【正文】 r own as well. They never bee submissive like dogs and horses. As a result, humans have learned to respect feline independence. Most cats remain suspicious of humans all their lives. One of the things that fascinates us most about cats is the popular belief that they have nine lives. Apparently, they is a good deal of truth in this idea. A cat?s ability to survive falls is based on fact. Recently the New York Animal Medical Centre made a study of 132 cats over a period of five months. All these cats had one experience in mon: they had fallen off high buildings, yet only eight of them died from shock or injuries. Of course, New Yorkis the ideal place for such an interesting study, because there is no shortage of tall buildings. There are plenty of highrise windowsills to fall from! One cat, Sabrina, fell 32 storeys, yet only suffered from a broken tooth. ? Cats behave like welltrained paratroopers,? a doctor said. It seems that the further cats fall, the less they are likely to injure themselves. In a long drop, they reach speeds of 60 miles an hour and more. At high speeds, falling cats have time to relax. They stretch out their legs like flying squirrel. This increases their airresistance and reduces the shock of impact when they hit the ground. 貓總能引起人們的極大興趣。他們?cè)谑フQ節(jié)或復(fù)活節(jié)到那兒去。狗也比較自由，被放出圍欄，四處遛達(dá)。修道士們喜歡冬天，而不太喜歡夏天。然而到了冬天，修道院里的生活則是另一番景象。 夏天的幾個(gè)月里，修道院十分忙碌，因?yàn)橛谐汕先f(wàn)的人駕車通過山口，順道來修道院參觀。如今由于山里開挖了隧道，翻越山口已不那么危險(xiǎn)了。幾百年來，圣伯納德修道院馴養(yǎng)狗拯救了許多翻越這道山口的旅游者的生命。s monastery. 圣伯納德大山口連接著瑞士與意大利，海拔 2,473O米，是歐洲最高的山口。 “去年，我們對(duì) 21， 000 起索賠要求支付了 150萬(wàn)英鎊。約翰拿回了他損失的全部數(shù)額。約翰去找銀行經(jīng)理，經(jīng)理把約翰的錢包和紙幣的殘留物送到英國(guó)銀行在紐卡斯?fàn)柕囊粋€(gè)專門部門 ——?dú)堚n鑒別組?；丶液?，簡(jiǎn)用微波爐煮了晚飯，無意中之中把她未婚夫的錢包也一起煮了。有一天約翰的生意很好，他把一只裝有 3,000 英鎊的錢包放進(jìn)微波爐內(nèi)保存?？雌饋?，狗很喜歡咀嚼錢幣。 這種事情在你身上出現(xiàn)過嗎？你有沒有把褲子塞洗衣機(jī)，然后又想在褲子的后兜有一張大面值的紙幣？當(dāng)你把褲子搶救出來時(shí)，你有沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)那張紙幣已經(jīng)變得比白紙還白？當(dāng)英國(guó)人犯這種錯(cuò)誤時(shí)，他們不必感到絕望（而許多國(guó)家的人都有這種絕望的感覺）。I think they39。dead39。他們已帶著價(jià)值數(shù)千鎊的首飾逃之夭夭了。就在轎車離開的時(shí)候，泰勒先生從店里沖了出來，跟在車后追趕，一邊還往車上扔煙灰缸、花瓶。一個(gè)竊賊被一尊很重的雕像擊中，但由于他忙著搶鉆石首飾，竟連疼痛都顧不上了。這開始發(fā)生時(shí)，泰勒先生正在樓上。一人留在駕駛座上，另外兩個(gè)用黑色長(zhǎng)筒絲襪蒙面的人跳下車來。泰勒先生站在櫥窗外凝神欣賞了幾分鐘就回到了店里。他手下兩名店員從早上 8點(diǎn)就開始忙碌，這時(shí)剛剛布置完畢。在早晨的這個(gè)時(shí)候，拱廊街上幾乎空無一人。clock and had only just finished. Diamond necklaces and rings had been beautifully arranged on a background of black velvet. After gazing at the display for several minutes, Mr Taylor went back into his shop. The silence was suddenly broken when a large car, with its headlights on and its horn blaring, roared down the arcade. It came to a stop outside the jeweler39。在傳真中他告訴編輯，就在他數(shù)通向15英尺高的總統(tǒng)府圍墻的 1， 084級(jí)臺(tái)階時(shí)，被抓了起來。那個(gè)可憐的記者不僅被捕了，而且還被送進(jìn)了監(jiān)獄。編輯無奈，勉強(qiáng)按原樣發(fā)稿了。于是他又發(fā)了一份傳真，通知 那位記者說，若再不迅速答復(fù)，將被解雇。 記者立即出發(fā)去核實(shí)這些重要的事實(shí)，但過了好長(zhǎng)時(shí)間不見他把數(shù)字寄來，在此期間，編輯等得不耐煩了，因?yàn)殡s志馬上要付印。文章的開頭是這樣的： “幾百級(jí)臺(tái)階通向環(huán)繞總統(tǒng)的高墻。去年，一位記者受一家有名的雜志的委托寫一篇關(guān)于非洲某個(gè)新成立共和國(guó)總統(tǒng)府的文章。 The editor at once sent the journalist a fax instructing him to find out the exact number of steps and the height of the wall. The journalist immediately set out to obtain these important facts, but he took a long time to send them. Meanwhile, the editor was getting impatient, for the magazine would soon go to press. He sent the journalist two urgent telegrams, but received no reply. He sent yet another telegram informing the journalist that if he did not reply soon he would be fired. When the journalist again failed to reply, the editor reluctantly published the article as it had originally been written. A week later, the editor at last received a telegram from the journalist. Not only had the poor man been arrested, but he had been sent to prison as well. However, he had at last been allowed to send a cable in which he informed the editor that he had been arrested while counting the 1084 steps leading to the 15foot wall which surrounded the president39。Hundreds of steps lead to the high wall which surrounds the president39。 Lesson 5 The facts Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers with unimportant facts and statistics. Last year a journalist had been instructed by a wellknown magazine to write an article on the president39。從此，艾爾弗可以一天到晚穿西服了。他將來掙的錢只有他現(xiàn)在的一半。兩年多以來，艾爾弗一直這樣，他的同事也為他保守秘密。每天早晨，他穿上一身漂亮的黑色西裝離家上班，然后換上工作服，當(dāng) 8個(gè)小時(shí)清潔工。 艾爾弗結(jié)婚時(shí)，感到非常難為情，而沒有將自己的職業(yè)告訴妻子。許多人常常情愿放棄較高的薪水以換取做白領(lǐng)工人的殊榮，此乃人之常情。. 如今，從事體力勞動(dòng)的人的收入一般要比坐辦公室的人高出許多。, not 39。s wife has never discovered that she married a dustman and she never will, for Alf has just found another job. He will soon be working in an office as a junior clerk. He will be earning only half as much as he used to, but he feels that his rise in status is well worth the loss of money. From now on, he will wear a suit all day and others will call him 39。 white collar workers39。不過，考古工作者至今未能確定這位女神的身份。她身高 3英尺，雙手叉腰。卻使在當(dāng)時(shí)，它也屬歷史悠久的珍奇之物。其中有一尊雕像，她的軀體是在公 元前 15世紀(jì)的歷史文物中發(fā)現(xiàn)的，而她那身異處的腦袋卻碰巧是在公元前 5世紀(jì)的文物中找到的。在廟中最神圣的一間殿堂里發(fā)現(xiàn)了 15尊陶雕像的碎片。城里甚至還敷設(shè)了排水系統(tǒng)，因?yàn)樵讵M窄的街道底下發(fā)現(xiàn)了許許多多陶土制作的排水管道。這座古城肯定一度很繁榮，因?yàn)樗碛懈叨鹊奈拿?，房子一般?3層樓高，用石塊修建。 ” Lesson 3 An unknown goddess Some time ago， an interesting discovery was made by archaeologists on the Aegean（ ；n.） island of Kea． An American team explored a temple which stands in an ancient city on the promontory of Ayia Irini． The city at one time must have been prosperous， for it enjoyed a high level of civilization． Housesoften three storeys highwere built of stone． They had large rooms with beautifully decorated walls． The city was even equipped with a drainage system， for a great many clay pipes were found beneath the narrow streets． The temple which the archaeologists explored was used as a place of worship from the fifteenth century . until Roman times. In the most sacred room of the temple, clay fragments of fifteen statues were found. Each of these represented a goddess and had, at one time, been painted. The body of one statue was found among remains dating from the fifteenth century . Its missing head happened to be among remains of the fifth century . This head must have been found in Classical times and carefully preserved. It was very old and precious eve