【正文】 t er who had been wor ki ng on t he t ower hung a pot of pai nt on one of t he hands and sl owed it down ! Lesson72 A car call ed Bl uebi rd “藍(lán)鳥”汽車 The gr eat r aci ng dr i ver, Si r Mal colm Cam pbel, was t he fi r st man t o dri ve at over 300 m il es per hour. He set up a new wor l d recor d i n Sept em ber 1935 at Bonnevil l e Sal t Fl ats, Ut ah. Bl uebir d, t he car he was dr ivi ng, had been speci al l y bui lt f or hi m. It was over 30 f et in l engt h and had a 2500 hor se power engine. Alt hough Cam pbel r eached a speed of over 304 mi l es per hour , he had gr eat di f fi cul ty i n cont rol li ng the car because a tyre bur st dur ing t he fi rst run. Aft er hi s at em pt, Campbel l was disappoint ed to l ear n t hat his average speed had been 299 m il es per hour. However , a f ew days l ater, he was t ol d t hat a m istake had been m ade. His avera ge speed had been 301 mil es per hour. Since t hat ti me, racing dr ivers have r eached speeds of over 400 mil es an hour . Fol lowi ng hi s fat her 39。s al ways pl ent y t o read i n t he 39。 he asked, bef ore I had f i ni shed speaki ng. ‘ Not at al ,39。 I was just wonder ing how to spend the mor ning until I saw you. You39。t have to car y him . Of cour se, we shoul d ar est hi m, but as he has a good recor d, we shal l let hi m of f thi s ti me.39。s closest f ri ends asked hi m t o make a speech at a wedding r ecepti on. This is the sor t of t hing t hat Geoff rey l oves. He prepared t he speech car efull y and went to t he weddi ng wi th Jenny. He had i ncl uded a l arge number of funny st ori es in t he speech and, of cour se, it was a gr eat success. As soon as he had f ini shed, Jenny tol d him she want ed to go hom e. Geoff r ey was a li t le di sappoi nted by t his but he di d as his daught er asked. On the way home, he asked Jenny i f she had enjoyed the speech. To his surpr ise, she sai d she hadn39。t our i st shave been pi cki ng leaves and cutt ing t hei r nam es on the t reet runk. So far , not one of them has been st ruck down by sudden death! Leson59 In or out ？ 進(jìn)來還是出去？ Our dog, Rex, used to si t out si de our f ront gate and bark. Ever y t ime he want ed to e into the garden he would bar k unti l someone opened the gate. As t he nei ghbours pl ai ned of the noise, m y husband spent weeks t rai ni ng him to pres hi s paw on t he latch t o let him sel f i n. Rex soon becam e an expe rt at openi ng the gate. However , when I was goi ng out shopping l ast week, I noti ced hi m i n t he gar den near the gate. This t ime he was bar king so that som eone woul d let him out ! Si nce then, he has devel oped another bad habit . As soon as he opens the gate f rom the outsi de, he es into the garden and wait s unt il t he gat e shut s. Then he sit s and bar ks unt il som eone l et s him out. Af ter thi s he imm edi ately l ets him sel f in and begins bar king again. Yest erday my husband r emoved the gate and Rex got so annoyed we have not seen hi m si nce. Lesson60 The fut ure 卜算未來 At a vi lage f ai r, I decided to vi sit a f or tunet el er cal l ed Madam Bel li nsky. I went i nto her tent and she t old m e to si t down. Af ter I had given her some m oney, she l ooked i nto a cr yst al bal and sai d: 39。clock t his eveni ng. By that im e, t he Astr a wil l have been fl ying t hrough space for sevent en hours and wi l have cir cl ed the eart h a great many ti mes. When the f ir st r adi o messages have been r eceived, t he result s of the tr ip wil l be announced i mmediat el y. Lesson62 Af t er the f ire 大火之后 Fir em en had been fi ghti ng the f or est f ir e f or nearl y thr ee weeks befor e they could get it under contr ol. A short t im e bef ore, great r es had cover ed the count ryside f or mil es ar ound. Now, smoke stil l rose up f rom the war m gr ound over the desol ate hi ls. Winter was ing on and t he hil ls t hr eat ened t he sur rounding vi l ages wi th destr uct ion, for heavy r ain woul d not onl y wa sh away the soil but woul d cause ser ious f loods as wel. When the f ir e had at l ast been put out, t he for est aut hor i ties or der ed several tons of a speci al t ype of gr asssed whi ch would gr ow qui ckl y. The seed was spr ayed over the ground i n huge quanti ti es by aer opl anes. The pl anes had been pl a nt ing seed for near ly a month when it began t o r ai n. By then, however, i n many places the gras s had al ready taken r oot . I n pl ace of the gr eat t rees which had been gr owi ng there f or centur ies, pat ches of green had begun t o appear in t he blackened soil . Lesson63 She was not amused 她并不覺得好笑 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 hi m for his f ine sense of humor ever ybody, that i s, except his si x year ol d daught er , Jenny. Recently, one of Geoff rey39。so it was f ort unate that we didn39。 Bert answer ed. 39。Woul d you m i nd m y i ng wit h you ?39。 There39。 you have j ust ki l led that child !39。 she asked im pat ientl y. 39。 of si x pret ty gi rl s, he set of f down the m ai n str eet of the ci ty r idi ng a baby el ephant cal led Jum bo. He, shoul d have known t hat t he pol ice woul d never al ow t hi s sor t of thing. A pol iceman appr oached Jimm y and told him he ought to have gone along a sidestr eet as Jumbo was holding up the t raf ic. Though Ji mmy agr ed t o go at once, Jum bo ref used to move. Fi ft en poli cem en had to push ver y hard to get him off t he main str eet . The pol ice had a di f icult ti me, but t hey were m ost amused. 39。Fancy m eti ng you here ! 39。 I39。 Then I 39。 I conti nued dr i vi ng and af t er som e ti me, t he exam i ner t apped loudly. Though t he sound could be hear d cl ear ly, it t ook m e a l ong t im e t o react . I suddenl y pr essed t he br ake pedal har d and we were bot h thr own f or war d. The exam iner looked at m e sadl y