【正文】 sight of a figure whom he immediately recognized as Bill Wilkins, our local grocer. Thirteen equals oneOur vicar is always raising money for one cause or another, but he has never managed to get enough money to have the church clock repaired. The big clock which used to strike the hours day and night was damaged many years ago and has been silent ever since.39。想到在寧靜的鄉(xiāng)村里有一頭危險的野獸繼續(xù)逍遙流竄，真令人擔(dān)心。專家們?nèi)缃褚呀?jīng)完全肯定那只動物就是美洲獅，但它是從哪兒來的呢？由于全國動物園沒有一家報告丟了美洲獅，因此那只美洲獅一定是某位私人收藏豢養(yǎng)的，不知怎么設(shè)法逃出來了。無論它走哪兒，一路上總會留下一串死鹿及死兔子之類的小動物，在許多地方看見爪印，灌木叢中發(fā)現(xiàn)了粘在上面的美洲獅毛。專家證實，美洲獅非被逼得走投無路，是決不會傷人的。搜尋美洲獅的工作是從一座小村莊開始的。當(dāng)倫敦動物園接到報告說，在倫敦以南45英里處發(fā)現(xiàn)一只美洲獅時，這些報告并沒有受到重視。 at night and a businessman on a fishing trip saw the puma up a tree. The experts were now fully convinced that the animal was a puma, but where had it e from ? As no pumas had been reported missing from any zoo in the country, this one must have been in the possession of a private collector and somehow managed to escape. The hunt went on for several weeks, but the puma was not caught. It is disturbing to think that a dangerous wild animal is still at large in the quiet countryside. only five yards away from her. It immediately ran away when she saw it, and experts confirmed that a puma will not attack a human being unless it is cornered（）. The search proved difficult, for the puma was often observed at one place in the morning and at another place twenty miles away in the evening. Wherever it went, it left behind it a trail of dead deer and small animals like rabbits. Paw prints were seen in a number of places and puma fur was found clinging to bushes. Several people plained of 39。The hunt for the puma began in a small village where a woman picking blackberries saw 39。Lesson1A puma at largePumas are large, catlike animals which are found in America. When reports came into London Zoo that a wild puma had been spotted fortyfive miles south of London, they were not taken seriously. However, as the evidence began to accumulate, experts from the Zoo felt obliged to investigate, for the descriptions given by people who claimed to have seen the puma were extraordinarily similar. a large cat39。catlike noises39。美洲獅是一種體形似貓的大動物，產(chǎn)于美洲。可是，隨著證據(jù)越來越多，動物園的專家們感到有必要進(jìn)行一番調(diào)查，因為凡是聲稱見到過美洲獅的人們所描述的情況竟是出奇地相似。那里的一位婦女在采摘黑莓時的看見“一只大貓”，離她僅5碼遠(yuǎn)，她剛看見它，它就立刻逃走了。事實上搜尋工作很困難，因為常常是早晨在甲地發(fā)現(xiàn)那只美洲獅，晚上卻在20英里外的乙地發(fā)現(xiàn)它的蹤跡。有人抱怨說夜里聽見“像貓一樣的叫聲”；一位商人去釣魚，看見那只美洲獅在樹上。搜尋工作進(jìn)行了好幾個星期，但始終未能逮住那只美洲獅。Lesson 2 One night, however, our vicar woke up with a start: the clock was striking the hours! Looking at his watch, he saw that it was one o39。 39。 asked the vicar in surprise. 39。m trying to repair the bell,39。 I39。39。 said the vicar. 39。ve probably woken up everyone in the village as well. Still, I39。 39。s the trouble, vicar,39。It39。m afraid that at one o39。s nothing I can do about it.39。We39。 said the vicar. 39。s better than nothing. Now let39。 但始終未能籌足資金把教堂的鐘修好。 一天夜里，我們的牧師突然被驚醒了，大鐘又在“打點”報時了！他一看表，才1點鐘，可是那鐘一邊敲了13下才停。借著電筒光。 “你究竟在這上面干什么，比爾？”牧師驚訝地問。“好幾個星期了，我天天夜里到鐘樓上來。” “你確實使我大吃了一驚！”牧師說，“也許同時你把村里所有的人都吵醒了?！? “問題就在這里，牧師，”比爾回答說?！? “大家慢慢就習(xí)慣了，比爾，”牧師說。來，咱們下樓去喝杯茶吧。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 even then. When the archaeologists reconstructed the fragments, they were amazed to find that the goddess turned out to be a very modernlooking woman. She stood three feet high and her hands rested on her hip. She was wearing a fulllength skirt which swept the ground. Despite her great age, she was very graceful indeed, but, so far, the archaeologists have been unable to discover her identity.不久之前，在愛琴海的基亞島上，考古工作者有一項有趣的發(fā)現(xiàn)。里面房間很大，墻壁裝飾華麗。 考古工作者考察的這座廟宇從公元前15世紀(jì)直到羅馬時代一直是祭祀祈禱的場所。每一尊雕像代表一位女神，而且一度上過色。她的腦袋一定是在古希臘羅馬時代就為人所發(fā)現(xiàn)，并受到精心的保護(hù)?？脊殴ぷ髡甙堰@些碎片重新拼裝起來后，驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)那位女神原來是一位相貌十分摩登的女郎。身穿一條拖地長裙，盡管上了年紀(jì)，但體態(tài)確實優(yōu)美。 white collar workers39。When he got married, Alf was too embarrassed to say anything to his wife about his job. He simply told her that he worked for the Corporation. Every morning, he left home dressed in a smart black suit. He then changed into overalls () and spent the next eight hours as a dustman. Before returning home at night, he took a shower and changed back into his suit. s wife has never discovered that she married a dustman and she Mr. Bloggs39。Alf39。如今，從事體力勞動的人的收入一般要比坐辦公室的人高出許多。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。 艾爾弗結(jié)婚時，感到非常難為情，而沒有將自己的職業(yè)告訴妻子。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個小時清潔工。兩年多以來，艾爾弗一直這樣，他的同事也為他保守秘密。他將來掙的錢只有他現(xiàn)在的一半。從此，艾爾弗可以一天到晚穿西服了。 Lesson 5 The factsEditors 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。Hundreds of steps lead to the high wall which surrounds the president39。 The editor at oncesent the journalist a fax instructing him to find out the exact number of steps and the height of the wall. s palace.去年，一位記者受一家有名的雜志的委托寫一篇關(guān)于非洲某個新成立共和國總統(tǒng)府的文章。文章的開頭是這樣的：“幾百級臺階通向環(huán)繞總統(tǒng)的高墻。 記者立即出發(fā)去核實這些重要的事實，但過了好長時間不見他把數(shù)字寄來，在此期間，編輯等得不耐煩了，因為雜志馬上要付印。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。編輯無奈，勉強(qiáng)按原樣發(fā)稿了。那個可憐的記者不僅被捕了，而且還被送進(jìn)了監(jiān)獄。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級臺階時，被抓了起來。 SmashandgrabThe expensive shops in a famous arcade near Piccadilly were just opening. At this time of the morning, the arcade was almost empty. Mr Taylor, the owner of a jewellery shop was admiring a new window display. Two of his assistants had been working busily since 8 o39。s. One man stayed at the wheel while two others with black stockings over their faces jumped out and smashed the window of the shop with iron bars. While this was going on, Mr Taylor was upstairs. He and his staff began throwing furniture out of the window. Chairs and tables went flying into the arcade. One of the thieves was struck by a heavy statue, but he was