【正文】 ecause mi cr ophones ar e connect ed t o t he cl ock tower . Bi g Ben has r ar el y gone wrong. Once, however , i t failed t o gi ve t he cor rect tim e. A pai nt er who had been working on t he t ower hung a pot of pai nt on one of the hands and slowed i t down ! Lesson72 A car cal ed Bl uebird “藍鳥”汽車 The great r acing dr iver , Si r Mal colm Campbel , was the fi rst m an t o dri ve at over 300 m il es per hour. He set up a new worl d r ecord i n Sept em ber 1935 at Bonnevil le Sal t Fl at s, Utah. Bluebi rd, t he car he was dri vi ng, had been speci al y bui lt for him . I t was over 30 f et in lengt h and had a 2500 horse power engine. Al though Campbel l r eached a speed of over 304 miles per hour, he had gr eat di f icul ty in cont roll ing the car because a tyr e burst duri ng t he f irst run. Af ter his at empt, Campbel l was di sappointed to l earn t hat hi s aver age speed had been 299 mil es per hour . However, a few days later, he was told t hat a mist ake had been made . His average speed had been 301 mi les per hour . Si nce that t ime, r acing drivers have reached speeds of over 400 miles an hour . Foll owi ng his father39。 I conti nued dr iving and after some ti me, the examiner t apped l oudly. Though the sound coul d be heard clearly, it took me a l ong ti me to r eact . I suddenly pressed the br ake pedal har d and we were bot h thrown forward. The examiner l ooked at me sa dl y. 39。s always plenty to r ead in t he 39。 Then I39。 he asked, bef or e I had fi ni shed speaki ng. ‘ Not at al ,39。 I answer ed. 39。 I was j ust wonderi ng how t o spend the morninguntil I saw you. You39。 I said. 39。so it was fortunat e that we didn39。t he main st reet . The pol ice had a di f icul t ime, but t hey were most amused. 39。t have to cary hi m. Of course, we should ar rest him, but as he has a good record, we shal let hi m off this ti me. 39。Fancy meti ng you here ! 39。r e not busy doing anything, ar e you ?39。 I 39。 I l ied, 39。l l e wit h you,39。wai ting room ! 39。Mr Eames,39。s f ootsteps many year s later, Si r Mal colm39。 said Gl or ia Gleam. 39。No newspaper men, no f ilm fans! Why don39。 he shouted: 39。 39。t be too har d on us. I 39。 sai d the sher if f wi th a sneer . 39。 SOS39。 we ar e taki ng you to the macaroni f ields of Calabr ia. Macar oni has been gr own i n this area for over six hundred years. Two of t he l eadi ng gr owers, Gi useppe Moldova and Ricardo Brabante, t el l me t hat they have been expecti ng a splendid crop this year and har vesting has begun earl ier t han usual . Here you can see two workers who, bet ween them, have just f inished cutt ing three cart l oads of gol den br own macar oni st al ks. The whol e vi lage has been wor ki ng day and ni ght gatheri ng and t hreshing this year39。 I li t a cigarete t o calm my nerves. I smoked wit h concentrati on and pl easure as I was sur e that this woul d be my l ast ci garet e. For a whol e wek I di d not smoke at al l and duri ng t hi s time, my wif e suff er ed t er ribly. I had al l t he usual sympt oms of someone giving up smoki ng: a bad temper and an enormous appeti te. My f ri ends kept on of feri ng me cigaretes and cigar s. They made no ef fort to hi de their am usement whenever I pr oduced a packet of swets fr om my pocket. Af ter seven days of this I went to a par ty. Everybody ar ound me was smoking and I f el t ext remely un fortable. When my old fr iend Br ian ur ged me to accept a cigar et te, i t wa s more than I coul d bear . I t ook one guilt il y, li t i t and smoked wit h sati sf acti on. My wif e was del ight ed t hat things had r et ur ned t o normal once mor e. Anyway, as Br ian poi nt ed out , it is the easi est thing in the worl d to give up smoking. He himself has done it lots of t imes! Leson79 By air 乘飛機 I used t o travel by ai r a great deal when I was a boy. My par ent s, used t o li ve i n South America and I used to f ly there fr om Eur ope in t he holidays. An air hostes woul d take char ge of me and I never had an unpleasant exper ience. I am used to t ravel ing by air and only on one occasion have I ever f el t f ri ghtened. Af ter taki ng off , we were f lying low over the ci ty and slowly gaining height, when the plane suddenly t ur ned round and flew back t o the ai rpor t. While we were wait ng to land, an air host ess t old us t o keep calm and to get off the plane quietly as soon as it had t ouched down. Everybody on boar d was worr ied and we wer e curi ous to f ind out what had happened. Lat er we lear nt t hat ther e was a ver y impor tant per son on board. The poli ce had been t old that a bomb had been pl anted on the pl ane. Aft er we had l anded, the pl ane was searched t horoughly. For tunately, nothing was f ound and fi ve hour s later we were able to t ake of f agai n. Lesson80 The Cryst al Palace 水晶宮 Per haps the most extraordinar y bui lding of t he ni ent h century was the Cr ystal Palace, which was bui lt in Hyde Park for the Great Exhi bi tion of 1851. The Cr ystal Palace was di f er ent fr om al l other buildings in the world, for it was made of ir on and gl ass. It was one of the biggest buildings of al time and a lot of peopl e fr om many count ri es came t o see it. A great many goods we re sent to the exhibit ion fr om vari ous par ts of t he worl d. There was al so a great deal of machinery on display. The most wonder ful pi ece of machinery on show was Nasmyth39。so it was fortunat e that we didn39。 I said. 39。 I was j ust wonderi ng how t o spend the morninguntil I saw you. You39。 I answer ed. 39。 he asked, bef or e I had fi ni shed speaki ng. ‘ Not at al ,39。 Then I39。s always plenty to r ead in t he 39。 I conti nued dr iving and after some ti me, the examiner t apped l oudly. Though the sound coul d be heard clearly, it took me a l ong ti me to r eact . I suddenly pressed the br ake pedal har d and we were bot h thrown forward. The examiner l ooked at me sadl y.