【正文】 aer opl anes. The pl anes had been pla nti ng seed f or nearl y a month when it began to r ain. By then, however, i n many places the gr ass had alr eady t aken r oot . In pl ace of t he gr eat rees which had been growi ng there for cent uri es, pat ches 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 f ri ends and i s ver y popul ar at part ies. Ever ybody admir es him for his fi ne sense of humor ever ybody, that is, except hi s si xyear ol d daught er , Jenny. Recentl y, one of Geoff rey39。Your sister wil l be her e i n less than an hour and we must be at the stat ion t o meet her . We ar e late al ready. 39。Where have you been hi di ng ?39。A rel at ion of yours i s ing t o se you. She wil l be ar r iving t his eveni ng and intends to st ay for a f ew days. The moment you leave thi s tent, you wi l get a bi g surpri se. A woman you know wel l wi l l r ush towards you. She wil l speak to you and t hen she wi l l ead you away f rom thi s place. That is al .39。. Because the t ree was m ent ioned in a newspaper , the number of vi si tor s to Fr inl ey has now increased. The tr e was pl anted near a church f if ty year s ago, but i t is only in r ecent year s that it has gai ned an evi l r eput ation. I t i s sai d that if anyone touches t he tr e, he wi l have bad l uck。 has been invent ed and i t has been used to detect gol d which has been bur ied i n t he gr ound. The machine was used in a cave near t he seashor e where it i s sai d pir at es used to hide gold. The pir at es woul d of t en bur y gold i n the cave and then f ai l to coll ect i t. Ar med wi th t he new machine, a search part y went he did not li ke it . She enj oyed herself making the asi st ant bri ng alm ost ever ything i n t he window befor e f inal y buyi ng the dr ess she had fi rst asked for . Lesson58 A bl essing i n disguise? 是因禍得福嗎？ The t iny vi l age of Fr inley i s sai d t o possess a 39。 Lesson53 H ot snake 觸電的蛇 At last f ir emen have put out a big f orest fi re i n Cal i f or ni a. Since then, t hey have been tr ying t o fi nd out how the f ir e began. Forest f ir e are of ten caused by br oken gl as or by cigaret te ends which people carelessl y t hr ow awa y. Yest erday the f ir emen exam ined the gr ound caref ull y, but were not able t o fi nd any broken glass. They were al so qui te sure that a ci gar et e end di d not st art the f ir e. Thi s mor ni ng, however, a f ir em an accidental y discover ed the cause. He noti ced t he re m ai ns of a snake which was wound r ound the electr ic wi r es of a 16,000vol t power li ne. I n t hi s way, he was abl e to solve t he mystery. The expl anat ion was sim ple but ver y unusual. A bir d had snatched up the snake fr om t he ground and then dropped it on t o the wi r es. The snake t hen wound i tself r ound t he wir es. When it did so, it sent sparks down t o the gr ound and t hese i mmediatel y st art ed a fi re. Leson54 Sti cky fi ngers 粘糊的手指 Af ter breakfast, I sent t he chi ldren t o school and then I went to m ar ket. It was sti l earl y when I ret ur ned home. The chil dren wer e at school , my husband was at work and the house was quiet . So I decided t o make som e tar ts f or tea. I n a short ti me I was busy mi xing butt er and f lour and my hands wer e soon covered wi t h st icky past ry. At exact ly t hat m om ent , the t el ephone r ang. Nothi ng coul d have been mor e annoying. I picked up the r eceiver bet ween two st icky f ingers and was dismayed when I recogni zed the voice of Mr s Bates. I t took m e ten mi nutes to per suade her t o r ing back lat er . At last I hung up t he recei ver. What a mess! Ther e was pastr y on m y fi nger s, on t he 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. Thi s ti me i t was the postman and he wanted m e to si gn for a r egi st ered l et ter ! Leson55 Not a gold mine 并非金礦 Dr eam s of f indi ng lost reasur e alm ost cam e tr ue recently. A new machine cal led 39。You don39。Thi s is t he pr et iest carpet I have ever seen,39。s cl osest f ri ends asked hi m t o m ake a speech at a wedding r ecepti on. Thi s is t he sor t of t hing t hat Geoff r ey l oves. He pr epar ed t he speech car ef ul y and went t o t he weddi ng wi t h Jenny. He had i ncl uded a large number of funny stor ies in the speech and, of cour se, i t was a great success. As soon as he had fi nished, Jenny t old hi m she wanted t o go home. Geof fr ey was a l it le di sappointed by this but he did as hi s daughter asked. On the way hom e, he asked Jenny if she had enj oyed t he speech. To hi s sur pr i se, she said she hadn39。 As she wal ked away, I f ol lowed her out of t he fair . Lesson61 Troubl e wit h t he H ubbl e 哈勃望遠(yuǎn)鏡的困境 I n fut ur e, astr onaut s wil l be requir ed to descend f r om a spaceshi p whil e i t i s sti l i n space and t o ret ur n t o it. The abil it y t o do t hi s wi l be necessar y i n fut ur e f li ght s t o di st ant pl a s. Sci ent ists ar e now t ryi ng t o di scover i f t hi s is possi bl e. The spaceship Ast ra whi ch l ef t he eart h a shor t tim e ago, wi l be t r avel ing t hr ee hundr ed mi les i nt o space. At a cer tai n poi nt, t he Ast ra wil st op for a short ti me and an ast r onaut wil l at t em pt t o l eave t he st at ionar y spaceshi p and t hen r etur n to i t. We shal l not know whet her t he experim ent has been successful unt il we have r ecei ved a radio m esage. The fi r st m essage i s expect ed t o ar ri ve at 7 o39。 she asked im pati entl y. 39。 As soon as I went out si de, I f ot al l about Madam Bel li nsky because m y wif e hurr ied t owards me. 39。 if he pi cks a l eaf , he wil l die. Many vil la ger s beli eve t hat t he tr ee has al ready cl aim ed a num ber of victi ms. The vi car h