【正文】 Wher e have you been hi di ng ?39。 Lesson53 Hot snake 觸電的蛇 At l ast fir emen have put out a big forest f ir e i n Cal if or ni a. Since t hen, t hey have been trying to f ind out how the fir e began. Forest f ire are oft en caused by broken glas or by cigar et te ends which peopl e carelesly thr ow away. Yesterday the fir emen examined the gr ound carefull y, but were not abl e to f ind any br oken glass. They were also quit e sure t hat a cigarete end di d not st ar t he f ir e. Thi s mor ni ng, however, a fi reman acci dent al ly discover ed t he cause. He noti ced the remains of a snake which was wound r ound the el ectr ic wir es of a 16,000 vo lt power line. I n this way, he was abl e to solve the myst er y. The expl anation was simple but very unusual. A bir d had snatche d up the snake fr om the gr ound and then dr opped i t on t o the wi res. The snake t hen wound itsel f round the wir es. When it did so, it sent spar ks down to the ground and t hese i mmediately start ed a f ire. Leson54 Sti cky fi ngers 粘糊的手指 After br eakfast , I sent the childr en t o school and then I went to market. It was sti l earl y when I returned home. The childr en were at school , my husband was at work and t he house was qui et . So I decided t o make some t ar ts for tea. In a shor t ime I was busy mixi ng butter and fl our and my hands wer e soon covered wit h st icky pastr y. At exact ly that moment , t he t el ephone rang. Not hi ng coul d have been mor e annoying. I picked up the receiver bet wen two sti cky fi ngers and was di smayed when I recognized the voi ce of Mrs Bates. It took me ten minut es t o persuade her to ri ng back l at er . At last I hung up the receiver. What amess! Ther e was pastr y on my f inger s, on t he t el ephone, and on t he door knobs. I had no sooner got back t o the ki tchen than the doorbel rang l oud enough t o wake the dead. This ti me it was the postman and he wanted me to sign for a regi st er ed l et t er ! Lesson55 Not a gold mi ne 并非金礦 Dr eams of f inding lost tr easure almost came t rue recently. A new machine caled 39。We are goi ng back now,39。Oh dear,39。l tel you where to get off ,39。t like losing my way. I went on an excur sion r ecentl y, but my tr ip t ook me longer than I expect ed. 39。Jum bo m ust weigh a few t ons, 39。Your si st er wil l be her e in les t han an hour and we must be at he station to meet her. We are late alr eady.39。 has been invented and i t has been used to detect gol d whi ch has been buried in t he ground. The machine was used i n a cave near the seashor e whereit is sai dpir at es used to hi de gold. The pir at es woul d of ten bury gold i n the cave and then f ai l t o coll ect it. Armed wit h the new machine, a search par ty went he di d not like it . She enjoyed hersel f making the assi st ant br ing al most ever ything in the window before f inal ly buying t he dres she had fir st asked f or. Leson58 A blesing in di sguise? 是因禍得福嗎？ The t iny vil age of Fri nley i s said t o posses a39。Wel, in t hat case, I pr ef er to stay on the bus, 39。 39。 t he conduct or sai d. 39。 I said t o the conduct or as I got on the bus,39。球還 ten hours. The man was order ed t o pay amp。 but I don39。This is as f ar as we go.39。I t doesn39。 I answer ed. Leson51 Reward for virtue 對(duì)美德的獎(jiǎng)賞 My fri end, Herbert, has always been f at , but t hi ngs got so bad recently t hat he decided to go on a diet. He began his diet a wek ago. Fir st of al , he wr ot e out a l ong l ist of al l t he f oods which were for bi dden. The l ist i ncluded most of the t hings Herber t l oves: but ter, potatoes, ri ce, beer , milk, chocolate, and sweet s. Yesterday I paid him a visit . I r ang the bel and was not surpr ised to see t hat Her bert was st il as f at as ever . He l ed me i nt o hi s room and hur ri edly hid a l ar ge parcel under his desk. I t was obvious t hat he was very embar rased. When I asked him what he was doing, he smiled gui lti ly and t hen put the par cel on t he desk. He explained that his diet was so str ict t hat he had t o r eward himself occasional y. Then he showed me the contents of t he parcel . I t cont ai ned fi ve l ar ge bars of chocol at e and three bags of swets! Lesson52 A pret y carpet 漂亮的地毯 We have just moved i nt o a new house and I have been working har d al l mor ni ng. I have been tr ying to get my new room in order . This has not been easy because I own over a thousand books. To make mat ters wor se, the room is rather smal, so I have t empor aril y put my books on the fl oor . At the moment, they cover every inch of f loor space and I actual ly have to walk on them to get in or out of t he r oom. A short whil e ago, my sister helped me to car y one of my old bookcases up the st ai rs. She went into my room and got a big surprise when she saw al l t hose books on the floor. 39。cur sed tr e39。 As she wal ked away, I f ol lowed her out of the fair . Lesson61 Trouble wi th t he Hubble 哈勃望遠(yuǎn)鏡的困境 I n future, astronauts wi l be r equired to descend fr om a spaceship whil e it is stil l i n space and t o return t o it. The abi l i t y to do this wil l be necessar y in futur e f li ghts t o di stant pla s. Sci enti st are now tr yi ng t o di scover if this is possible. The spaceship Astr a whi ch lef t he ear th a short ti me ago, wi l be t ravel ing three hundred miles into space. At a certain point, the Ast ra wil l stop for a short tim e and an ast ronaut wi l atempt t o leave the st at ionary spaceshi p and then return t o it. We shal not know whether the experiment has been successf ul unt il we have received a r adio m essage. The f irst message i s expected to ar ive at 7 o39。 sai d a poli ceman af ter wards, 39。 I39。 answer ed the conductor. I sat i n the fr ont of the bus t o get a good vi ew of the count rysi de. After some ti me, the bus stopped. Looking round, I r eali zed wit h a shock that I was the only passenger