【正文】
s always plenty to read in the 39。 39。s hospital. Dressed up as Father Christmas and acpanied by a 39。 don39。This is a wonderful place for a piic,39。 Then I39。Hullo, Elizabeth,39。 said the voice of the television announcer,39。t read !39。 lesson70 Red for danger 危險的紅色 During a bullfight, a drunk suddenly wandered into the middle of the ring. The crowd began to shout, but the drunk was unaware of the danger. The bull was busy with the matador at the time, but it suddenly caught sight of the drunk who was shouting rude remarks and waving a red cap. Apparently sensitive to criticism, the bull fot all about the matador and charged at the drunk. The crowd suddenly grew quiet. The drunk, however, seemed quite sure of himself. When the bull got close to him, he clumsily stepped aside to let it pass. The crowd broke into cheers and the drunk bowed. By this time, however, three men had e into the ring and they quickly dragged the drunk to safety. Even the bull seemed to feel sorry for him, for it looked on sympathetically until the drunk was out of the way before once more turning its attention to the matador. Lesson71 A famous clock 一個著 名的大鐘 When you visit London, one of the first things you will 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 ! Lesson72 A car called Bluebird “藍鳥”汽車 The great racing driver, Sir Malcolm Campbell, was the first man to drive at over 300 miles per hour. He set up a new world record in September 1935 at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. Bluebird, the car he was driving, had been specially built for him. It was over 30 feet in length and had a 2500 horsepower engine. Although Campbell reached a speed of over 304 miles per hour, he had great difficulty in controlling the car because a tyre burst during the first run. After his attempt, Campbell was disappointed to learn that his average speed had been 299 miles per hour. However, a few days later, he was told that a mistake had been made. His average speed had been 301 miles per hour. Since that time, racing drivers have reached speeds of over 400 miles an hour. Following his father39。 I lied, 39。Hullo, Bert,39。so it was fortunate that we didn39。 39。Mr Eames,39。 he shouted: 39。 SOS39。 I said. 39。but I39。s footsteps many years later, Sir Malcolm39。 39。 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 macaroni stalks. The whole village has been working day and night gathering and threshing this year39。 Bert answered. 39。ll e with you,39。Just one more thing, Mr Eames. Let us suppose that a child suddenly crosses the road in front of you. As soon as I tap on the window, I want the car to be stopped immediately.39。 I39。Jumbo must weigh a few tons,39。 39。t be better, Gloria,39。 There39。re not busy doing anything, are you ?39。 Lesson77 A successful operation 一例成功的手術(shù) 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 Englishman, William Low. He suggested that a double railway tunnel should be built. This would solve the problem of ventilation, for if a train entered this tunnel, it would draw in fresh air behind it. Fortytwo years later a tunnel was actually begun. If, at the time, the British had not feared invasion, it would have been pleted. Recently, there has again been great interest in the idea of a Channel Tunnel. If it is built, it will connect Britain to Europe for the first time in history. Lesson65 Jumbo versus the police 小象對警察 Last Christmas, the circus owner, Jimmy Gates, decided to take some presents to a children39。said Rockwall,39。s fishing, or eight hours in a cinema seeing the same film over and over again, is usually as far as they get. They have all been put to shame by a boy who, while playing truant, travelled 1600 miles. He hitch hiked to Dover and, towards evening, went into a boat to find somewhere to sleep. When he woke up next morning, he discovered that the boat had, in the meantime, travelled to Calais. No one noticed the boy as he crept off. From there, he hitchhiked to Paris in a lorry. The driver gave him a few biscuits and a cup of coffee and left him just outside the city. The next car the boy stopped did not take him into the centre of Paris as he hoped it would, but to Perpignan on the FrenchSpanish border. There he was picked up by a policeman and sent back to England by the local authorities. He has surely set up a record for the thousands of boys who dream of evading school. Lesson74 Out of the limelight 舞臺之外 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. 39。 39。 39。 of six pretty girls, he set off down the main street of the city riding a b