【正文】 Lesson61 Tr ouble wit h t he Hubble 哈勃望遠(yuǎn)鏡的困境 In f ut ure, ast ronaut s wil be r equir ed t o descend f rom a spaceship while it is stil n space and t o r et ur n to it . The abilt y t o do t his wil be necessary in f uture f lights to distant pla s. Scientist s are now t rying t o discover if this is posible. The spaceship Astra which left t he ear th a shor t ime ago, wil be t r avelling t hr ee hundr ed miles int o space. At a cer tain point, he Astr a wil st op f or a shor t im e and an astr onaut wil at t empt to leave t he st at ionar y spaceship and t hen r et ur n to it . We shal not know whet her the experiment has been successful unt il we have r eceived a r adio message. The fir st message is expected t o ar ive at 7 o39。s closest f riends asked him t o make a speech at a wedding r ecept ion. This t he sor t of thing that Geofr ey loves. He pr epared the speech car efuly and went o t he wedding wit h Jenny. He had included a lar ge number of uny stories in t he speech and, of course, it was a great sucess. As oon as he had f inished, Jenny t old him she wanted to go home. Geof rey was a lit t le disappoint ed by this but he did as his daughter asked. On t he way home, he asked J enny if she had enjoyed t he speech. To his surprise, she said she hadn39。s hospital. Dressed up as Fat her Chr ist mas and acpanied by a39。 of six pr et ty gir ls, he set of f down the main street of the city r iding a baby elephant caled J umbo. He, should have known t hat the police would never alow t his sor t of thing. A policeman appr oached J immy and t old him he ought t o have gone along a sidestr eet as J umbo was holding up t he t rafic. Though J imm y agreed t o go at once, J um bo r ef used t o m ove. Fif t een policemen had t o push very har d t o get him of f t he m ain st reet . The police had a dif ficult tim e, but hey were most am used. 39。 said a policeman af ter war ds, 39。t have t o car y him. Of course, we should ar r est him, but as he has a good r ecor d, we shal et him of t his t im e.39。Hulo, Ber t, 39。Fancy meeting you here ! 39。 Ber t answered. 39。r e not busy doing anyt hing, ar e you ?39。 I answered.39。m going to. .39。 he asked, before I had f inished speaking. ‘ Not at al, 39。but I 39。 Then I 39。 he answer ed.39。s always plent y t o r ead in t he 39。 lesson69 But not mur der ! 并非謀殺！ I was being tested f or a dr iving licence f or t he t hir d t ime. I had been asked t o dr ive in heavy t raf ic and had one so successf uly. Aft er having been instr ucted to dr ive out of t own, I began to acquir e confidence. Sure that I had pased, Iwas almost beginning t o enjoy my t est. The examiner m us t have been pleased wit h my per formance, f or he smiled and said, 39。 I continued dr iving and af ter some tim e, t he examiner t aped loudly. Though t he sound could be heard clear ly, it t ook me a long tim e t o r eact . I suddenly pr essed the brake pedal har d and we wer e bot h t hrown for war d. The examiner looked at me sadly. 39。 he said, in a mour nf ul voice,39。 lesson70 Red f or danger 危險(xiǎn)的紅色 During a bulf ight, a drunk sudenly wander ed int o t he middle of the ring. The crowd began t o shout , but he dr unk was unawar e of t he danger. The bul was busy wit h t he matador at he tim e, but it suddenly caught sight of t he dr unk who was shouting r ude r emarks and waving a r ed cap. Aparently sensitve t o cr it icsm, the bul f or got al about the matador and char ged at he dr unk. The cr owd sudenly gr ew quiet. The dr unk, however, seem ed quite sure of himself. When t he bul got close t o him , he clumsily st epped aside t o let it pass. The crowd br oke int o cheer s and the drunk bowed. By t his t im e, however , t hr ee m en had e into t he r ing and t hey quickly draged t he dr unk t o safety. Even t he bul seemed t o feel sor y f or him, for it looked on sympat heticaly until he drunk was out of t he way before once more t urning it s at ent ion t o the matador . Lesson71 A f amous clock 一個(gè)著名的大鐘 When you vist London, one of the fir st hings you wil see is Big Ben, t he f amous clock which can be hear d al over t he world on t he B. B. C. If t he Houses of Parliam ent had hot been burned down in 1834, t he gr eat clock would never have been erect ed. Big Ben t akes it s name f rom Sir Benjamin Hal who was r esponsible f or t he making of the clock when t he new Houses of Par liament were being built . I t is not only of immense size, but is ext remely acur at e as well. Of icials fr om Gr eenwich Observat ory have the clock checked t wice a day. On t he B. B. C. you can hear t he clock when it is act ualy str iking because m icr ophones are connected to t he clock t ower . Big Ben has rar ely gone wr ong. Once, however , it f ailed t o give t he cor rect tim e. A paint er who had been wor king on t he tower hung a pot of paint on one of t he hands and slowed it down ! Lesson72 A car called Bluebir d “藍(lán)鳥(niǎo)”汽車 The great r acing driver, Sir Malcolm Campbell, was t he f ir st man to dr ive at over 300 miles per hour . He set up a new world r ecor d in September 1935 at Bonnevile Salt Flat s, Utah. Bluebir d, t he car he was dr iving, had been specialy built f or him. I t was over 30 f eet in lengt h and had a 2500 horse power engine. Although Campbell r eached a speed of over 304 miles per hour, he had gr eat dif icult y in cont roling t he car because a t yr e bur st dur ing t he f ir st r un. Af ter his at tempt, Campbell was disapointed to learn t hat his average speed had been 299 m iles per hour. However , a f ew days lat er, he was told t hat am istake had been m ade. His aver age speed had been 301 miles per hour. Since that ime, r acing drivers have r eached speeds of over 400 miles an hour . Folowing his f at her 39。s son, Donald, also set up a wor ld recor d. Like his f at her , he was dr iving a car caled Bluebir d. Lesson73 The r ecordholde