【正文】 lane, but it s desi gner , Mr John Wimpenny, is f indi ng i t dif fi cult to get i t of f t he ground. The r eason for this i s t hat this plane i s also a bi cycle. I ts pilot has to pedal hard t o get it into the air. Aft er Mr Wi mpenny had the pl ane bui lt, it was t ested thoroughly. I n 1961, i t was the fir st man powered ai rcraft to f ly hal f a mile. Whi le bei ng f lown by a champion amat eur cyclist in 1963, t he plane crashed on an airf ield. Si nce then, Mr Wimpenny has had i t rebuil t. He has had the lengt h of the wings incr eased so t hat they now measur e 93 f etalmost as long as those of a Dakot a. Many people have shown interest in t his new and unusual sport. But t hough air cycli st s may learn how to f ly over shor t di st ances, and may, eventualy, even get across the Engl ish Channel, it is doubtful whether t hey wil l ever cycle acr oss the Atl anti c. Leson67 Volcanoes 火山 Haroun Tazief the Pol ish scient ist, has spent his li feti me st udying acti ve volcanoes and deep caves i n al l parts of the wor ld. I n 1948, he went to lake Kivu in the Congo to observe a new volcano whi ch he later named Kituro. Tazief was able to set up hi s camp ver y close to the vol cano whil e it was erupting violent ly. Though he managed to take a number of bri l iant photographs, he could not stay near t he volcano for very l ong. He noticed that ari ver of li qui d rock was ing towards hi m. I t hr eatened t o surr ound hi m pl et ly, but Tazief managed t o escape j ust in ti me. He waited unt il the volcano became quiet and he was able t o return t wo days l at er . This ti me, he managed to cli mb into the mout h of Ki turo so that he coul d take phot ographs and measure temper at ur es. Tazief f has of ten r i sked hi s l if e in this way. He has been abl e to tel us mor e about acti ve volcanoes than any man ali ve. Leson68 Persi st ent 糾纏不休 I cr ossed the st reet to avoi d meti ng him, but he saw me and cam e r unning towards m e. It was no use pretending t hat I had not seen him, so I waved t o hi m. I never enjoy meti ng Bert Dykes. He never has anyt hi ng t o do. No mat ter how busy you are, he always insists on ing with you. I had t o think of a way of preventing him f rom f ol lowing me ar ound al l mor ni ng. 39。 I said. 39。 39。 Ber t answered. 39。r e not busy doing anything, are you ?39。 No, not at al l,39。 I39。 Would you mind my ing wit h you ?39。 I li ed, 39。m goi ng t o the dentist.39。 Then I39。 he answer ed.39。s always plent y to r ead in the 39。 l esson69 But not murder! 并非謀殺！ I was bei ng t ested for a dr i vi ng l icence f or t he t hi rd ti me. I had been asked t o dr ive in heavy traf ic and had done so successf ul ly. Af ter havi ng been i nstr ucted to dri ve out of town, I began t o acqui re confi dence. Sure t hat I had passed, I was almost beginning to enj oy my t est. The exami ner must have been please d with my perf or mance, for he smil ed and said, 39。 I continued dri vi ng and af ter s ome time, the examiner tapped loudl y. Though t he sound could be heard clear ly, i t ook me a long time t o react. I suddenly presed t he brake pedal hard and we wer e both t hr own f or war d. The examiner looked at me sadly. 39。 he said, in a mour nful voice, 39。 leson70 Red for danger 危險(xiǎn)的紅色 Dur ing a bul lfi ght, a drunk suddenl y wander ed int o the middl e of the ri ng. The crowd began t o shout , but t he drunk was unaware of t he danger. The bul l was busy wi th the matador at the ti me, but it suddenly caught sight of t he dr unk who was shout ing rude remar ks and waving a red cap. Appar entl y sensit ive to cr it icism, t he bull fot al about t he matador and charged at the drunk. The crowd suddenly grew qui et . The dr unk, however, seemed qui te sur e of himsel f. When t he bul l got cl ose to him, he clumsily stepped aside to l et it pass. The crowd broke 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, f or i t l ooked on sympathet ical y unt il the dr unk was out of the way before once more tur ni ng i ts at tent ion 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 things you wil l see i s Big Ben, the famous clock which can be hear d al l over t he worl d on t he . C. I f t he Houses of Par li ament had hot been burned down in 1834, t he gr eat clock would never have been erected. Big Ben takes its name f rom Si r Benjamin Hal who was r esponsi bl e f or t he making of the clock when the new Houses of Par liament wer e being bui lt . I t i s not only of immense si ze, but is ext remel y accurate as wel l. Of icials fr om Greenwich Observat or y have the cl ock checked twice a day. On t he . C. you can hear t he clock when it is act ual y st riking because microphones ar e connected to the cl ock tower. Big Ben has rarely gone wrong. Once, however, it fail ed t o gi ve t he cor rect ime. A painter who had been working on the tower hung a pot of paint on one of the hands and sl owed it down ! Leson72 A car called Bluebi rd “藍(lán)鳥”汽車 The gr eat r acing dri ver, Sir Malcol m Cam pbel l, was t he f irst man t o dr ive at over 300 mi les per hour . He set up a new worl d recor d in September 1935 at Bonnevi le Salt Flats, Utah. Bl uebird, the car he was dr iving, had been specialy built f or him. It was over 30 feet in l ength and had a 2500 horse power engi ne. Although Campbel reached a speed of over 304 mil es per hour , he had great dif ficulty i n cont r ol li ng t he car because a tyre bur st dur ing the fi rst r un. After his at tempt , Campbel was disappoi nted t o lear n that his average speed had been 299 mi les per hour. However , a f ew days l at er , he was t ol d that a mistake had been made. Hi s aver age speed had been 301 miles per hour. Since t hat time, raci ng dr iver s