚼钱币。
最近的一个案例与简
.
巴特林有关，她的未
婚夫约翰拥有一家生意兴隆家具店。有一天约翰
的生意很好，他把一只装有
3,000
英镑的钱包放进微波炉内保存。然后，他和简一起去骑马。
回家后，
简用微波炉煮了晚饭，
无意中之中
把她未婚夫的钱包也一起煮了。
可以想像他们发现一
只煮得很好
看的钱包，
钞票已化成灰时的沮丧心情。
约翰去找银行经理，<
/p>
经理把约翰的钱包和纸
币的残留物送到英国银行在纽卡斯尔的一个
专门部门
——
残钞鉴别组。他们鉴定了这些残留物。
约翰拿回了他损失的全部数额。
“
只要有东西可供
识别，我们会把钱还给人家的，
”
银行的一位女
发言人说。
“
去年，我们对
2
1
，
000
起索赔要求支付了
150
万英镑。
”
Lesson8
A famous monastery
The Great St Bernard Pass connects
Switzerland to Italy. At 2470 metres, it is
the highest mountain pass in Europe.
The famous monastery of St Bernard, which
was founded in the eleventh century,
lies about a mile away. For hundreds of years,
St Bernard dogs have saved the lives of
travellers crossing the dangerous Pass.
These friendly dogs, which were first
brought from Asia, were used as watch-dogs
even in Roman times. Now that a tunnel
has been built through the mountains, the
Pass is less dangerous, but each
year, the dogs are still sent out into
the snow
whenever a traveller is in
difficulty. Despite the new tunnel, there are
still a few
people who rashly
attempt to cross the Pass on foot.
During the summer months,
the monastery is very busy, for it is visited by
thousands of people who cross the Pass
in cars, As there are so many people about,
the
dogs
have
to
be
kept
in
a
special
enclosure.
In
winter,
however,
life
at
the
monastery is quite different. The
temperature drops to
-30 and very few
people
attempt to cross the Pass. The
monks Prefer winter to summer for they have more
privacy. The dogs have greater freedom,
too, for they are allowed to wander outside
their enclosure. The only regular
visitors to the monastery in winter are parties of
skiers who go there at Christmas and
Easter. These young people, who love the
peace of the mountains, always receive
a warm.
Welcome at St Bernard's
monastery.
圣伯纳德
大山口连接着瑞士与意大利，海拔
2,473O
米，是欧洲最高
的山口。
11
世纪建造的
著名的圣伯纳
德修道院位于离山口
1
英里远的地方。几百年来，圣伯纳德修道
院驯养狗拯救了
许多翻越这道山口的旅游者的生命。
那些最先从
亚洲引进的狗，
待人友好，
早在罗马时代就给人
当看门狗了。
如今由于山里开挖了隧道，
翻越山口已不
那么危险了。
但每年还要派狗到雪山地里
去帮助那些遇到困难的
旅游者，尽管修通了隧道，但仍有一些人想冒险徒步跨越圣伯纳德山口。
夏天的几个月里，
修道院十分忙碌，
因为有
成千上万的人驾车通过山口，
顺道来修道院参观。
由于来人太多
，狗被关在专门的围栏里。然而到了冬天，
修道院里的生活则是另一番景象。
气温
下降到零下
30
度，
试图跨越山口的人寥寥无几。修道士们喜欢冬天，而不太喜欢夏天。因为在
冬天，他们可
以更多地过无人打扰的生活。狗也比较自由，被放出围栏，四处遛达。冬天常来修
道院参
观的只有一批批滑雪者。
他们在圣诞节或复活节到那儿去。
这些
热爱高山清静环境的年轻
人每年都受到圣伯纳德道院的热烈欢迎。
Lesson9
Flying cats
飞猫
Cats
never
fail
to
fascinate
human
beings.
They
can
be
friendly
and
affectionate towards humans, but they
lead mysterious lives of their own
as
well. They never become submissive like dogs and
horses. As a result,
humans
have
learned
to
respect
feline
independence.
Most
cats
remain
suspicious of humans all their lives.
One of the things that fascinates us
most about cats is the popular belief
that they have nine lives. Apparently,
they is a good deal of truth in this
idea. A cat’s ability to survive falls is
based on fact.
Recently the
New York Animal Medical Centre made a study of 132
cats over a
period of five months. All
these cats had one experience in common: they had
fallen
off high buildings, yet only
eight of them died from shock or injuries. Of
course, New
Yorkis the ideal place for
such an interesting study, because there is no
shortage of
tall buildings. There are
plenty of high-rise windowsills to fall from! One
cat, Sabrina,
fell 32 storeys, yet only
suffered from a broken tooth. ? Cats behave like
well
-trained
paratroopers,?
a doctor
said. It seems that the
further cats fall, the less they are
likely to injure themselves. In a long
drop, they reach speeds of 60 miles an hour
and more. At high speeds, falling cats
have time to relax. They stretch out their legs
like
flying
squirrel.
This
increases
their
air-resistance
and
reduces
the
shock
of
impact when they hit the
ground.
猫总能引起人们
的极大兴趣。它们可以对人友好，充满柔情。但是，它们又有自己神秘的
生活方式。
它们从不像狗和马一样变得那么顺从。
结果是人们已经学会尊重猫的
独立性。
在它们
的一生中，
大多数猫都
对人存有戒心。
最使我们感兴趣的一件事情就是一种通俗的信念
——
猫有
九条命。
显然，
这种说法里面包含着许多真实性。
猫在跌落时能够大难不死是有事实作为依据
的。
最近，纽约动物医疗中心对
132<
/p>
只猫进行了为期
5
个月的综合研究。所有
这些猫有一个共
同的经历：它们都曾从高层建筑上摔下来过，但只有其中的
8
只猫死于震荡或跌伤。当然，纽
约是进行这种有趣
的试验的一个理想的地方，
因为那里根本不缺乏高楼大厦，
有的
是高层的窗槛
从上往下坠落。有一只叫萨伯瑞的猫从
32
层楼上掉下来，但只摔断一颗牙。
“
猫就像训
练有素
的跳伞队员，
”
一位医生说。
看起来，猫跌落的距离越长，它们就越不会伤害自己。在一个长长
的跌落过程中，
它们可以达到每小时
60
里甚至更快的速度。
在高速下落中，
猫有时间放松自己。
它
们伸展四肢，
就像飞行中的松鼠一样。
这样就加大了空气阻力，
并减少了它们着地时冲击力带
来的震动。
Lesson10 The loss of
Titanic
The great ship,
Titanic, sailed for New York from Southampton on
April 10th,
1912.
She
was
carrying
1316
passengers
and
a
crew
of
89l.
Even
by
modern
standards, the 46,000 ton Titanic was a
colossal ship. At that time, however, she
was
not
only
the
largest
ship
that
had
ever
been
built,
but
was
regarded
as
unsinkable, for she had sixteen water-
tight compartments. Even if two of these
were flooded, she would still be able
to float. The tragic sinking of this great liner
will
always be remembered, for she went
down on her first voyage with heavy loss of
life.
Four days after
setting out, while the Titanic was sailing across
the icy waters of
the North Atlantic, a
huge iceberg was suddenly spotted by a look-out.
After the
alarm had been given, the
great ship turned sharply to avoid a direct
collision. The
Titanic turned just in
time, narrowly missing the immense wall of ice
which rose over
100 feet out of the
water beside her. Suddenly, there was a slight
trembling sound
from below, and the
captain went down to see what had happened. The
noise had
been
so
faint
that
no
one
thought
that
the
ship
had
been
damaged.
Below,
the
captain realized to his horror that the
Titanic was sinking rapidly, for five of her
sixteen water-
tight
compartments had already been flooded ! The order
to abandon ship was given
and
hundreds
of
people
plunged
into
the
icy
water.
As
there
were
not
enough
life-boats for everybody, 1500 lives
were lost.
巨轮
“
泰坦尼克
”
号<
/p>
1912
年
4
月
10
日从南安普敦起锚驶向纽约。
船上
载有
1,316
名乘客与
891
名船员。却使用现代标准来衡量，
45,000
吨的
“
泰坦尼克
”
号与算得上一艘巨轮了。当时，这艘
轮船不仅是造船史上建造的最大的一艘船，
而且也被认为是不会沉没的。
因为船由
16
个密封舱
组成，
即使有两个舱进水，
仍可漂浮的水面上。
然而，
这艘巨轮首航就下沉，
造成大批人员死亡。
人们将永远记着这艘巨轮的沉没惨剧。
“
泰坦尼克
”
起航后的第
4
天，它正行驶在北大西
洋冰冷的海面上。突然，了望员发现一座
冰山。警报响过不久，巨轮急转弯，以避免与冰
山正面相撞。
“
泰坦尼克
”
这个弯拐得及时，紧贴
着高出海面
100
英尺的巨大的冰墙擦过去。突然，从船舱下部传来一声微颤音，船长走下船舱
去查看究竟。由于这个声音非常轻，没人会想到船身已遭损坏。在下面，船长惊恐的地发现
< br>“
泰
坦尼克
”
< br>号正在急速下沉，
16
个密封舱已有
5
个进水。于是，他发出弃船的命令，几百人跳进
了冰冷刺
骨的海水里。由于没有足够的救生艇运载所有乘客，结果，
1,500
人丧生。
Lesson11 Not guilty
Going through the Customs is a tiresome
business. The strangest thing about it is
that really honest people are often
made to feel guilty. The hardened professional
smuggler, on the other hand, is never
troubled by such feelings, even if he has five
hundred gold watches hidden in his
suitcase. When I returned from abroad recently,
a particularly officious young Customs
Officer clearly regarded me as a smuggler.
'Have you anything to declare?' he
asked, looking me in the eye.
'No,' I answered confidently.
'Would you mind unlocking this suitcase
please ?'
'Not at all,' I answered.
The Officer went through
the case with great care. All the things I had
packed so
carefully were soon in a
dreadful mess. I felt sure I would never be able
to close the
case again. Suddenly, I
saw the Officer's face light up. He had spotted a
tiny bottle
at the bottom of my case
and he pounced on it with delight.
'Perfume, eh?' he asked sarcastically.
'You should have declared that.' Perfume is
not exempt from import duty.'
'But it isn't perfume,' I said.' It's
hair-oil.' Then I added with a smile,' It's a
strange
mixture I make myself.' As I
expected, he did not believe me.
'Try
it!' I said encouragingly.
The Officer
unscrewed the cap and put the bottle to his
nostrils. He was greeted by
an
unpleasant smell which convinced him that I was
telling the truth. A few minutes
later,
I was able to hurry away with precious chalk-marks
on my baggage.
现在的海关官员往往相当宽容。但是，当你通过绿色通道，没有任何东西需要申报时，他们仍
可以拦住你。
甚至是最诚实的人也常弄得觉得有罪似的，
而
老练的职业走私犯却使手提箱里藏着
500
只金表，却也处之泰
然。最近一次，我也出国归来，碰上一位特别好管闲事的年轻海关官
员，他显然把我当成
走私犯。
“
您有什
么需要申报的吗？
”
他直盯着我的眼睛问。
“
没有。
”
我
自信地回答说。
“
请打开
这只手提箱好吗？
”
“
好的。
”
我回答说。
那位官员十分仔细地把箱子检查了一遍。所有细心包装好的东
西一会儿工夫就乱成一团。
我相信那箱子再也关不上了。
突然，
我看到官员脸上露出了得意的神色。
他在我的箱底发现了一
只小瓶，高兴地一把抓了起来。
“
香水，嗯？
”
他讥讽地说道，
“
你刚才应该申报，香水要上进口税的。
”
“
不，这不是香水，
”
我说，
“
是发胶。
”
接着我脸带微笑补充说：
“
< br>这是一种我自己配制的奇
特的混合物。
”
“
你就闻一闻吧！
< br>”
我催促说。
海关官
员拧开瓶盖，把瓶子放到鼻子底下。一股怪味袭来，
使他相信了我说的真话。几分钟
后，我终于被放行，手提划着宝贵的粉笔记号的行李，匆匆离去。
Lesson12 Life on a desert
island
Most
of
us
have
formed
an
unrealistic
picture
of
life
on
a
desert
island.
We
sometimes imagine a desert island to be
a sort of paradise where the sun always
shines. Life there is simple and good.
Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you
never have to work. The other side of the
picture is quite the opposite. Life on
a desert island is wretched. You either starve to
death or live like Robinson Crusoe,
waiting for a boat which never comes. Perhaps
there
is
an
element
of
truth
in
both
these
pictures,
but
few
of
us
have
had
the
opportunity to find out.
Two men who recently spent five days on
a coral island wished they had stayed
there longer. They were taking a badly
damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to
Miami to have it repaired. During the
journey, their boat began to sink. They quickly
loaded a small rubber dinghy with food,
matches, and tins of beer and rowed for a
few miles across the Caribbean until
they arrived at a tiny coral island. There were
hardly any trees on the island and
there was no water, but this did not prove to be
a problem. The men collected rain-water
in the rubber dinghy. As they had brought
a spear gun with them, they had plenty
to eat. They caught lobster and fish every
day, and, as one of them put it 'ate
like kings'. When a passing tanker rescued them
five days later, both men were
genuinely sorry that they had to leave.
我们许多人对于荒岛生活有一种不切实际的想法。
我们有时想象荒岛是阳光终日普照的天堂。
在
那里
，生活简单又美好。成熟的水果从树上掉下来，人们根本无需劳动。另一种想法恰恰相反，
认为荒岛生活很可怕，要么饿死，要么像鲁滨孙那样，天天盼船来，却总没见船影。也许，这两
种都像都有可信之处。但很少有人能有机会去弄个究竟。
最近有两个人在一座珊瑚岛上呆了
5
天，他
们真希望在那儿再多呆一些日子。他们驾着一
条严重损坏的小船从维尔京群岛阿密修理。
途中，船开始下沉，他们迅速把食物、火柴、罐装啤
酒往一只救生筏上装。
然后在加勒比海上划行了几英里，
到了一座珊瑚岛上。
岛上几乎没有一颗
树，也没有淡水，但这不算什么问题。他们用像皮艇蓄积雨水。由于
他们随身带了一支捕鱼枪，
因此，吃饭不愁。他们天天捕捉龙虾和鱼，正如其中一位所说
，吃得
“
像国王一样好
”
。
5
天后，
一条油轮从那儿
路过，搭救了他们。这二位不得不离开那个荒岛时，还真的感到遗憾呢！
Lesson13 It’s
only me
After her husband
had gone to work, Mrs Richards sent her children
to school
and went upstairs to her
bedroom. She was too excited to do any housework
that
morning, for in the evening she
would be going to a fancy dress party with her
husband. She intended to dress up as a
ghost and as she had made her costume the
night before, she was impatient to try
it on. Though the costume consisted only of
a sheet, it was very effective. After
putting it on, Mrs Richards went downstairs. She
wanted to find out whether it would be
comfortable to wear.
Just
as Mrs Richards was entering the dining-room,
there was a knock on the
front door.
She knew that it must be the baker. She had told
him to come straight
in if ever she
failed to open the door and to leave the bread on
the kitchen table. Not
wanting to
frighten the poor man, Mrs Richards quickly hid in
the small store-room
under the stairs.
She heard the front door open and heavy footsteps
in the hall.
Suddenly the door of the
store-room was opened and a man entered. Mrs
Richards
realized that it must be the
man from the Electricity Board who had come to
read the
meter. She tried to explain
the situation, saying' It's only me', but it was
too late.
The man let out a cry and
jumped back several paces. When Mrs Richards
walked
towards him, he fled, slamming
the door behind him.
理查兹夫人等
丈夫上班走后，把孩子送去上学，然后来到楼上自己的卧室。那天上午，她兴奋
得什么家
务活都不想做，因为晚上她要同丈夫一起参加一个化装舞会。她打算装扮成鬼的模样。
头
天晚上她已把化装服做好，这时她急于想试试。尽管化装服仅由一个被单制成，却十分逼真。
理查兹夫人穿上化装服后下了楼，想看穿起来是否舒服。
理查兹
夫人刚刚走进餐厅，
前门就传来敲门声。
她知道来了一定面包师
。
她曾告诉过面包师，
如果她不去开门，他可直接进门，把面包
放在厨房的桌上。
理查兹夫人不想吓唬这个可怜人，
便
赶紧躲到了楼梯下的小储藏室里。
她听见前门被打开，
< br>走廊里响起重重的脚步声。
突然贮藏门开
了，一个男人走
了进来。理查兹夫人这才想到一定是供电局来人查电表了。她说了声
“
< br>是我，别
怕！
”
然后想进行一番
解释，但已来不及了。那人大叫了一声，惊退了几步。理查兹夫人朝他走
去，只见他
“
砰
”
的一声关上
门逃走了。
Lesson14 A noble gangster
There was a time when the owners of
shop and businesses in Chicago had to
pay large sums of money to gangsters in
return for' protection' If the money was not
paid promptly, the gangsters would
quickly put a man out of business by destroying
his shop. Obtaining 'protechon money'
is not a modern crime. As long ago as the
fourteenth
century,
an
Englishman,
Sir
John
Hawkwood,
made
the
remarkable
discovery that people would rather pay
large sums of money than have their life
work destroyed by gangsters.
Six
hundred
years
ago,
Sir
John
Hawkwood
arrived
in
Italy
with
a
band
of
soldiers and settled near Florence. He
soon made a name for himself and came to be
known to the Italians as Giovanni
Acuto. Whenever the Italian city-states were at
war with each other, Hawkwood used to
hire his soldiers to princes who were willing
to pay the high price he demanded. In
times of peace, when business was bad,
Hawkwood and his men would march into a
city-state and, after burning down a few
farms, would offer to go away if
protection money was paid to them. Hawkwood
made large sums of money in this way.
In spite of this, the Italians regarded him as
a sort of hero. When he died at the age
of eighty, the Florentines gave him a state
funeral and had a picture painted which
was dedicated to the memory of 'the most
valiant soldier and most notable
leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue'.
曾经有一个时期
,
< br>芝加哥的店主和商行的老板们不得不拿出大笔的钱给歹徒以换取
< br>保护
。如果
交款不及时
,
歹徒们就会很快捣毁他的商店
,
让他破产
.
榨取
保护金
并不是一种现代的罪恶行径
.
早在
14
世纪
,
英国人约翰
.
霍克伍德就
有过非凡的发现
:
人们情愿拿出大笔的钱
,
也不愿毕生的心
血毁于歹徒之手
.
600
年前
,
约翰
.
霍克伍德爵士带着一队士兵来到意大利
,
在佛罗伦萨附近驻扎下来
,
很快就
出
了名
.
意大利人叫他乔凡尼
.
阿库托
.
每次意大利
各城邦之间打伏
,
霍克伍德把他的士兵雇佣给愿给
他出高价的君主。和平时期
,
当生意萧条时
,
霍克伍德便带领士兵进入某个城邦
,
纵火烧毁一两个
农场
,
然后提出
,
如向他们缴纳保护金
,
他们便主动撤离。霍克伍德用这种方法挣了大笔钱
.
尽管如
此
,
意大利人还是把他
视作某种英雄。
他
80
岁那年死去时<
/p>
,
佛罗伦萨人为他举行了国葬
,
并为他画
像以纪念这位
骁勇无比的战士、杰出的领袖乔凡尼
.
阿库托先生
.
Lesson15 Fifty
pence worth of trouble
Children always appreciate small gifts
of money. Father, of course, provides a
regular supply of pocket-money, but
uncles and aunts are always a source of extra
income.
With
some
children,
small
sums
go
a
long
way.
If
sixpences
are
not
exchanged for sweets, they rattle for
months inside money-boxes. Only very thrifty
children manage to fill up a money-box.
For most of them, sixpence is a small price
to pay for a satisfying bar of
chocolate.
My nephew, George, has a
money-box but it is always empty. Very few of the
sixpences
I
have
given
him
have
found
their
way
there.
I
gave
him
sixpence
yesterday and advised him to save it.
Instead, he bought himself sixpence worth of
trouble. On his way to the sweet shop,
he dropped his sixpence and it rolled along
the pavement and then disappeared down
a drain. George took off
his jacket,
rolled up his sleeves and pushed his right arm
through the drain cover.
He could not
find his sixpence anywhere, and what is more, he
could not get his arm
out. A crowd of
people gathered round him and a lady rubbed his
arm with soap and
butter, but George
was firmly stuck. The fire-brigade was called and
two firemen
freed
George
using
a
special
type
of
grease.
George
was
not
too
upset
by
his
experience because the
lady who owns the sweet shop heard about his
troubles and
rewarded him with a large
box of chocolates.
孩子们总是喜欢得到一些零花钱。爸爸妈妈当然经常给孩子零花钱，但是，叔舅婶姨也是孩子
们额外收入来源。对于有些孩子来说，少量的钱可以花很长一段时间。如果
50
便士不拿来换糖
吃，
则可以放在储
蓄罐里叮当响上好几月。
但是能把储蓄罐装满的只有屈指可数的几个特别节俭
的孩子。对大部分孩子来说，用
50
便士来买一大
块好的巧克力，是算不了什么的。
我的外甥乔治有一个储蓄罐，但总
是空空的。我给了不少
50
便士的硬币，但没有几个存到
储蓄罐里。昨天，我给了他
50
便士让存起来
，却拿这钱给自己买了
50
便士的麻烦。在他去糖
果店的路上，
50
便士掉在地上，在人行道上跳了几
下，掉进了阴沟里。乔治脱掉外套，卷起袖
子，
将右胳膊伸进了
阴沟盖。
但他摸了半天也没找到那
50
便士硬币，
他的胳膊反倒退不出来了。
这时在他周围上了许多人
，
一位女士在乔治胳膊上抹了肥皂，
黄油，
但乔治的胳膊仍然卡得紧紧
的。有人打电话叫来消防队，两位消防队员使用了一种特
殊的润滑剂才使乔治得以解脱。不过，
此事并没使乔治过于伤心，因为糖果店老板娘听说
了他遇到的麻烦后，赏给他一大盒巧克力。
Lesson16 Mary had a little
lamb
Mary and her husband
Dimitri lived in the tiny village of Perachora in
southern
Greece. One of Mary's prize
possessions was a little white lamb which her
husband
had given her. She kept it tied
to a tree in a field during the day and went to
fetch
it every evening. One evening,
however, the lamb was missing. The rope had been
cut, so it was obvious that the lamb
had been stolen. When Dimitri came in from the
fields, his wife told him what had
happened. Dimitri at once set out to find the
thief.
He knew it would not
prove difficult in such a small village. After
telling several
of
his
friends
about
the
theft,
Dimitri
found
out
that
his
neighbour,
Aleko,
had
suddenly
acquired
a
new
lamb.
Dimitri
immediately
went
to
Aleko's
house
and
angrily
accused him of stealing the lamb. He told him he
had better return it or he
would call
the police. Aleko denied taking it and led Dimitri
into his back-yard. It was
true that he
had just bought a lamb, he explained, but his lamb
was black. Ashamed
of having acted so
rashly, Dimitri apologized to Aleko for having
accused him. While
they were talking it
began to rain and Dimitri stayed in Aleko's house
until the rain
stopped. When he went
outside half an hour later, he was astonished to
find that the
little black lamb was
almost white. Its wool, which had been dyed black,
had been
washed clean by the rain !
玛丽与丈夫迪米特里住在希腊南部
一个叫波拉考拉的小村庄里。玛丽最珍贵的财产之一就是丈
夫送给她的一只白色小羔羊。
白天，玛丽把羔羊拴在地里的一颗树上，
每天晚上把它牵回家。
可
是，一天晚上，那只小羔羊失踪了。绳子被人割断，很明显小羔羊是被人偷走了。
迪米特里从地里回来，
妻子把情况跟
他一说，
他马上出去找偷羔羊的人。
他知道在这样一个
小村庄里抓住小偷并不困难。
把失窃的事告诉几个朋友后，
迪米特里发出他的邻居阿列科家突然
多了一只小羔羊。
迪米特里立刻去了阿列科家，
气呼呼地指责他偷了羔羊，
告诉
他最好把羊交还，
否则就去叫警察。阿列科不承认，并把迪米特里领进院子。不错，他的
确刚买了一只羔羊，阿列
科解释说，但他的羔羊是黑色的。迪米特里为自己的鲁莽而感到
不好意思，向阿列科道了歉，
说
是错怪了他。就在他俩说话的时
候，天下起了雨，
迪米特里便呆在阿列科家里避雨，
一直等到雨
停为止。半小时后，当他从屋里出来时，他惊奇地发现小黑羔羊全身几乎都变成白色。<
/p>
原来羊毛
上染的黑色被雨水冲掉了！
Lesson17 The longest
suspension bridge in the world
Verrazano, an Italian about whom little
is known, sailed into New York Harbour
in 1524 and named it Angouleme. He
described it as 'a very agreeable situation
located within two small hills in the
midst of which flowed a great river.' Though
Verrazano is by no means considered to
be a great explorer, his name will probably
remain immortal, for on November 21st,
1964, the greatest bridge in the world was
named after him.
The Verrazano Bridge, which was
designed by Othmar Ammann, joins Brooklyn
to Staten Island. It has a span of 4260
feet. The bridge is so long that the shape of
the earth had to be taken into account
by its designer. Two great towers support
four huge cables. The towers are built
on immense underwater platforms made of
steel and concrete. The platforms
extend to a depth of over 100 feet under the sea.
These
alone
took
sixteen
months
to
build.
Above
the
surface
of
the
water,
the
towers
rise to a height of nearly 700 feet. They support
the cables from which the
bridge has
been suspended. Each of the four cables contains
26,108 lengths of wire.
It has been
estimated that if the bridge were packed with
cars, it would still only be
carrying a
third of its total capacity. However, size and
strength are not the only
important
things
about
this
bridge.
Despite
its
immensity,
it
is
both
simple
and
elegant,
fulfilling
its
designer's
dream
to
create
'an
enormous
object
drawn
as
faintly
as possible'.
1524
< br>年，一位鲜为人知的意大利人维拉萨诺驾船驶进纽约港，并将该港名为安古拉姆。他对
该港作了这样的描述：
“
地理位置十分适宜，位于两座小山
的中间，一条大河从中间流过
”
。虽然
维拉萨诺绝对算不上一个伟大的探险家，但他的名字将流芳百世，因为
1964
年
11
月
21
日建
成的一座世界上最长的吊桥是以他的名字命名。
维拉萨诺大桥由奥斯马
.
阿曼设计，连
结着布鲁克林与斯塔顿岛，桥长
4,260
英尺。由于桥
身太长，设计者不得不考虑了地表的形状。两座巨塔支撑着
4
根粗大的钢缆。塔身建在巨大的
水下钢盘混凝土平台上。平台深入海底<
/p>
100
英尺。仅这两座塔就花了
16
个月才建成。塔身高
出水面将近
700
英尺。高塔支撑着钢缆，而钢缆又悬吊着大桥，
4
< br>根钢缆中的每根由
26
，
108
股钢绳组成。据估计，若桥上摆满了汽车，也只不过是桥的总承载力的
< br>1/3
。然而，这座桥重要
特点不仅是它的规模与强度。
尽管此桥很大，
但它的结构简单，
造型优美，实现了设计者企图
创
造一个
“
尽量用细线条勾画出一个庞
然大物
”
的梦想。
Lesson18 Electric currents in modern
art
Modern sculpture rarely
surprises us any more. The idea that modern art
can
only
be
seen
in
museums
is
mistaken.
Even
people
who
take
no
interest
in
art
cannot
have
failed
to
notice
examples
of
modern
sculpture
on
display
in
public
places. Strange forms
stand in gardens, and outside buildings and shops.
We have
got quite used to them. Some
so-called 'modern' pieces have been on display for
nearly fifty years.
In
spite
of
this,
some
people
--including
myself--were
surprised
by
a
recent
exhibition of modern
sculpture. The first thing I saw when I entered
the art gallery
was a notice which
said: 'Do not touch the exhibits. Some of them are
dangerous!'
The objects on display were
pieces of moving sculpture. Oddly shaped forms
that
are suspended from the ceiling and
move in response to a gust of wind are quite
familiar to everybody. These objects,
however, were different. Lined up against the
wall, there were long thin wires
attached to metal spheres. The spheres had been
magnetized and attracted or repelled
each other all the time. In the centre of the
hall, there were a number of tall
structures which contained coloured lights. These
lights flickered continuously like
traffic lights which have gone mad. Sparks were
emitted from small black boxes and red
lamps flashed on and off angrily. It was
rather like an exhibition of
prehistoric electronic equipment. These Peculiar
forms
not only seemed designed to shock
people emotionally, but to give them electric
shocks as well !
现代雕塑不再使我们感到惊讶了。
那
种认为现代艺术只能在博物馆里才能看到的观点是错误的。
即使是对艺术不感兴趣的人也
不会注意到在公共场所展示的现代艺术品。
公园里、
大楼和商店
外
竖立着的奇形怪状的雕塑，对这些，
我们已经司空见惯了。<
/p>
有些所谓的
“
现代
”
艺术品在那里已经
陈列了近
80<
/p>
年了。
尽管如此，最近举办的一次现代雕
塑展览还是使一些人
（包括我在内）大吃了一惊。走进展
厅首先
看到的是一张告示，
上面写着
“
切勿触
摸展品，
某些展品有危险！
”
展品都是
些活动的雕像。
人们所熟悉的是悬挂在天花板上、造型奇特、随风飘荡的雕塑品。
这些展品却使人大开眼界。
靠
墙排列着许多细
长的电线，
而电线又连着金属球。
金属球经过磁化，
互相之间不停地相互吸引或
相互排斥。
展厅中央是
装有彩色灯泡的许多高高的构件，
灯泡一刻不停地闪烁着，
就像
失去了控
制的红绿灯。
小黑盒子里迸出火花，
< br>红色灯泡发怒似地忽明忽暗。
这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子
设备。
好像设计这些奇形怪状的展品不仅是为了给人感情上的强烈刺激，
而且还想给人以电击似
的！
Lesson19 A very dear
cat
Kidnappers are rarely
interested in Animals, but they recently took
considerable
interest in Mrs Eleanor
Ramsay's cat. Mrs Eleanor Ramsay, a very wealthy
old lady,
has shared a flat with her
cat, Rastus, for a great many
years.
Rastus leads an
orderly life. He
usually takes a short walk in the evenings and is
always home by
seven
o'clock.
One
evening,
however,
he
failed
to
arrive.
Mrs
Ramsay
got
very
worried. She looked everywhere for him
but could not find him.
Three day after
Rastus' disappearance, Mrs Ramsay received an
anonymous
letter.
The
writer
stated
that
Rastus
was
in
safe
hands
and
would
be
returned
immediately if Mrs
Ramsay paid a ransom of &1000. Mrs Ramsay was
instructed to
place the money in a
cardboard box and to leave it outside her door. At
first, she
decided to go to the police,
but fearing that she would never see Rastus again
--the
letter had made that quite clear
--she changed her mind. She drew &1000 from her
bank
and
followed
the
kidnapper's
instructions.
The
next
morning,
the
box
had
disappeared but Mrs Ramsay was sure
that the kidnapper would keep his word. Sure
enough, Rastus arrived punctually at
seven o'clock that evening. He looked very
well, though he was rather thirsty, for
he drank half a bottle of milk. The police were
astounded when Mrs Ramsay told them
what she had
done. She explained that
Rastus was very dear to her. Considering the
amount she
paid, he was dear in more
ways than one!
绑架者很少对动物感兴趣。最近，绑架者却盯上了埃莉诺
.
拉姆
齐太太的猫。埃莉诺
.
拉姆齐太
太是一
个非常富有的老妇人，
多年来，
一直同她养的猫拉斯一起住在一
所公寓里。
拉斯特斯生活
很有规律，傍晚常常出去溜达一会儿，
并且总是在
7
点钟以前回来。可是，有一天晚上，它出
去后再也没回来。拉姆齐太太急坏了，四处寻找，但没有找着。
拉斯特斯失踪
3
天后，拉姆齐太太收到一封
匿名信。写信人声称拉斯特斯安然无恙，只要
拉姆齐太太愿意支付
1,000
英镑赎金，可以立即将猫送还。他让拉姆齐太太把钱放在一个纸盒
里，
然后将纸盒放在门口。
一开始拉姆齐太太
打算报告警察，
但又害怕再也见不到拉斯特斯
——
这点，信上说得十分明白
——
于是便改变了主意。她
从银行取出
1,000
英镑，并照绑架者的要
求做了。第二天早晨，放钱的盒子不见了。但拉姆齐太太确信绑架者是会履行诺言的。果然，当
天晚上
7
点正，拉斯特斯准时回来了。它看上去
一切正常，只是口渴得很，喝了半瓶牛奶。拉
姆齐太太把她所做的事告诉了警察，
警察听后大为吃惊。
拉姆齐太太解释说她心疼她的猫拉斯特
斯。想到她所花的那笔钱，她的心疼就具有双重意义了。
Lesson20 Pioneer pilots
In 1908 Lord Northcliffe offered a
prize of &1000 to the first man who would fly
across the English Channel. Over a year
passed before the first attempt was made.
On July 19th, 1909, in the early
morning, Hubert Latham took off from the French
coast in his plane the 'Antoinette IV'.
He
had travelled only seven miles
across the Channel when his engine failed and he
was
forced to land on the sea. The
'Antoinette' floated on the water until Latham was
picked up by a ship.
Two days later, Louis Bleriot arrived
near Calais with a plane called 'No. XI'.
Bleriot had been making planes since
1905 and this was his latest model. A week
before,
he
had
completed
a
successful
overland
flight
during
which
he
covered
twenty-six miles. Latham, however did
not give up
easily. He, too, arrived
near
Calais on the same day with a new
'Antonette'. It looks as if there would be an
exciting race across the Channel. Both
planes were going to take off on July 25th,
but Latham failed to get up early
enough. After making a short test flight at 4.15
a.m., Bleriot set off half an hour
later. His great flight lasted thirty seven
minutes.
When he landed near Dover, the
first person to greet him was a local policeman.
Latham made another attempt a week
later and got within half a mile of Dover, but
he was unlucky again. His engine failed
and he landed on the sea for the second
time.
1908
年，诺斯克利夫勋爵拿出
1,000
英镑，作为对
第一个飞越英吉利海峡的人的奖励。然而
一年多过去了才有人出来尝试。
1909
年
7
月
19
日凌晨，休伯特
.
莱瑟
姆驾驶
“
安特瓦特
4
< br>号
”
飞机从法国海岸起飞，但他只在海峡上空飞行
7
英里，引擎就发生了故障，他只好降落在海面
上。
“
安特瓦特
”
< br>号飞机在海上漂浮，后来有船经过，莱瑟姆方才获救。
两天之
后，
路易斯
.
布莱里奥驾驶一名为
“11
号
”
的飞机
来到加来附近。
布莱里奥从
1905
年
起便开始研制飞机，
“11
号
”
飞机是他制作的最新型号。一周以前，他曾成功地进行了一次
26
英里的陆上飞行。
但是莱瑟姆不肯轻易罢休
。
同一天，他驾驶一架新的
“
安特瓦特
”
号飞机来到了
加来附近。看来会有一
场激烈的飞越英吉利海峡的竞争。两天飞机都打算在
7
月
25
日起飞，
但
莱瑟
姆那天起床晚了。布莱里奥凌晨
4
点
1
5
分作了一次短距离试飞，半小时后便正式出发了。
他这次伟大
的飞行持续
37
分钟。当他在多佛着陆后，第一个迎接他的是当
地一名警察。莱瑟姆
一周以后也作了一次尝试，
飞到离多佛不到
半英里的地方。
这次他又遭厄运，
因引擎故障第二次
降落在海面上。
Lesson21 Daniel Mendoza
Boxing matches were very popular in
England two hundred years ago. In those
days,
boxers
fought
with
bare
fists
for
Prize
money.
Because
of
this,
they
were
known as 'prize-fighters'. However,
boxing was very crude, for there were no rules
and a prize-fighter could be seriously
injured or even killed during a match.
One of the most colourful figures in
boxing history was Daniel Mendoza who was
born in 1764. The use of gloves was not
introduced until 1860 when the Marquis of
Queensberry drew up the first set Of
rules. Though he was technically a prize-fighter,
Mendoza
did
much
to
change
crude
prize-fighting
into
a
sport,
for
he
brought
science to the game. In his day,
Mendoza enjoyed tremendous popularity. He was
adored by rich and poor alike. Mendoza
rose to fame swiftly after a boxing-match
when
he
was
only
fourteen
years
old.
This
attracted
the
attention
of
Richard
Humphries who was
then the most eminent boxer in England. He offered
to train
Mendoza and his young pupil
was quick to learn. In fact, Mendoza soon became
so
successful that Humphries turned
against him. The two men quarrelled bitterly and
it was clear that the argument could
only be settled by a fight. A match was held at
Stilton where both men fought for an
hour. The public bet a great deal of money on
Mendoza,
but
he
was
defeated.
Mendoza
met
Humphries
in
the
ring
on
a
later
occasion and he lost
for a second time. It was not until his third
match in 1790 that
he
finally
beat
Humphries
and
became
Champion
of
England.
Meanwhile,
he
founded a highly successful Academy and
even Lord Byron became one of his pupils.
He earned enormous sums of money and
was paid as much as &100 for a single
appearance. Despite this, he was so
extravagant that he was always in debt. After
he was defeated by a boxer called
Gentleman Jackson, he was quickly forgotten. He
was sent to prison for failing to pay
his debts and died in poverty in 1836.
两百年前，拳击比赛在英国非常盛行。当时，拳击手们不戴手
套，为争夺奖金而搏斗。因此，
他们被称作
“
< br>职业拳击手
”
。不过，拳击是十分野蛮的，因为当时没有
任何比赛规则，职业拳击手
有可能在比赛中受重伤，甚至丧命。
拳击史上最引人注目的人物之一是丹尼尔
.
门多萨，他生于
1764
年。
1860
年昆斯伯里侯
爵第一次为拳击比赛制定了规则，
拳击比赛这才用上了手套。
虽然门多萨严格来讲不过是个职业
< br>拳击手，
但在把这种粗野的拳击变成一种体育运动方面，
他作出了重大贡献。
是他把科学引进了
这项运动。门多萨在的全
盛时期深受大家欢迎，无论是富人还是穷人都对他祟拜备至。
门多萨在
14
岁时参加一场拳击赛后一举成
名。这引起当时英国拳坛名将理查德
.
汉弗莱斯
的注意。他主动提出教授门多萨，而年少的门多萨一学就会。事实上，门多萨不久便名声大振，
致使汉弗莱斯与他反目为敌。两个人争吵不休，显而易见，
只有较量一番
才能解决问题。于是两
人在斯蒂尔顿设下赛场，厮打了一个小时。
公众把大笔赌注下到了门多萨身上，
但他却输了。
后
来，门多萨与汉弗莱斯再次在拳击场上较量，门多萨又输了一场。直到
1
790
年他们第
3
次对
垒，门多萨才终于击败汉弗莱斯，成了全英拳击冠军。同时，他建立了一所拳击学校，办得很成
功，连拜伦勋爵也成了他的学生。门多萨挣来大笔大笔的钱，一次出场费就多可达
100
英镑。
尽管收入不少，
但他挥霍无度，
经常债台高筑。
他在被一个叫杰克逊绅士的拳击
手击败后很快被
遗忘。他因无力还债而被捕入狱，最后于
183
6
年在贫困中死去。
Lesson22 By heart
Some plays are so successful that they
run for years on end. In many ways, this
is unfortunate for the poor actors who
are required to go on repeating the same lines
night after night. One would expect
them to know their parts by heart and never
have cause to falter. Yet this is not
always the case.
A
famous
actor
in
a
highly
successful
play
was
once
cast
in
the
role
of
an
aristocrat who had been imprisoned in
the Bastille for twenty years. In the last act,
a gaoler would always come on to
the stage with a letter which he would
hand to the prisoner. Even though the noble
was
expected
to
read
the
letter
at
each
performance,
he
always
insisted
that
it
should be
written out in full. One night, the gaoler decided
to play a joke on his
colleague to find
out if, after so many performances, he had managed
to learn the
contents of the letter by
heart. The curtain went up on the final act of the
play and
revealed
the
aristocrat
sitting
alone
behind
bars
in
his
dark
cell.
Just
then,
the
gaoler
appeared
with
the
precious
letter
in
his
hands.
He
entered
the
cell
and
presented the letter to the aristocrat.
But the copy he gave him had not been written
out in full as usual. It was simply a
blank sheet of paper.
The gaoler looked
on
eagerly, anxious to see
if his fellow-actor had
at last learnt
his lines.
The noble
stared
at the blank sheet of paper for a few seconds.
Then, squinting his eyes, he
said: 'The
light is dim. Read the letter to me.' And he
promptly handed the sheet of
paper to
the gaoler. Finding that he could not remember a
word of the letter either,
the gaoler
replied: 'The light is indeed dim, sire. I must
get my glasses.' With this,
he hurried
off the stage. Much to the aristocrat's amusement,
the gaoler returned a
few moments later
with a pair of glasses and the usual copy of the
letter which he
proceeded to read to
the prisoner.
有些剧目十分成功，以致连续
上演好几年。这样一来，可怜的演员们可倒霉了。因为他们需要
一夜连着一夜地重复同样
的台词。
人们以为，
这些演员一定会把台词背得烂熟，
绝不会临场结巴
的，但情况却并不总是这样。
有一位名演员曾在一出极为成功的剧目中扮演一个贵族角色，
这个贵
族已在巴士底狱被关押
了
20
年。在最
后一幕中，狱卒手持一封信上场，然后将信交给狱中那位贵族。尽管那个贵族每
场戏都得
念一遍那封信。但他还是坚持要求将信的全文写在信纸上。
一天晚
上，
狱卒决定与他的同事开一个玩笑，
看看他反复演出这么多场
之后，
是否已将信的
内容记熟了。大幕拉开，最后一幕戏开演，
贵族独自一人坐在铁窗后阴暗的牢房里。
这时狱卒上
场，手里拿
着那封珍贵的信。狱卒走进牢房，将信交给贵族。但这回狱卒给贵族的信没有像往常
那样
把全文写全，而是一张白纸。狱卒热切地观察着，急于想了解他的同事是否记熟了台词。
贵
族盯着纸看了几秒钟，然后，眼珠一转，说道：
“
光线太暗，请给我读一下这封信。
”
说完，他一<
/p>
下子把信递给狱卒。狱卒发现自己连一个字也记不住，于是便说：
“
陛下，这儿光线的确太暗了，
我得去眼镜拿来。
”
他一边说着，一边匆匆下台。贵族感到非常好笑的是：一会儿工夫，狱卒重
新登台，拿来一副眼镜以及平时使用的那封信，然后为那囚犯念了起来。
Lesson23 One
man’s meat is another man’s poison
People become quite illogical when they
try to decide what can be eaten and
what cannot be eaten. If you lived in
the Mediterranean, for instance, you would
consider octopus a great delicacy. You
would not be able to understand why some
people find it repulsive. On the other
hand, your stomach would turn at the idea of
frying
potatoes
in
animal
fat--
the
normally
accepted
practice
in
many
northern
countries. The sad truth is that most
of us have been brought up to eat certain foods
and we stick to them all our lives.
No creature has received more praise
and abuse than the common garden snail.
Cooked in wine, snails are a great
luxury in various parts of the world. There are
countless people who, ever since their
early years, have learned to associate snails
with food. My friend, Robert, lives in
a country where snails are despised. As his flat
is in a large town, he has no garden of
his own. For years he has been asking me to
collect snails from my garden and take
them to him. The idea never appealed to me
very much, but one day, after a heavy
shower, I happened to be walking in my
garden when I noticed a huge number of
snails taking a stroll on some of my prize
plants. Acting on a sudden impulse, I
collected several dozen, put them in a paper