【導(dǎo)讀】openedoneofthebaskets.Whenhebegantoplayatune,wehadourfirstglimpseofthesnake.Itroseoutofthebasketandbegantofollowthemovementsofthepipe.Wewereverymuchsurprisedwhenthesnakecharmersuddenlybegantoplayjazztunesandmodernpopsongs.Thesnake,however,continuedto'dance'slowly.ItobviouslycouldnottellthedifferencebetwenIndianmusicandjazz!Lesson43OvertheSouthPole飛越南極In1929,threyearsafterhisflightovertheNo

　　

【正文】 , I r eali zed wit h a shock that I was t he only passenger left on the bus. 39。 You39。l l have t o get of f here,39。 the conductor said. 39。This i s as far as we go. 39。 Is thi s Woodford Gr en ?39。 I asked. 39。Oh dear ,39。 said t he conductor suddenly.39。 I f ot to put you of f. 39。 I t doesn39。t mat ter,39。 I said. 39。Il l get of f here.39。 39。We are goi ng back now,39。 said the conductor. 39。Wel , i n that case, I prefer t o st ay on the bus,39。 I answered. Lesson51 Reward f or virtue 對(duì)美德的獎(jiǎng)賞 My fr iend, Her bert , has al ways been f at, but things got so bad recentl y that he deci ded to go on a di et . He began hi s di et a wek ago. Fi rst of al l, he wr ote out along l ist of al the foods whi ch were f or bidden. The list incl uded most of the things Herbert loves: butter, pot at oes, r ice, beer, mil k, chocol at e, and swets. Yest er day I paid him a vi si t. I r ang t he bel l and was not sur pr ised t o see that Herber t was st il l as fat as ever. He led me into his room and hurr iedl y hi d a large parcel under hi s desk. It was obvi ous that he was very embar assed. When I asked him what he was doing, he smi led guil til y and then put the parcel on the desk. He explained t hat hi s di et was so st ri ct that he had to r eward himself occasional y. Then he showed me t he contents of t he parcel . I t cont ai ned fi ve l ar ge bars of chocol at e and three bags of swe ts! Lesson52 A pret y carpet 漂亮的地毯 We have just moved i nt o a new house and I have been working har d al l mor ni ng. I have been tr ying to get my new room in order . This has not been easy because I own over a thousand books. To make mat ters wor se, the room is rather smal, so I have t emporaril y put my books on the fl oor . At the moment, they cover every inch of f loor space and I a ctual ly have to walk on them to get i n or out of t he r oom. A short whil e ago, my sister helped me to car y one of my old bookcases up the st ai rs. She went into my room and got a big surpri se when she saw al l t hose books on the floor. 39。This is the preti est carpet I have ever seen,39。 she said. She gazed at it for some ti me then added, 39。You don39。t need bookcases at al. You can si t here in your spare t ime and r ead the carpet! 39。 Leson53 Hot snake 觸電的蛇 At last fi remen have put out a big f or est fi re in Calif ornia. Since then, they have been tr yi ng t o fi nd out how the fi re began. For est fir e ar e of ten caused by br oken gl ass or by ci garet e ends which people carelessly t hr ow away. Yest er day the f iremen exami ned the ground car ef ul ly, but wer e not able to f ind any broken glas. They wer e al so qui te sur e that a ci gar et te end did not start the fi re. This morning, however , a f ir eman accidental y di scovered the cause. He noticed t he r emains of a snake whi ch was wound round the elect ric wi res of a 16, 000vol t power li ne. In t hi s way, he was able to sol ve t he mystery. The explanati on was si mpl e but very unusual . A bi rd had snatched up the snake f rom t he ground and then dropped it on to the wir es. The snake t hen wound it self round t he wi res. When i t did so, i t sent sparks down to t he ground and these immedi at el y st ar ted a f ir e. Lesson54 Sti cky f ingers 粘糊的手指 Aft er breakfast , I sent t he chi ldren to school and then I went t o mar ket . I t was st il ear ly when I r etur ned home. The chi ldren wer e at school, my husband was at wor k and the house was quiet. So I deci ded to make some tart s f or t ea. I n a short ti me I was busy mixing butt er and f lour and my hands were soon cover ed wi th sticky past ry. At exactly t hat moment, the telephone r ang. Nothing could have been more annoyi ng. I pi cked up the recei ver between t wo st icky f ingers and was dismayed when I r ecognized the voice of Mr s Bat es. I t ook me t en mi nutes to per suade her t o ring back later. At last I hung up t he r ecei ver. What a mes! There was past ry on my fi ngers, on the telephone, and on the door knobs. I had no sooner got back to t he kit chen t han the door bel l r ang loud enough to wake t he dead. This t ime it was t he post man and he want ed me t o si gn f or a registered leter ! Leson55 Not a gold mine 并非金礦 Dr eams of fi ndi ng l ost treasure almost came tr ue recent ly. A new machi ne cal led 39。The Revealer39。 has been invented and it has been used to det ect gold which has been bur ied in the ground. The machine was used in a cave near the seashore where it is said pirates used to hide gold. The pirates woul d of ten bury gold in t he cave and t hen f ai l t o coll ect i t. Armed wit h the new machine, a search par ty went he di d not like it . She enjoyed hersel f making the assi stant br ing al most ever yt hi ng in the window before f inal ly buying the dres s he had f ir st asked f or . Leson58 A blesing in di sgui se? 是因禍得福嗎？ The t iny vi l age of Fri nl ey i s said to possess a 39。cur sed tr e39。. Because t he t ree was ment ioned i n a newspaper, the 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 eaf, 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 touristshave 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