【正文】 dr ed year s. Two of the leading gr ower s, Giuseppe Moldova and Ri cardo Br abante, tel l me that they have been expect ing a splendid cr op thi s year and har vest ing has begun earl ier than usual . Her e you can see t wo wor ker s who, bet ween them, have j ust f ini shed cutt ing t hr ee car t loads of gol den br own m acaroni stalks. The whol e vil lage has been wor king day and night gat her ing and t hr eshi ng thi s year39。 Lesson77 A sucessf ul operati on 一例成功的手術(shù) The mummy of an Egypt ian wom an who died i n 800 . has just had an operat ion. The mummy is t hat of Shepenmut who was once a si nger i n the Templ e of Thebes. As there wer e str ange m ar ks on the X r ay pl ates taken of the mum my, doctor s have been tr ying t o f ind out whether the woman di ed of a rare di sease. The only way to do this was t o operate. The oper ation, which l ast ed for over four hour s, pr oved t o be very di f icult because of the hard r esi n whi ch covered t he ski n. The doctor s removed a sect ion of the m ummy and sent i t to a labor ator y. They also f ound somethi ng which t he X ray of the god Duamut ef . This god whi ch has t he head of a cow was nor mal y placed insi de a mum my. The doctor s have not yet decided how t he woman died. They feared t hat t he mummy woul d f al l to pi eces when they cut it open, but for tunately t his has not happened. The mummy successfull y survi ved t he oper ation. Lesson78 The last one? 最后一枝嗎？ Af ter r eading an ar ti cl e enti tled 39。 I lit a ci gar ete to calm my ner ves. I smoked wi th concent rat ion and pleasur e as I was sur e that thi s woul d be m y l ast cigaret e. For a whol e week I did not sm oke at al and duri ng thi s ti me, m y wi fe suff ered t er r ibly. I had all the usual symptoms of someone gi ving up smoking: a bad tem per and an enor mous appeti te. My fr iends kept on off eri ng me ci gar et tes and cigars. They made no ef f or t to hi de their amusement whenever I pr oduced a packet of sweets f rom my pocket. Af ter seven days of t his I went to a par ty. Ever ybody ar ound me was smoking and I f el t ext remely unf ort abl e. When my old fr iend Br ian ur ged m e to accept a ci gar ete, it was m ore t han I could bear. I t ook one gui lt ily, l it it and smoked wit h sat isf act ion. My wi fe was del ighted t hat t hi ngs had r etur ned t o norm al once more. Anyway, as Br ian poi nt ed out, it i s the easi est thi ng in the wor ld t o give up smoking. He hi msel f has done i t l ots of ti mes! Lesson79 By ai r 乘飛機(jī) I used t o t ravel by ai r a great deal when I was a boy. My par ents, used to li ve in South Ameri ca and I used to fl y ther e fr om Eur ope in t he hol idays. An ai rhostess would t ake charge of me and I never had an unpleasant exper ience. I am used to tr avel ing by ai r and onl y on one occasion have I ever f elt f ri ght ened. Aft er taking of f, we wer e f lying l ow over the cit y and sl owly gai ning height, when t he pl ane suddenl y t ur ned round and fl ew back to t he air por t. Whil e we wer e wait ing t o land, an ai r host ess t ol d us to keep calm and to get off t he plane qui etl y as soon as it had t ouched down. Everybody on board was wor r ied and we wer e cur ious t o fi nd out what had happened. Later we l ear nt that there was a ver y impor tant per son on boar d. The poli ce had been t ol d t hat a bomb had been planted on t he plane. Af ter we had l anded, the plane was sear ched t hor oughl y. For tunately, nothing was f ound and fi ve hour s later we wer e able t o take of f again. Leson80 The Cryst al Pal ace 水晶宮 Per haps t he most extr aor dinary bui ldi ng of t he nieent h century was the Cr yst al Palace, whi ch was buil t i n Hyde Park for the Gr eat Exhi biti on of 1851. The Cr yst al Palace was dif fer ent f rom al other bui ldi ngs i n t he worl d, f or it was made of ir on and glas. It was one of the bi ggest bui ldi ngs of al t ime and a l ot of people f rom many count ri es came to see it . A gr eat many goods wer e sent t o t he exhibit ion f rom have shown i nterest in t his new and unusual spor t. But though air cycl ists m ay learn how to f ly over shor t distances, and may, event ual ly, even get across the Engli sh Channel, it i s doubt ful whether they wi l ever cycle across the At lanti c. Lesson67 Vol canoes 火山 Har oun Tazief f the Poli sh sci ent ist, has spent hi s li fe ti me studying acti ve vol canoes and deep caves i n al part s of the wor ld. In 1948, he went t o lake Ki vu in the Congo to observe a new vol cano whi ch he later named Ki tur o. Tazief was abl e to set up his camp very cl ose t o the vol cano whi le i t was er upti ng vi olentl y. Though he managed t o t ake a number of bri l iant photogr aphs, he could not stay near the volcano for very l ong. He not iced that a r iver of l iquid rock was c oming t owards him . It thr eat ened t o surr ound hi m pl et ely, but Tazief m anaged to escape j ust i n ti me. He wai ted unti l t he volcano became quiet and he was abl e to retur n two days l ater. This t ime, he managed to cl imb into the mout h of Kit uro so t hat he c ould t ake photogr aphs and measur e temperat ur es. Tazief has oft en ri sked hi s li fe i n t hi s way. He has been able t o tel l us m or e about act ive volcanoes t han any m an al ive. Lesson68 Persistent 糾纏不休 I cr ossed the str eet t o avoi d meeti ng him, but he saw me and came r unni ng towards m e. I t was no use pr etendi ng that I had not seen hi m, so I waved to hi m. I never enj oy meeti ng Bert Dykes. He never has anything t o do. No mat ter how busy you ar e, he al ways i nsi sts on ing wit h you. I had t o thi nk of a way of pr event ing him f rom fol lowi ng me around al mor ning. 39。 I said. 39。 39。 Ber t answer ed. 39。r e not busy doing anythi ng, are you ?39。 No, not at al l, 39。 I39。 Would you mind my ing wi th you ?39。 I li ed, 39。m go