【正文】 said the voi ce of the televi si on announcer ,39。 l esson75 SOS 呼救信號(hào) When a l ight passenger pl ane fl ew of f cour se some t ime ago, it cr ashed i n t he mount ai ns and i ts pilot was kil led. The only passengers, a young woman and her two baby daught er s, wer e unhur t. It was t he mi ddl e of winter. Snow lay thick on the gr ound. The woman knew that he near est vil lage was miles away. When it grew dar k. she t ur ned a suit case i nt o a bed and put t he chi ldren insi de i t, cover ing them wit h al l t he clothes she coul d fi nd. Dur ing the ni ght, it got ter ribly cold. The woman kept as near as she coul d to the chi ldren and even tr ied to get into t he case her self, but i t was too smal . Early , next mor ni ng she hear d pl anes pasing overhead and wonde red how she could send a signal . Then she had an i dea. She st amped out the l et ters39。 Oh, i s i t ?39。 don39。t read !39。Now you gut out of here, al of you!39。 Br inksley Meer s agreed. 39。Thi s i s a wonder ful place for a piic,39。 l esson70 Red for danger 危險(xiǎn)的紅色 Dur ing a bull fight, a dr unk suddenly wandered into t he mi ddle of the ring. The cr owd began to shout, but the drunk was unawar e of t he danger . The bul l was busy wi th t he matador at t he ti me, but i t suddenly caught sight of the dr unk who was shouting r ude remar ks and waving a red cap. Appar entl y sensit ive to cri ticism, t he bull fot al about t he matador and char ged at t he drunk. The crowd suddenly grew qui et . The drunk, however, seemed quite sur e of himsel f. When t he bull got cl ose to him, he cl umsil y stepped aside to l et it pass. The cr owd br oke i nt o cheer s and the dr unk bowed. By t hi s time, however, three men had e into t he r ing and they quickly dragged the dr unk to safety. Even t he bull seemed to f el sorr y for hi m, for i t l ooked on sympathet ical ly unt il the dr unk was out of the way before once more t ur ni ng i ts atention to t he matador . Lesson71 A famous clock 一個(gè)著名的大鐘 When you vi sit London, one of the fir st t hi ngs you wil l see is Big Ben, the famous clock which can be hear d al over t he worl d on t he B. B. C. I f the Houses of Parli ament had hot been burned down in 1834, the gr eat clock would never have been erected. Big Ben takes its name from Si r Benj ami n Hal l who was responsible for the making of the cl ock when the new Houses of Parli ament were being buil t. It is not onl y of i mmense size, but i s extremely acur ate as wel . Of ficials f rom Gr enwi ch Obser vatory have the clock checked twi ce a day. On the . you can hear the cl ock when i t i s actual ly stri ki ng because microphones are connected to t he clock tower . Big Ben has r ar el y gone wr ong. Once, however , i t f ai led to give the corr ect time. A pai nt er who had been wor king on t he t ower hung a pot of pai nt on one of t he hands and slowed it down ! Lesson72 A car call ed Bl uebird “藍(lán)鳥”汽車 The great raci ng dr iver , Sir Malcolm Campbel , was the fir st man to dri ve at over 300 miles per hour. He set up a new wor ld r ecor d in Sept ember 1935 at Bonnevil le Sal t Flats, Ut ah. Bluebir d, the car he was drivi ng, had been special y buil t f or him. I t was over 30 f et i n le ngth and had a 2500 hor sepower engine. Alt hough Campbel reached a speed of over 304 mi les per hour, he had gr eat di fi cult y in contr olli ng t he car because a tyre bur st dur ing the fi rst r un. Aft er his at tempt, Campbel was di sappointed to learn that his a ver age speed had been 299 miles per hour. However , a f ew days l at er , he was told that a mi stake had been made. Hi s aver age speed had been 301 mil es per hour . Since that ti me, racing dr iver s have r eached speeds of over 400 mi les an hour . Following hi s father 39。 I cont inued drivi ng and aft er some t ime, t he exami ner tapped loudly. Though the sound could be hear d cl ea rl y, it t ook me a long t ime t o react. I suddenl y pr essed the brake pedal hard and we were both thrown f or war d. The exami ner looked at me sadly. 39。s always pl enty t o read i n the 39。 Then I 39。 he asked, bef or e I had fi ni shed speaking. ?Not at al ,39。 I 39。r e not busy doi ng anyt hi ng, ar e you ?39。Fancy meti ng you here ! 39。t have t o car y hi m. Of cour se, we should ar est him , but as he has a good r ecord, we shal let hi m off this t ime.39。 of si x pr et ty girl s, he set of f down the mai n st reet of t he cit y riding a baby elephant cal ed Jumbo. He, shoul d have known t hat the poli ce would never al ow this sor t of thing. A policeman appr oached Ji mmy and told him he ought to have gone al ong a side st reet as Jumbo was holding up the tr af fic. Though Jimmy agr ed to go at once, Jumbo r ef used to move. Fi ft en poli cemen had to push ver y har d to get him off t he main street. The pol ice had a dif icul t time, but they were most amused. 39。 I l it a ci garet e to calm my ner ves. I smoked wi th concentr at ion and pleasur e as I was sur e that t hi s would be my last ci gar et te. For a whole wek I di d not smoke at al and dur ing this ti me, my wi f e suf f er ed t er r i bl y. I had al l t he us ual sym pt om s of som eone gi vi ng up sm oki ng: a bad t em per and an enor m ous appet i t e. My f r i ends kept on of f er i ng m e ci gar et t es a nd ci gar s. They m ade no ef f or t t o hi de t hei r am usem ent whenever I pr oduced a packet of sweet s f r om m y pocket . Af t er seven day s of t hi s I went t o a par t y. Ever ybody ar ound m e was sm oki ng and I f el t ext r em el y un f or t abl e. When m y ol d f r i end Br i an ur ged m e t o accept a ci gar et t e, i t was m or e t han I coul d bear . I t ook one gui l t i l y, l i t i t and Geof f r ey l oves. He pr epar ed the speech carefull y and went to the wedding wit h Jenny. He had incl uded a l ar ge number of f unny st or ies in the speech and, of course, it was a gr ea