【正文】 cling v. 粘 convince v. 使??信服 somehow adv. 不知怎么搞地，不知什么原因 disturb v. 令人不安 參考譯文 美洲獅是一種體形似貓的大動(dòng)物，產(chǎn)于美洲。那里的一位婦女在采摘黑莓時(shí)的看見“一只大貓”，離她僅 5 碼遠(yuǎn)，她剛看見它，它就立刻逃走了。有人抱怨說夜里聽見“像貓一樣的叫聲”；一位商人去釣魚，看見那只美洲獅在樹上。 Lesson 2 Thirteen equals one 十三等于一 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 work up with a start: the clock was striking the hours! Looking at his watch, he saw that it was one o39。I39。ve been ing up here night after night for weeks now. You see, I was hoping to give you a surprise.39。You39。s the trouble, vicar,39。m afraid that at one o39。 said the vicar. Thirteen is not as good as one, but it39。但始終未能籌足資金把教堂的鐘修好。借著電筒光。“好幾個(gè)星期了，我天天夜里到鐘樓上來?！? “問題就在這里，牧師，”比爾回答說。來，咱們下樓去喝杯茶吧。這座古城肯定一度很繁榮，因?yàn)樗碛懈叨鹊奈拿?，房子一般?3 層樓高，用石塊修建。在廟中最神圣的一間殿堂里發(fā)現(xiàn)了 15 尊陶雕像的碎片。卻使在當(dāng)時(shí)，它也屬歷史悠久的珍奇之物。不過，考古工作者至今未能確定這位女神的身份。Mr. Bloggs39。坐辦公室的之所以常常被稱作“白領(lǐng)工人”，就是因?yàn)樗麄兺ǔＪ谴┲差I(lǐng)白襯衫，系著領(lǐng)帶去上班。他只 說在埃爾斯米爾公司上班。艾爾弗的妻子一直不知道她嫁給了一個(gè)清潔工，而且她永遠(yuǎn)也不會知道了，因?yàn)榘瑺柛ヒ颜业叫铰?，不久就要坐辦公室里工作了。別人將稱呼他為“布洛格斯先生”，而不再叫他“艾爾弗”了。s palace39。稿子寄來后，編輯看第一句話就拒絕予以發(fā)表。于是他又發(fā)了一份傳真，通知那位記者說，若再不迅速答復(fù)，將被解雇。那個(gè)可憐的記者不僅被捕了，而且還被送進(jìn)了監(jiān)獄。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 home blaring, roared down the arcade. It came to a stop outside the jeweller39。他手下兩名店員從早上 8 點(diǎn)就開始忙碌，這時(shí)剛剛布置完畢。一人留在駕駛座上，另外兩個(gè)用黑色長筒絲襪蒙面的人跳下車來。一個(gè)竊賊被一尊很重的雕像擊中，但由于他忙著搶鉆石首飾，竟連疼痛都顧不上了。他們已帶著價(jià)值數(shù)千鎊的首飾逃之夭夭了。39。 said a spokeswoman for the Bank. 39。 refers to this. Mutilate v. 使殘缺不全 chew v. 咀嚼 microwave n. 微波，微波爐 oven n. 爐灶 safekeeping n. 妥善保管 Newcastle n. 紐卡斯?fàn)枺ㄓ凼校? identify v. 鑒定，識別 spokeswoman n. 女發(fā)言人 這種事情在你身上出現(xiàn)過嗎？你有沒有把褲子塞洗衣機(jī)，然后又想在褲子 的后兜有一張大面值的紙幣？當(dāng)你把褲子搶救出來時(shí)，你有沒 有發(fā)現(xiàn)那張紙幣 已經(jīng)變得比白紙還白？當(dāng)英國人犯這種錯(cuò)誤時(shí)，他們不必感到絕望（而許多國 家的人都有這種絕望的感覺）。有一天約翰的生意很好，他把一只裝有 3,000 英鎊的錢包放進(jìn)微波爐內(nèi)保 存。約翰去找銀行經(jīng)理，經(jīng)理把約翰的錢包和紙幣的殘留 物送到英國銀行在紐卡斯?fàn)柕囊粋€(gè)專門部門 —— 殘鈔鑒別組?！叭ツ?，我們對 21， 000 起索賠要求 支付了 150 萬英鎊。幾百年來，圣伯納德修道院馴養(yǎng)狗拯救了許多翻越這道山口的旅游者的生命。 夏天的幾個(gè)月里，修道院十分忙碌，因?yàn)橛谐汕先f的人駕車通過山口，順道來修道院參觀。修道士們喜歡冬天，而不太喜歡夏天。他們在圣誕節(jié)或復(fù)活節(jié)到那兒去。Cats behave like welltrained paratroopers.39。它們從不像狗和馬一樣變得那么順從。顯然，這種說法里面包含著許多真實(shí)性。當(dāng)然，紐約是進(jìn)行這種有趣的試驗(yàn)的一個(gè)理想的地方，因?yàn)槟抢锔静蝗狈Ω邩谴髲B，有的是高層的窗檻從上往下墜落。在一個(gè)長長的跌落過程中，它們可以達(dá)到每小時(shí) 60 里甚至更快的速度。 Lesson 10 The loss of the Titanic “泰坦尼克”號的沉沒 The great ship, Titanic, sailed for New York from Southampton on April 10th, 1912. She was carrying 1,316 passengers and crew of 891. Even by modern standards, the 46,000 ton Titanic was a colossal ship. At the time, however, she was not only the largest ship that had ever been built, but was regarded as unsinkable, for she had sixteen watertight partments. 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 water of the North Atlantic, huge iceberg was suddenly spotted by a lookout. 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 walk 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 though that the ship had been damaged. Below, the captain realized to his horror that the Titanic was sinking rapidly, for five of her sixteen watertight partments 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 lifeboats for everybody, 1,500 lives were lost. Southampton n. 南安普敦（英國港市） colossal adj. 龐大的 Watertight adj. 不漏水的 partment n. （輪船的）密封艙 Flood v. 充滿水 float v. 漂浮，飄浮 tragic adj. 悲慘的 Liner n. 班船 voyage n. 航行 iceberg n. 冰山 Lookout n. 了望員 collision n. 碰撞 narrowly adv. 剛剛，勉強(qiáng)地 Miss v. 避開 slight adj. 輕微的 tremble v. 震顫 Faint adj. 微弱的 horror n. 恐懼 abandon v. 拋棄 Plunge v. 投入，跳入 lifeboat n. 救生船 巨輪“泰坦尼克”號 1912 年 4 月 10 日從南安普敦起錨駛向紐約。因?yàn)榇?16 個(gè)密封艙組成，即使有兩個(gè)艙進(jìn)水，仍可漂浮的水面上。突然，了望員發(fā)現(xiàn)一座冰山。由于這個(gè)聲音非常輕，沒人會想到船身已遭損壞。 Lesson 11 Not guilty 無罪 Customs Officers are quite tolerant these days, but they can still stop you when you are going through the Green Channel and have nothing to declare. Even 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 form abroad recently, a particularly officious young Customs Officer clearly regarded me as a smuggler. 39。, I answered confidently. 39。 I answered. The Officer went through the case with great care. All the thing 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 Officer39。You should have declared that. Perfume is not exempt from import duty.39。 I said. 39。It39。 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 t