【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 number of vi si tors to Fri nl ey has now i ncreased. The t ree was plant ed near a church fi fty year s ago, but i t i s only i n recent years t hat it has gained an evil reputati on. It is sai d that if anyone t ouches the tree, he wil l have bad l uck。 i f he picks a l ea f, he wi l die. Many vi lager s beli eve that the tr e has alr eady cl ai med a number of victims. The vicar has been asked t o have the tree cut down, but so f ar he has refused. He has pointed out that the tr e i s a usef ul source of i ne as tourists have been i ng f rom al par ts of t he countr y to se it . I n spit e of al that has been sai d, the tourists have been picki ng l eaves and cutti ng t heir names on the t ree tr unk. So f ar , not one of them has been struck down by sudden death! Leson59 In or out ？ 進(jìn)來(lái)還是出去？ Our dog, Rex, used to sit outside our fr ont gat e and bark. Every t ime he wanted to e i nt o the garden he would bar k unti l someone opened the gate. As t he neighbour s plained of the noise, my husband spent weeks training him to pres his paw on the la tch to l et himsel f i n. Rex soon became an expert at opening the gat e. However , when I was goi ng out shoppi ng l ast wek, I not iced him in the gar den near the gate. This ti me he was barki ng so that someone woul d let him out ! Si nce then, he has devel oped anot her bad habit . As soon as he opens the gate fr om the out si de, he es into t he gar den and wait s unti l t he gate shuts. Then he si ts and barks unti l someone l et s hi m out . Af ter t his he i mmediately l et s hi mself in and begi ns barking again. Yest er day my hus band removed the gate and Rex got so annoyed we have not seen hi m since. Leson60 The future 卜算未來(lái) At a vil lage f air , I deci ded to visit afort unetel er cal led Madam Beli nsky. I went into her tent and she told me to sit down. After I had given her some money, she looked into a cryst al bal l and said: 39。A relati on of yours is ing to se you. She wil l be ar iving this eveni ng and intends to stay for a few days. The moment you l eave this tent , you wil l get a big sur pr ise. A woman you know wel wil l r ush towards you. She wi l speak t o you and t hen she wil l ead you away f rom t hi s pl ace. That is al. 39。 As soon as I went out si de, I f ot al about Madam Bel insky because my wi fe hur ri ed t owards me. 39。Where have you been hiding ?39。 she asked impat ient ly. 39。Your si st er wil l be her e in les t han an hour and we must be at he station to met her. We are late alr eady.39。 As she walked away, I f olowed her out of the fair . Lesson61 Trouble wi th t he Hubble 哈勃望遠(yuǎn)鏡的困境 I n future, astronauts wi l be r equired to descend f rom a spaceship whil e it is stil l i n space and t o r et ur n to i t. The abi lit y to do this wil l be necesar y in futur e fli ghts t o di st ant pl a s. Sci enti st s are now tr yi ng to discover if this i s possible. The spaceship Astr a whi ch l ef t he ear th a short t ime ago, wi l be t ravel ling three hundred miles into space. At a certain point, the Ast ra wil l stop for ashort ti me and an ast ronaut wil atempt t o leave the st at ionary spaceship and t hen return t o it. We shal not know whether the experiment has been successf ul until we have received a radi o message. The f irst message is expected to ar ive at 7 o39。cl ock this evening. By that ime, t he As tr a wil have been fl yi ng t hr ough space for seventeen hours and wil l have cir cl ed t he ear th a great many t imes. When the fir st radio mesages have been r ecei ved, t he r esults of the tri p wil be announced immediatel y. Lesson62 Af ter the fi re 大火之后 Fir emen had been f ight ing the forest f ire f or nearl y three weks before t hey could get it under cont rol. A shor t ime bef or e, great tr es had covered the count rysi de f or mi les around. Now, smoke st il r ose up f rom t he warm gr ound over t he desolate hil ls. Winter was ing on and the hil s threat ened the surr oundi ng vil lages with dest ruct ion, for heavy r ai n woul d not only wash away the soil but would cause seri ous fl oods as wel. When t he f ir e had at l ast been put out, the forest aut hori ties order ed several t ons of a special t ype of gr ass seed which woul d gr ow quickly. The seed was sprayed over the ground in huge quanti ties by aeroplanes. The planes had been planting seed for near ly a mont h when it began to rain. By then, however, in many pl aces t he gras had al ready taken root. In place of the great tr es whi ch had been gr owi ng t here f or centuri es, patches 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 large ci rcle of fri ends and is ver y popul ar at part ies. Everybody admi res hi m for hi s fi ne sense of humoreverybody, t hat is, except his sixyear ol d daughter, Jenny. Recent ly, one of Geof fr ey39。s closest fr iends asked him to make a speech at a weddi ng r ecept ion. Thi s is the sor t of thing that opened one of the baskets. When he began to play a tune, we had our f irst gl impse of the snake. I t rose out of the basket and began to f ollow t he movement s of the pipe. We were ver y much sur pr ised when the snake charmer suddenl y began t o pl ay j azz tunes and moder n pop songs. The snake, however, conti nued to 39。dance39。 sl owl y. I t obvi ously could not t el l t he dif ference bet wen Indian music and j azz! Lesson43 Over the South Pole 飛越南極 I n 1929, thr e years aft er his fl ight over the Nor th Pole, t he Ameri can explorer, R. E. Byr d, successf ul ly f lew over the South Pol e for the f ir st ti me. Though, at f irst, Byrd and his men wer e able t o take a great many phot ogr aphs of the mountains that lay bel ow, they soon r an i nt o seri ous tr ouble. At one point, it seemed cer tain that heir plane would crash. I t could onl y get over t he mount ai ns i f i t r ose to 10,000 f