【正文】 him a present to mark the occasion. Al l t hose who have contr ibut ed t owards the gift wil l sign their names in a large al bum whi ch wil l be sent to the headmaster39。s home. We shal al l r eme mber Mr Page for his pati ence and under st anding and for the kindl y encouragement he gave us when we went so unwil lingly to sc hool. A great many f or mer pupi ls wil be at tending a farewel di nner i n hi s honour next Thursday. I t i s a curious coincidence t hat the day bef or e hi s retir ement, Mr Page wil have been teaching for a t ot al of forty year s. Aft er he has reti red, he wi l devote himself t o gardeni ng. For hi m, t his wil be an entir el y new hobby. But this does not mater, f or , as he has of ten remar ked, one is never too old to l earn. Leson86 Out of control 失控 As t he man tr ied to swing the speedboat round, t he steer ingwheel came away in his hands. He waved desperately to his panion, who had been wat er ski ing for the l ast fi teen minut es. Both men had har dly had t ime to r eali ze what was happeni ng when they were t hr own violent1y into the sea. The speedboat had struck a buoy, but it conti nued to move very qui ckly across the water. Bot h men had j ust begun t o swi m towards t he shor e. when t hey not iced wit h di smay that he speed boat was movi ng i n a cir cle. I t now came straight t owards them at remendous speed. In les t han a minute, i t r oared past them only a f ew feet away. Af ter i t had passed, they swam on as quickl y as they could because t hey knew t hat the boat would soon return. They had just had enough time t o swi m out of danger when the boat agai n pl et ed a cir cl e. On this ocasi on, however, it had slowed down considerabl y. The petrol had nearl y al l been used up. Bef or e long, the noise dropped pletel y and the boat began t o dr if t gent ly acr oss the water. Lesson87 A perfect alibi 極好的不在犯罪現(xiàn)場的證據(jù) 39。At he t ime t he murder was mit ted, I was t ravel ing on t he o39。clock t rain t o London,39。 said t he man. 39。Do you al ways catch such an ear ly t rain ?39。 asked the i nspector. 39。Of course I do,39。 answer ed t he man. 39。 I must be at work at o39。clock. My employer wil l conf ir m that I was ther e on t ime.39。 Would a later train get you to work on ti me ?39。 asked the inspect or . 39。 I suppose it would, but I never catch a later train.39。 39。At what time did you ar ri ve at the stati on ?39。 39。At en t o ei ght. I bought a paper and wait ed f or t he t rain.39。 And you di dn39。t not ice anything unusual ?39。 Of course not.39。 39。I suggest,39。 said t he i nspector, 39。t hat you ar e not tel ing the truth. I suggest that you di d not catch the 8. 0 o39。cl ock tr ai n, but that you caught the which would sti l get you to wor k on t ime. You see, on the morning of t he murder, the 8. 0 o39。clock tr ain di d not run at al. It broke down at Fer ngr en st at ion and was t aken of f the l ine. 39。 Leson88 Trapped in a m ine 困在礦井里 Six men have been t rapped in a mine for seventeen hour s. I f t hey are not brought t o the surf ace soon they may lose thei r l ives. However, rescue operations ar e pr oving dif ficult. I f expl osives are used, vibrati ons wil l cause the roof of the mine to col lapse. Rescue workers ar e ther ef ore dril li ng a hol e on t he nort h side of t he mi ne. They intend to bring the men up i n a special capsule. I f ther e had not been a hard l ayer of rock beneath the soil , t hey woul d have ple ted the job in a few hour s. As it is, t hey have been dr il ing for si xt en hours and t hey stil l have a l ong way t o go. Meanwhi le, a mi cr ophone, which was l owered into t he mi ne t wo hours ago, has enabl ed t he men to keep in t ouch with t he closest r el at ives. Though they ar e running out of food and dr ink, the men ar e cheer ful and confident that hey wil l get out soon. They have been t ol d that rescue operations ar e pr ogr essi ng smoothly. If they knew how di fi cult i t was to dri l through the har d rock, they woul d l ose heart . Lesson89 A sl ip of t he tongue 口誤 People wil l do anything t o see a f ree show even i f it is abad one. When t he news got r ound that a var iety show woul d be pr esented at our l ocal cinema by the P. and U. Bi rd Sed Company, we al l r ushed t o see it. We had to queue f or hour s to get in and ther e must have been several hundred people present just be f or e the show began. Unf ortunat el y, the show was one of t he dul lest we have ever seen. Those who failed to get i n need not have f elt di sappointed as many of the ar ti st es who shoul d have appear ed di d not e. The only f unny things we heard t hat eveni ng came from t he advert iser at he begi nning of t he programme. He was obvi ously ver y nervous and for some minut es stood awkwar dl y before t he mi cr ophone. As soon as he opened his mouth, ever yone burst out laughi ng. We al know what the poor man should have sai d, but what he actual ly said was: 39。This i s t he Poo and Ee Sed Bird Company. Good ladi es, evening and gentl emen !39。 leson90 Whats for supper ？ 晚餐吃什么？ Though Br azil is one of the ri chest count ri es in t he worl d, much of it has not yet been devel oped. I t was mai nl y for this reason that the Brazi li an government decided t o have a new city built 600 m iles nort hwest of Rio de Janei ro. Designed by the gr eat ar chit ect Lucio Costa, the new city, Brasi lia, repl aced Ri o de Janeir o as the capit al of Br azif in 1960. Brasil ia has been car ef ul ly planned for modern li vi ng. It s wi de r oads, which can take f ourt en lanes of traf ic, have been kept away fr om li vi ng areas. Chi ldren do not have t o cr oss busy str eets t o go t o school. Housewi ves can visi t shopping centr es on foot , f or i n these speci al ly designed li vi ng areas, cars are unnecessary. At f irst, the gover nment had great dif icul ty i n persuading peopl e to leave