【正文】 s she had f ir st asked for. Lesson58 A blessi ng in disgui se? 是因禍得福嗎？ The t iny vil lage of Fri nley i s said to possess a 39。 I for got t o put you of f. 39。 I sai d to the conductor as I got on t he bus, 39。but they did not steal anythi ng. 39。 lesson46 Expensi ve and un fortabl e 既昂貴又受罪 When a pl ane f rom London ar ri ved at Sydney ai rpor t, wor ker s began t o unload a number of wooden boxes whi ch cont ai ned cl othing. No one could account for t he fact that one of t he boxes was extr em el y heavy. It suddenly occurr ed to one of t he workers to open up the box. He was astonished at what he found. A man was l ying i n the box on t op of a pil e of woollen goods. He wa s so sur pr ised at bei ng discovered t hat he di d not even tr y t o r un away. Af ter he was ar est ed, the m an adm it ted hidi ng in t he box bef ore t he plane lef t London. He had had a long and unf ort abl e tr i p, f or he had been conf ined t o the wooden box for over ten hours. The man was ordered t o pay amp。 the conduct or said. 39。 I answered. Lesson51 Reward f or virt ue 對美德的獎賞 My f ri end, Her ber t, has al ways been f at, but t hings got so bad r ecentl y that he deci ded t o go on a di et. He began hi s diet a week ago. Fi rst of al l, he wr ote out a long l ist of al l the f oods whi ch were f orbi dden. The li st i ncl uded most of the t hi ngs Herbert l oves: but ter, potat oes, ri ce , beer , mil k, chocol ate, and sweets. Yest erday I paid hi m a vi si t. I r ang t he bel l and was not surpr ised to see that Herbert was sti l as f at as ever . He l ed me int o his r oom and hurr iedly hi d a l arge parcel under his desk. I t was obvious t hat he was very embar rassed. When I asked him what he was doi ng, he smi led guil ti ly and t hen put t he par cel on t he desk. He expl ai ned that his diet was so str ict that he had t o r ewar d him sel f occasi onal ly. Then he showed me t he cont ent s of the parcel. I t contai ned f ive l arge 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 c over every inch of fl oor space and I actual y have to wal k on them to get in or out of the r oom . A short whil e ago, m y sister hel ped me t o car ry one of my old bookcases up the stair s. She went i nt o my room and got a big sur pri se when she saw al t hose books on t he f loor. 39。 As she wal ked away, I f ol lowed her out of t he fai r. Lesson61 Troubl e wit h t he Hubble 哈勃望遠鏡的困境 In fut ur 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 stant pl a s. Scienti st s are now tr yi ng to discover 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 tai n 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 leave the stati onar y spaceshi p and then r et urn to i t. We shal not know whether the exper iment has been successf ul unt il we have r eceived a r adi o mes sage. The fi rst mesage is expect ed to ar r i ve at 7 o39。345 f or t he cost of the t ri p. The nor mal pr ice of a t icket i s amp。This is as far as we go.39。This i s the pr eti est carpet I have e ver seen, 39。You don39。 Is t his Woodf ord Green ?39。 eggs and asked me whet her m y col lecti on was growi ng. He then asked me how my br other was and whet her I li ked my new j ob in London. In answer t o t hese quest ions I ei ther nodded or made str ange noises. Meanwhi le, my t ongue was busy searching out the hol e where t he tooth had been. I suddenly felt very worr ied, but could not say anythi ng. When the dentist at last r emoved the cott on wool f r om my mouth, I was abl e to tel him t hat he had pull ed out t he wrong t oot h. Lesson49 The end of a dream 美夢告終 Tir ed of sl eepi ng on the f loor, a young man i n Teher an saved up f or years to buy a r eal bed. For t he fi rst ti me i n his l if e, he becam e the pr oud owner of a bed which had spri ngs and a m at tr es. Because the weather was ver y hot, he car ied t he bed on to t he roof of his house. He slept ver y wel l f or the f ir st t wo ni ght s, but on the t hir d night, a stor m bl ew up. A gust of wi nd swept t he bed of f the r oof and sent i t crashi ng int o the court yar d below. The young man did not wake up unti l t he bed had st ruck t he gr ound. Al though the bed was smashed t o pieces, the m an was mir acul ousl y unhur t. When he woke up, he was st il l on the m at tr es. Glancing at the bi ts of wood and metal that la y ar ound hi m, the m an sadl y pi cked up the m at tr es and car ied i t i nto hi s house. Aft er he had put it on t he fl oor , he pr omptl y went to sl ep again. Leson50 Taken for a ri de 乘車兜風(fēng) I l ove t ravel ing i n the countr y, but I don39。s cl osest f ri ends asked hi m to m ake a speech at a wedding r ecepti on. Thi s is t he sor t of t hing t hat Geof fr ey loves. He pr epar ed the speech car eful ly and went to t he wedding wi th Jenny. He had i ncl uded a large number of funny stor ies in the speech and, of cour se, i t was a gr eat success. As soon as he had fi nished, Jenny t ol d him she wanted t o go home. Geof fr ey was a li t le di sappointed by t his but he did as his daughter asked. On the way home, he asked Jenny if she had enjoyed t he speech. To his sur pr ise, she said she hadn39。 she said. She gazed at it f or some tim e then added, 39。 39。230 ! Lesson47 A thi r