【正文】 t er r ible tie you bought yester day.39。 I fi nd it beaut if ul ,39。A m an can never have t oo into the cave hopi ng to f ind bur ied t reasur e. The l eader of the part y was exami ning t he soi l near the entr ance t o t he cave when t he machi ne showed t hat ther e was gol d under t he ground. Ver y exci ted, the part y dug a hole t wo f eet deep. They f inal y f ound a sm al l gol d coin whi ch was almost wort hles. The par t y t hen sear ched t he whole cave thoroughly but did not f ind anything except an empt y ti n tr unk. I n spit e of this, many peopl e ar e confi dent that 39。 may r eveal somethi ng of val ue fair ly soon. Lesson56 Fast er t han sound! 比聲音還快！ Once a year a race is hel d for old car s. A lot of car s ent ered f or this r ace last year and t her e was a gr eat deal of exci teme nt just bef ore i t began. One of t he most handsom e car s was a Roll s Royce Sil ver Ghost. The most unusual car was a Benz which had only t hree wheels. Bui lt i n 1885, i t was the oldest car taking par t. Af ter a great many loud explosions, t he race began. Many of the cars br oke down on the cour se and some dr iver s spent more t im e under thei r car s than in them ! A few car s, howeve r, pleted t he race. The wi nning car reached a speed of f ort y mi les an hourmuch f ast er t han any of i ts r ivals. It sped downhi l at the end of the r ace and i ts dr iver had a lot of tr oubl e tr ying t o stop i t. The race gave everyone a gr eat deal of pleasur e. I t was ver y di f er ent f r om modern car r aces but no l es excit ing. Lesson57 Can I hel p you, madam? 你要買什么，夫人？ A woman in blue jeans stood at the wi ndow of an expensi ve shop. Though she hesi tated f or a moment, she fi nal ly went i n and as ked to see a dr ess t hat was i n the wi ndow. The assistant who ser ved her di d not l ike t he way she was dr essed. Gl anci ng at her scor nf ull y, he t old her that the dr ess was sold. The woman walked out of the shop angr il y and decided t o puni sh the assi st ant next day. She ret ur ned to t he shop t he fol lowi ng morni ng dressed i n a f ur coat, wi th a handbag in one hand and a long umbr ela in t he other. Af ter seking out the r ude asistant she asked for t he same dr es. Not reali zi ng who she was, t he assistant was eager to serve her thi s ti me wi th gr eat dif f icult y, he cli mbed int o the shop wi ndow to get the dr es. As soon as she saw it , the wom an said s many ti es. 39。And a woman can39。 she answered. Ten minutes l at er we walked out of the shop toget her. My wif e was weari ng a hat hat l ooked l ike a l ighthouse ! Lesson42 Not very musical 并非很懂音樂 As we had had a l ong walk t hrough one of the mar ket s of Ol d Del hi, we stopped at a square t o have a rest. Af ter a t ime, we noti ced a snakechar mer wi th t wo l ar ge baskets at the ot her side of t he square, so we went to have a l ook at him . As soon as he saw us, he pi cked up a long pipe whi ch was covered wi t h coi ns and opened one of t he baskets. When he began t o play a tune, we had our f ir st gli mpse of the snake. It r ose out of the basket and began t o fol low the movements of the pi pe. We wer e ver y much s urpr ised when the snake charmer suddenl y began t o pl ay j azz t unes and modern pop songs. The snake, however , conti nued t o 39。 slowl y. I t obvi ously coul d not t el the di f er ence bet wen I ndian music and j az! Leson43 Over the Sout h Pole 飛越南極 I n 1929, t hr ee year s af ter hi s fl ight over the Nor th Pol e, the Amer ican expl orer , R. E. Byr d, successf ull y fl ew over the South Pol e for t he fi rst ti me. Though, at f ir st , Byrd and his men were abl e to t ake a great m any phot ogr aphs of t he m ount ai ns tha t lay below, t hey soon r an into seri ous tr oubl e. At one point , i t seemed cert ai n t hat their pl ane woul d crash. I t coul d only ge t over t he mount ains if i t rose to 10, 000 feet. Byrd at once ordered hi s men t o thr ow out two heavy food sacks. The plane was then able t o r ise and it cleared t he mountains by 400 f et . Byr d now knew t hat he woul d be able t o reach the South Pol e whi ch was 300 m il es away, for t her e were no more m ount ai ns in si ght . The ai rcr af t was abl e t o fl y over t he endl ess whi te pl ai ns wit hout di f icult y. Leson44 Through t he f orest 穿過森林 Mrs Anne St er li ng did not thi nk of the r isk she was taking when she ran t hrough a f orest af ter two men. They had r ushed up t o her whi le she was having a pi i c at t he edge of a f orest wit h her chil dren and t ri ed to steal her handbag. In the str uggl e, t he st rap br oke and, wi th the bag in their possesion, both men st ar ted r unning t hr ough t he t rees. Mrs St er li ng got so angry t hat she r an af ter t hem. She was soon out of breath, but she conti nued t o run. W hen she caught up wi th t hem , she saw t hat t hey had sat down and wer e going t hrough the contents of t he bag, so she r an st rai ght at them. The men got such a f r ight that they dropped the bag and ran away. 39。 said Mr s Ster ling later, 39。 Leson45 A cl ear consci ence 問心無愧 The whole vi lage soon learnt that a l ar ge sum of money had been l ost . Sam Bent on, t he local but cher , had l ost his wal let whil e taking hi s savi ngs t o the post off ice. Sam was sur e t hat the wal let must have been found by one of the vil lagers, but i t was not r eturned t o him. Thr e months pased, and then one mor ning, Sam f ound hi s wal et outside hi s fr ont door. I t had been wr apped up i n newspaper and i t cont ai ned hal f the money he had lost, t ogether wi th a not e which said: 39。but onl y 5o per cent a thi ef ! 39。 Only 25 per cent a t hief now! 39。s money was pai d back in t his way. The last not e sai d:39。 leson46 Expensi ve and unf ortable 既昂貴又受罪 When a plane f rom London ar ri ved at Sydney ai rpor t, wor ker s began t o unload a number of wooden