【正文】 ing. I have been tr ying t o get m y new r oom i n order. Thi s has not been easy because I own over a t housand books. To make mat er s wor se, the r oom i s rat her smal , so I have tempor ar il y put my books on the f loor. At t he moment, they cover every inch of fl oor space and I actual y have t o wal k on them to get in or out of the r oom . A shor t whil e ago, m y si ster hel ped me to car ry one of my old bookcases up the stair s. She went int o my room and got a big sur pr ise when she saw al those books on t he fl oor. 39。 I t doesn39。l l have t o get of f her e, 39。 I sai d to the conductor as I got on the bus, 39。 I am 100 per cent honest now! 39。but t hey did not st eal anything. 39。 Lesson45 A cl ear consci ence 問心無愧 The whole vi l age soon l ear nt t hat a l arge sum of money had been l ost . Sam Benton, the l ocal but cher , had l ost hi s walet whi le t aki ng his savi ngs to t he post off ice. Sam was sure t hat t he wal et m ust have been f ound by one of the vi l ager s, but it was not r etur ned t o him . Thr ee months pased, and t hen one m orning, Sam f ound hi s wal et out si de hi s f ront door . It had been wr apped up i n newspaper and i t cont ai ned hal f the money he had lost, t ogether wi th a not e which said: 39。 leson46 Expensi ve and unf ortable 既昂貴又受罪 When a plane fr om London ar ived at Sydney ai rport , workers began to unl oad a number of wooden boxes which contained clot hing. No one coul d acount for the f act t hat one of the boxes was ext remely heavy. I t suddenly occurr ed to one of the wor kers t o open up the box. He was ast oni shed at what he f ound. A man was l yi ng in the box on t op of a pi le of wool len goods. He was so surpr ised at being di scovered t hat he did not even tr y to run a way. Aft er he was ar rested, the man admi t ed hi ding i n the box bef or e t he pl ane left London. He had had a l ong and unf or tabl e tr ip, for he had been conf ined to the wooden box for over t en hour s. The man was ordered t o pay amp。 but I don39。 t he conduct or said. 39。t m at ter ,39。Thi s is t he pr et iest carpet I have ever seen,39。. Because the t ree was ment ioned in a newspaper , the number of vi si tor s to Fr inl ey has now i ncr eased. The tr e was pl ant ed near a church f if ty years ago, but i t is only i n r ecent year s that it has gai ned an evil r eput at ion. It i s sai d that if anyone t ouches the t ree, he wil l have bad l uck。cl ock t his eveni ng. By that tim e, t he Astr a wi l have been f lying t hrough space f or sevent en hours and wi l have cir cl ed the eart h a gr eat many t imes. When the f ir st r adio m essages have been r eceived, the r esult s of the t ri p wi ll be announced i mm edi at ely. Lesson62 Af t er the f ire 大火之后 Fir em en had been f ighti ng the f orest f ir e f or nearl y t hr ee weeks bef or e t hey could get it under contr ol. A shor t im e bef ore, great tr es had cover ed the count ryside f or mil es ar ound. Now, sm oke st i l l r ose up f r om t he war m t he di f f erence bet ween Indian m usic and j az! Leson43 Over t he Sout h Pol e 飛越南極 I n 1929, t hr ee year s aft er hi s fl ight over t he Nort h Pole, the Amer ican expl orer , R. E. Byr d, successf ull y f lew over the South Pol e for t he fi rst ti me. Though, at f ir st , Byrd and hi s men were abl e to t ake a great many phot ogr aphs of t he mount ains that lay below, t hey soon r an into ser ious tr oubl e. At one point , i t seemed cert ai n t hat t hei r pl ane woul d crash. It coul d only get over t he mountains i f it rose t o 10, 000 feet. Byr d at once order ed hi s men t o thr ow out two heavy f ood sacks. The plane was then able t o r ise and it cleared t he mountains by 400 f eet . Byr d now knew that he woul d be able t o r each the Sout h Pole whi ch was 300 mil es away, for t her e wer e no more mount ains in si ght . The ai r cr aft was able t o fl y over the endl es whi te pl ai ns wit hout di f icult y. Le son44 Through the f orest 穿過森林 Mrs Anne St er li ng did not t hi nk of the r isk she was taking when she r an through a f orest af ter two men. They had r ushed up t o her whi le she was havi ng a piic at the edge of a for est wi th her childr en and tr ied t o st eal her handbag. I n t he st ruggle, the str ap broke and, wi th the bag in their possessi on, both men st art ed running t hrough the t rees. Mrs St erl ing got so angry that she r an aft er t hem . She was soon out of br eat h, but she conti nued t o r un. When she caught up wi th them, she saw t hat t hey had sat down and were going t hrough t he contents of t he bag, so she ran str ai ght at t hem. The m en got such a fr ight that they dropped the bag and r an away. 39。 Only 25 per cent a t hief now! 39。t li ke losing my way. I went on an excur si on recent ly, but my t ri p took me longer t han I expect ed. 39。l l tel you wher e to get off ,39。Oh dear ,39。 We ar e going back now, 39。 Lesson53 H ot snake 觸電的蛇 At last f ir emen have put out a big f orest f ir e i n Cal i f or ni a. Since then, t hey have been tr ying t o fi nd out how the f ir e began. Forest f ir e are of ten caused by br oken gl as or by cigaret te ends which people carelessl y t hr ow away. Yest erday the f ir emen exam ined the gr ound caref ull y, but were not able t o fi nd any broken glass. They were al so qui te sure that a ci gar et e end di d not st art the f ir e. Thi s mor ni ng, however, a f ir em an accidental y discover ed the cause. He noti ced t he rem ai ns of a snake which was wound r ound the electr ic wi r es of a 16,000vol t power li ne. I n t hi s way, he was abl e to solve t he mystery. The expl anat ion was sim ple but ver y unusual. A bir d had snatc hed up the snake fr om t he ground and then dropped it on t o the wi r es. The snake t hen wound i tself r ound t he wir es. When it did so, it sent sparks down t o the g