【正文】 ill see is Big Ben, the famous clock which can be heard all over the world on the . If the Houses of Parliament had hot been burned down in 1834, the great clock would never have been erected. Big Ben takes its name from Sir Benjamin Hall who was responsible for the making of the clock when the new Houses of Parliament were being built. It is not only of immense size, but is extremely accurate as well. Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day. On the . you can hear the clock when it is actually striking because microphones are connected to the clock tower. Big Ben has rarely gone wrong. Once, however, it failed to give the correct time. A painter who had been working on the tower hung a pot of paint on one of the hands and slowed it down ! An ancient bus stopped by a dry river bed and a party of famous actors and actresses got off. Dressed in dark glasses and old clothes, they had taken special precautions so that no one should recognize them. But as they soon discovered, disguises can sometimes be too perfect. Brinksley Meers agreed. 39。 I39。t be too hard on us. I39。 in the snow. Fortunately, a pilot saw the signal and sent a message by radio to the nearest town. It was not long before a helicopter arrived on the scene to rescue the survivors of the plane crash.macaroni stalks. The whole village has been working day and night gathering and threshing this year39。inside a mummy. The doctors have not yet decided how the woman died. They feared that the mummy would fall to pieces when they cut it open, but fortunately this has not happened. The mummy successfully survived the operation. Perhaps the most extraordinary building of the nineteenth century was the Crystal Palace, which was built in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was different from all other buildings in the world, for it was made of iron and glass. It was one of the biggest buildings of all time and a lot of people from many countries came to see it. A great many goods were sent to the exhibition from various parts of the world. There was also a great deal of machinery on display. The most wonderful piece of machinery on show was Nasmyth39。 No, not at all,39。‘ Not at all,39。 he answered.39。I was being tested for a driving licence for the third time. I had been asked to drive in heavy traffic and had done so successfully. After having been instructed to drive out of town, I began to acquire confidence. Sure that I had passed, I was almost beginning to enjoy my test. The examiner must have been pleased with my performance, for he smiled and said, 39。No newspaper men, no film fans! Why don39。m sheriff here. Do you see that notice ? It says No Campingin case you can39。m Rockwall Slinger and this is Merlin Greeves.39。s crop before the September rains. On the right, you can see Mrs Brabante herself. She has been helping her husband for thirty years now. Mrs Brabante is talking to the manager of the local I lit a cigarette to calm my nerves. I smoked with concentration and pleasure as I was sure that this would be my last cigarette. For a whole wee。The mummy of an Egyptian woman who died in 800 . has just had an operation. The mummy is that of Shepenmut who was once a singer in the Temple of Thebes. As there were strange marks on the Xray plates taken of the mummy, doctors have been trying to find out whether the woman died of a rare disease. The only way to do this was to operate. The operation, which lasted for over four hours, proved to be very difficult because of the hard resin which covered the skin. The doctors removed a section of the mummy and sent it to a laboratory. They also found something which the Xray of the god Duamutef. This god which has the head of a cow was normally placed we are taking you to the macaroni fields of Calabria. Macaroni has been grown in this area for over six hundred years. Two of the leading growers, Giuseppe Moldova and Ricardo Brabante, tell me that they have been expecting a splendid crop this year and harvesting has begun earlier than usual. Here you can see two workers who, between them, have just finished cutting three cartloads of golden brown SOS39。m Brinksley Meers, and my other name is Gloria Gleam. Now you get out of here fast !39。 don39。 he shouted: 39。t be better, Gloria,39。Lesson74 Out of the limelight 舞臺之外s son, Donald, also set up a world record. Like his father, he was driving a car called Bluebird.Lesson71 A famous clock 一個(gè)著名的大鐘 Then I39。Would you mind my ing with you ?39。 I said. 39。Haroun Tazieff the Polish scientist, has spent his lifetime studying active volcanoes and deep caves in all parts of the world. In 1948, he went to lake Kivu in the Congo to observe a new volcano which he later named Kituro. Tazieff was able to set up his camp very close to the volcano while it was erupting violently. Though he managed to take a number of brilliant photographs, he could not stay near the volcano for very long. He noticed that a river of liquid rock was ing towards him. It threatened to surround him pletely, but Tazieff managed to escape just in time. He waited until the volcano became quiet and he was able to return two days later. This time, he managed to climb into the mouth of Kituro so that he could take photographsLesson80Cigarette Smoking and Your Health39。Lesson77 A successful operation 一例成功的手術(shù) said the voice of the television announcer,39。 lay thick on the ground. The woman knew that the nearest village was miles away. When it grew dark. she turned a suitcase into a bed and put the children inside it, covering them with all the clothes she could find. During the night, it got terribly cold. The woman kept as near as she could to the children and even tried to get into the case herself, but it was too small. Early ,next morning she heard planes passing overhead and wondered how she could send a signal. Then she had an idea. She stamped out the letters39。Well, I39。said Rockwall,39。Now you gut out of here, all of you!39。 It couldn39。s foo