【正文】 e bars of chocol at e and thr e bags of sweet s! Leson52 A pret y carpet 漂亮的地毯 We have just m oved i nto a new house and I have been wor ki ng hard al l m orning. I have been tr ying t o get my new r oom i n order. Thi s has not been easy because I own over a t housand books. To make mat ers wor se, the r oom i s rat her smal , so I have tem por ar i ly put my books on the f loor. At t he moment, t hey cover ever y i nch of f loor space and I act ual ly have t o walk on them t o get i n or out of t he room. A shor t while ago, my si st er helped m e to car y one of my ol d bookcases up t he st air s. She went into my r oom and got a big surpr ise when she saw al l those books on t he fl oor . 39。cur sed t ree39。 As she wal ked a way, I f ol lowed her out of t he fai r. Lesson61 Troubl e wit h t he Hubble 哈勃望遠(yuǎn)鏡的困境 In futur e, astr onaut s wil l be requir ed to descend f rom a spaceshi p whil e it i s st il l in space and t o r et urn t o i t. The abili ty to do t his wi l be necessar y i n fut ure f li ght s to di s tant pl a s. Scienti st s are now tr yi ng to di scover if t hi s is possi ble. The spaceship Astr a which l ef t the eart h a short ti me ago, wil l be tr avel ing t hree hundr ed mi les int o space. At a cer tain poi nt, the Ast ra wi l l st op for a short ti me and an astr onaut wil l at tempt t o l eave the stati onar y spaceshi p and then r et urn t o i t. We shal not know whether the exper im ent has been successf ul unt il we have received a r adi o message. The f ir st mesage is expected t o ar ive at 7 o39。 I sai d to the conductor as I got on t he bus, 39。l l have t o get of f her e,39。 I for got t o put you of f. 39。Wel l, in that case, I pr ef er to st ay on the bus, 39。 has been invent ed and it has been used to detect gol d whi ch has been bur ied i n t he gr ound. The machine was used in a cave near t he seashor e wherei t i s sai d pir at es used t o hide gold. The pir at es would of ten bury gol d in the cave and t hen fai l t o coll ect it . Arm ed wit h t he new machi ne, a sea rch part y went he di d not li ke it. She enjoyed hersel f making t he assistant bri ng al most everyt hing i n the wi ndow befor e fi nal ly buying the dress she had f ir st asked for . Lesson58 A blessi ng in disguise? 是因禍得福嗎？ The t iny vil lage of Fri nley i s sai d to possess a 39。Your sister wi l be her e i n less than an hour and we must be at the st at ion t o meet her . We ar e late al ready.39。m goi ng to Woodford Green,39。cl ock this eveni ng. By that ti me, the Astr a wi l have been f lying through space f or sevent een hour s and wil l have cir cled the ear th a gr eat many t imes. When t he fi rst radio m esages have been r ecei ved, the r esult s of the t ri p wi l be announced imm edi at ely. Lesson62 Aft er the f ire 大火之后 Fir emen had been f ighti ng the f orest fi re f or near ly t hree weeks bef ore t hey could get i t under cont rol. A shor t ti me before, great tr ees had cover ed the countr ysi de f or mi les around. Now, smoke sti l r ose up f rom the war m ground over t he desolate hi l s. Wint er was i ng on and the hil ls t hreatened the surr oundi ng vi l ages wi th destr uct ion, for heavy rain woul d not onl y wash away the soil but would cause seri ous fl oods as wel . When the f ir e had at last been put out , t he for est authori ti es or der ed sever al t ons of a speci al t ype of gr as seed which woul d grow qui ckl y. The seed was spr ayed over the gr ound in huge quant it es by aer oplanes. The planes had been pla nti ng seed f or nearl y a mont h when it began t o r ai n. By then, however, i n many places the grass had al ready taken r oot . In pl ace of t he gr eat t rees which had been growi ng there f or cent ur ies, pat ches of green had begun t o appear in the blackened soil . Lesson63 She was not amused 她并不覺(jué)得好笑 Geof fr ey Hampden has a l arge cir cle of f ri ends and is ver y popul ar at part ies. Everybody admir es him for his f ine sense of humor ever ybody, that is, except hi s si xyear ol d daught er , Jenny. Recentl y, one of Geoff rey39。. Because the t ree was menti oned in a newspaper , t he num ber of visi tors t o Fr inley has now i ncr eased. The t ree was pl ant ed near a church f if ty years ago, but i t i s only i n r ecent years t hat i t has gained an evil r eput at ion. It i s sai d that if anyone t ouches the t ree, he wil l have bad luck。This i s the pr et ti est carpet I have ever seen, 39。t mat ter, 39。Thi s is as far as we go.39。t know wher e i t is.39。s closest f ri ends asked hi m t o make a speech at a wedding r ecepti on. Thi s is t he sor t of t hing t hat Geoff rey l oves. He pr epared t he speech car efull y and went to t he weddi ng wi th Jenny. He had i ncl uded a large number of funny stori es in t he speech and, of cour se, it was a gr eat success. As soon as he had fi ni shed, Jenny tol d him she want ed to go hom e. Geof fr ey was a li t le di sappoi nted by t his but he did as his daught er asked. On the way home, he asked Jenny i f she had enjoyed the speech. To his surpr ise, she said she hadn39。 if he picks a l eaf , he wil l di e. Many vil lager s bel ieve t hat t he tr e has alr eady cl ai med a number of vi cti ms. The vi car has been asked t o have the t ree cut down, but so far he has r efused. He has point ed out t hat the t ree i s a usef ul source of i ne as t our ists have been ing f rom al l par ts of t he countr y t o se it. I n spi t e of al l t hat has been said, t he touri st s have been picking leaves and cutti ng their names on t he tr e tr unk. So f ar, not one of t hem has been str uck down by sudden deat h! Lesson59 In or out ？ 進(jìn)來(lái)還是出去？ Our dog, Rex, used t o sit outside our fr ont gat e and bar k. Ever y ti me he wanted t o e i nt o t he gar den he woul d bark unt il s om eone opened t he gate. As the neighbour s plained of t he noi se, my husband spent wee