精选新概念英语必背36篇文章

精选新概念英语必背36篇文章

新概念三Lesson 14 A noble gangster 贵族歹徒

money than have their life work destroyed by gangsters.

Six hundred years ago, Sir Johan Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of soldiers and

settled

as Giovanni Acuto. Whenever the Italian city-states were a t w a r w i t h each other, Hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to princes who were willing to pay the high price he demanded. I n t i m e s o f peace, when business was bad, Hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state and, after b u r n i n g d o w n a few farms, would o f f e r t o go away if protection money was paid to them. Hawkwood m a d e l a r g e s u m s o f m o n e y in this way. I n s p i t e o f t h i s, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero. When he died a t t h e a g e o f eighty, the Florentines gave him a state funeral and had

dedicated t o t h e m e m o r y o f 'the most valiant soldier and most notable leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue.'

曾经有一个时期,芝加哥的店主和商行的老板们不得不拿出大笔的钱给歹徒以换取"保护"。如果交款不及时,歹徒们就会很快捣毁他的商店,让他破产.榨取"保护金"并不是一种现代的罪恶行径.早在14世纪,英国人约翰.霍克伍德就有过非凡的发现:"人们情愿拿出大笔的钱,也不愿毕生的心血毁于歹徒之手.

600年前,约翰.霍克伍德爵士带着一队士兵来到意大利,在佛罗伦萨附近驻扎下来,很快就出了名.意大利人叫他乔凡尼.阿库托.每次意大利各城邦之间发生战争,霍克伍德把他的士兵雇佣给愿给他出高价的君主。和平时期,当生意萧条时,霍克伍德便带领士兵进入某个城邦,纵火烧毁一两个农场,然后提出,如向他们缴纳保护金,他们便主动撤离。霍克伍德用这种方法挣了大笔钱.尽管如此,意大利人还是把他视作某种英雄。他80岁那年死去时,佛罗伦萨人为他举行了国葬,并为他画像以纪念这位"骁勇无比的战士、杰出的领袖乔凡尼.阿库托先生."

Lesson 17 The longest suspension bridge in the world

世界上最长的吊桥

Verrazano, an Italian about whom little is known, sailed into New York Harbour in 1524 and named it Angouleme. He described it as 'a very agreeable situation located within two small hills

in the midst of which flowed

great explorer, his name will probably remain immortal, for on November 21st, 1964, the longest

The Verrazano Bridge, which was designed by Othmar Ammann, joins Brooklyn to Staten Island. It has a span of 4,260 feet. The bridge is so long that the shape of the earth had to be

support four huge cables. The towers are built on immense underwater platforms m a d e o f steel and concrete. The platforms e x t e n d t o a depth of over 100 feet under the sea. These alone took sixteen months to build. Above the surface of the water, the towers r i s e t o a height of nearly 700 feet. They support the cables from which the bridge has been suspended. E a c h o f the four cables contains

. However, size and strength are not the only important things about this bridge. Despite its immensity, it is both simple and elegant, fulfilling its designer's dream to create 'an enormous object drawn as faintly as possible'.

1524年，一位鲜为人知的意大利人维拉萨诺驾船驶进纽约港，并将该港名为安古拉姆。他对该港作了这样的描述：―地理位置十分适宜，位于两座小山的中间，一条大河从中间流过‖。虽然维拉萨诺绝对算不上一个伟大的探险家，但他的名字将流芳百世，因为1964年11月21日建成的一座世界上最长的吊桥是以他的名字命名。

维拉萨诺大桥由奥斯马.阿曼设计，连结着布鲁克林与斯塔顿岛，桥长4,260英尺。由于桥身太长，设计者不得不考虑了地表的形状。两座巨塔支撑着4根粗大的钢缆。塔身建在巨大的水下钢盘混凝土平台上。平台深入海底100英尺。仅这两座塔就花了16个月才建成。塔身高出水面将近700英尺。高塔支撑着钢缆，而钢缆又悬吊着大桥，4根钢缆中的每根由26，108股钢绳组成。据估计，若桥上摆满了汽车，也只不过是桥的总承载力的1/3。然而，这座桥重要特点不仅是它的规模与强度。尽管此桥很大，但它的结构简单，造型优美，实现了设计者企图创造一个―尽量用细线条勾画出一个庞然大物‖的梦想。

Lesson 21 Daniel Mendoza 丹尼尔.门多萨

Boxing matches were very popular in England two hundred years ago. In those days, boxers f o u g h t w i t h bare fists for p r i z e m o n e y. Because of this, they were k n o w n a s'prize-fighters'. However, boxing was very crude, for there were no rules and a prize-fighter could be seriously injured or even killed during a match.

One of the most colourful figures in boxing history was Daniel Mendoza, who was born in 1764. The use of gloves was not introduced until 1860, when the Marquis of Queensberry d r e w u p the first set of rules. Though he was technically a prize-fighter, Mendoza did much to change

Mendoza r o s e t o f a m e swiftly after a boxing-match when he was only fourteen years old. This attracted the attention of Richard Humphries who was then the most eminent boxer in England. He o f f e r e d t o train Mendoza and his young pupil was quick to learn. In fact, Mendoza soon became so successful that Humphries t u r n e d a g a i n s t him. The two men quarrelled bitterly and it was clear that the argument could only be settled by a fight. A match was held at Stilton, where both men fought for an hour. The public bet a great deal of money on Mendoza, but he was defeated. Mendoza met Humphries i n t h e r i n g on a later occasion and he lost for a second time.

of his pupils. He e a r n e d e n o r m o u s s u m s o f m o n e y and was paid a s m u c h a s 100 pounds for a single appearance.

defeated by a boxer called Gentleman Jackson, he was quickly forgotten. He was sent to prison for failing to pay his debts and died i n p o v e r t y in 1836.

两百年前，拳击比赛在英国非常盛行。当时，拳击手们不戴手套，为争夺奖金而搏斗。因此，他们被称作―职业拳击手‖。不过，拳击是十分野蛮的，因为当时没有任何比赛规则，职业拳击手有可能在比赛中受重伤，甚至丧命。

拳击史上最引人注目的人物之一是丹尼尔.门多萨，他生于1764年。1860年昆斯伯里侯爵第一次为拳击比赛制定了规则，拳击比赛这才用上了手套。虽然门多萨严格来讲不过是个职业拳击手，但在把这种粗野的拳击变成一种体育运动方面，他作出了重大贡献。是他把科学引进了这项运动。门多萨在他的全盛时期深受大家欢迎，无论是富人还是穷人都对他祟拜备至。

门多萨在14岁时参加一场拳击赛后一举成名。这引起当时英国拳坛名将理查德.汉弗莱斯的注意。他主动提出教授门多萨，而年少的门多萨一学就会。事实上，门多萨不久便名声大振，致使汉弗莱斯与他反目为敌。两个人争

吵不休，显而易见，只有较量一番才能解决问题。于是两人在斯蒂尔顿设下赛场，厮打了一个小时。公众把大笔赌注下到了门多萨身上，但他却输了。后来，门多萨与汉弗莱斯再次在拳击场上较量，门多萨又输了一场。直到1790年他们第3次对垒，门多萨才终于击败汉弗莱斯，成了全英拳击冠军。同时，他建立了一所拳击学校，办得很成功，连拜伦勋爵也成了他的学生。门多萨挣来大笔大笔的钱，一次出场费就多可达100英镑。尽管收入不少，但他挥霍无度，经常债台高筑。他被一个叫杰克逊绅士的拳击手击败后很快被遗忘。他因无力还债而被捕入狱，最后于1836年在贫困中死去。

Lesson 24 A skeleton in the cupboard“家丑”

We often read in novels how a seemingly respectable person or family has some terrible

novel that the heroine, a dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody, had, in her youth, poisoned every one of her five husbands.

in fiction. T o v a r y i n g d e g r e e s, we all have secrets which we do not want even our closest friends to learn, but few of us have skeletons in the cupboard. The only person I know who has a skeleton in the cupboard is George Carlton, and he is very p r o u d o f the fact. George studied medicine in his youth. Instead of becoming a doctor, however, he became a successful writer of detective stories. I once spent an uncomfortable weekend which I shall never forget at his house. George showed me to the guest-room which, he said, was rarely used. He told me to unpack my things and then come down to dinner. After I had stacked my shirts and underclothes in two empty drawers, I decided to hang one of the two suits I

petrified. A skeleton was dangling before my eyes. The sudden movement of the door made it sway slightly and it gave me the impression that it was a b o u t t o l e a p o u t at me. Dropping my suit, I dashed downstairs to tell George. This was worse than ?a terrible secret‘; this was a real skeleton! But George was unsympathetic. ?Oh, that,‘ he said with a smile a s i f he were t a l k i n g a b o u t an old friend. ?That's Sebastian. You forget th at I was a medical student o n c e u p o n a t i m e. ‘

在小说中，我们经常读到一个表面上受人尊重的人物或家族，却有着某种多年不为人所知的骇人听闻的秘密。英语中有一个生动的说法来形容这种情况。惊人的秘密被称作―柜中骷髅‖。在小说的某个戏剧性时刻，可怕的秘密泄漏出来，接着便是某人的声誉扫地。当读者读到小说最后几页了解到书中女主人公，那位一向待大家很好的可爱的老妇人年轻时一连毒死了她的5个丈夫时，不禁会毛骨悚然。

这种事发生在小说中是无可非议的。尽管我们人人都有各种大小秘密，连最亲密的朋友都不愿让他们知道，但我们当中极少有人有柜中骷髅。我所认识的唯一的在柜中藏骷髅的人便是乔治·卡尔顿，他甚至引以为自豪。乔治年轻时学过医，然而，他后来没当上医生，却成了一位成功的侦探小说作家。有一次，我在他家里度周末，过得很不愉快。这事我永远不会忘记。乔治把我领进客房，说这间房间很少使用。他让我打开行装后下楼吃饭。我将衬衫、内衣放进两个空抽屉里，然后我想把随身带来的两套西服中的一套挂到大衣柜里去。我打开柜门，站在柜门前一下子惊呆了。一具骷髅悬挂在眼前，由于柜门突然打开，它也随之轻微摇晃起来，让我觉得它好像马上要跳出柜门朝我扑过来似的。我扔下西服冲下楼去告诉乔治。这是比―骇人听闻的秘密‖更加惊人的东西，这是一具真正的骷髅啊！但乔治却无动于衷。―噢，是它呀！他笑着说道，俨然在谈论一位老朋友。―那是塞巴斯蒂安。你忘了我以前是学医的了。‖

Lesson 27 Nothing to sell and nothing to buy 没有东西可卖也没有东西可买

I t h a s b e e n s a i d t h a t everyone l i v e s b y selling something.I n t h e l i g h t o f this statement, teachers live by selling knowledge, philosophers by selling wisdom and priests by selling spiritual comfort. Though it may be possible to measure the value of material good i n t e r m s o f money, it is extremely difficult to estimate the true value of the services which people perform

yet we might grudge paying a surgeon a high fee for offering us precisely this service. The conditions of society are such that skills have to be paid for i n t h e s a m e w a y t h a t goods are paid for at a shop. Everyone has something to sell.

Tramps seem to be the only e x c e p t i o n t o t h i s g e n e r a l r u l e. Beggars almost sell themselves as h u m a n b e i n g s to arouse the pity of passers-by. But real tramps are not beggars. They have nothing to sell and require nothing from others. In seeking independence, they do not sacrifice their human dignity. A tramp may ask you for money, but he will never ask you to f e e l s o r r y f o r him. He has deliberately chosen to lead the life he leads and is fully a w a r e o f the consequences. He may never be sure where the next meal is c o m i n g f r o m, but he is f r e e f r o m the thousands of anxieties which afflict other people. His few material possessions make it possible for him to move from place to place w i t h e a s e. By having to sleep i n t h e o p e n, he g e t s f a r c l o s e r t o the world of nature than most of us ever do. He may hunt, beg, or steal occasionally to keep himself

据说每个人都靠出售某种东西来维持生活。根据这种说法，教师靠卖知识为生，哲学家靠卖智慧为生，牧师靠卖精神安慰为生。虽然物质产品的价值可以用金钱来衡量，但要估算别人为我们为所提供的服务的价值却是极其困难的。有时，我们为了挽救生命，愿意付出我们所占有的一切。但就在外科大夫给我们提供了这种服务后，我们却可能为所支付的昂贵的费用而抱怨。社会上的情况就是如此，技术是必须付钱去买的，就像在商店里要花钱买商品一样。人人都有东西可以出售。

在这条普遍的规律前面，好像只有流浪汉是个例外，乞丐出售的几乎是他本人，以引起过路人的怜悯。但真正的流浪并不是乞丐。他们既不出售任何东西，也不需要从别人那儿得到任何东西，在追求独立自由的同时，他们并不牺牲为人的尊严。游浪汉可能会向你讨钱，但他从来不要你可怜他。他是故意在选择过那种生活的，并完全清楚以这种方式生活的后果。他可能从不知道下顿饭有无着落，但他不像有人那样被千万桩愁事所折磨。他几乎没有什么财产，这使他能够轻松自如地在各地奔波。由于被迫在露天睡觉，他比我们中许多人都离大自然近得多。为了生存，他可能会去打猎、乞讨，偶尔偷上一两回；确实需要的时候，他甚至可能干一点儿活，但他决不会牺牲自由。说起流浪汉，我们常常带有轻蔑并把他们与乞丐归为一类。但是，我们中有多少人能够坦率地说我们对流浪汉的简朴生活与无忧无虑的境况不感到有些羡慕呢？

Lesson 33 A day to remember难忘的一天

We have all experienced days when everything g o e s w r o n g. A day may begin well enough,

unimportant event s e t u p a c h a i n o f reactions. Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and k e e p i n g a n e y e o n the baby a t t h e s a m e t i m e. The telephone rings and this marks the prelude to a n u n f o r e s e e n s e r i e s o f catastrophes. While you are o n t h e p h o n e, the baby pulls the table-cloth off the table, smashing half your best crockery and cutting himself in the process. You h a n g u p hurriedly and a t t e n d t o baby, crockery, etc. Meanwhile, the meal g e t s b u r n t

this were not enough to reduce you to tears, your husband arrives, unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner.

Things can g o w r o n g on a big scale, as a number of people recently discovered in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney. During the r u s h h o u r one evening two cars collided and both drivers began to argue. The woman immediately behind the two cars h a p p e n e d t o b e a learner. She suddenly g o t i n t o a p a n i c and stopped her car. This made the driver following her brake hard. His wife was sitting beside him holding a large cake. As she was thrown forward, the cake went right through the windscreen and landed on the road. Seeing a cake flying through the air, a lorry–driver who was d r a w i n g u p alongside the car, pulled up a l l o f a s u d d e n. The lorry was

to sweep up hundreds of broken bottles. Only two stray dogs benefited from all this confusion, for they greedily devoured what was left of the cake. It was just one of those days!

我们大家都有过事事不顺心的日子。一天开始时，可能还不错，但突然间似乎一切都失去了控制。情况经常是这样的，许许多多的事情都偏偏赶在同一时刻出问题，好像是一件无关紧要的小事引起了一连串的连锁反应。假设你在做饭，同时又在照看孩子。这时电话铃响了，它预示着一连串意想不到的灾难的来临。就在你接电话时，孩子把桌布从桌子上扯了下来，将家中最好的陶瓷餐具半数摔碎，同时也弄伤了他自己。你急急忙忙挂上电话，赶去照看孩子和餐具。这时，饭又烧糊了。好像这一切还不足以使你急得掉泪，你的丈夫接着回来了，事先没打招呼就带来3个客人吃饭。

就像许多人最近在悉尼郊区帕拉马塔所发现的那样，有时乱子会闹得很大。一天傍晚交通最拥挤时，一辆汽车撞上前面一辆汽车，两个司机争吵起来。紧跟其后的一辆车上的司机碰巧是个初学者，她一惊之下突然把车停了下来。她这一停使得跟在后头的司机也来了个急刹车。司机的妻子正坐在他身边，手里托着块大蛋糕。她往前一冲，蛋糕从挡风玻璃飞了出去掉在马路上。此时，一辆卡车正好从后边开到那辆汽车边上，司机看见一块蛋糕从天而降，紧急刹车。卡车上装着空啤酒瓶，成百只瓶子顺势从卡车后面滑出车外落在马路上。这又引起了一场唇枪舌剑的争吵。与此同时，后面的车辆排成了长龙，警察花了将近一个小时才使车辆又开起来。在这段时间里，卡车司机不得不清扫那几百只破瓶子。只有两只野狗从这一片混乱中得到了好处，它们贪婪地吃掉了剩下的蛋糕。这就是事事不顺心的那么一天！

Lesson 34 A happy discovery幸运的发现

Antique shops e x e r t a p e c u l i a r f a s c i n a t i o n o n a great many people. The more expensive kind of antique shop where rare objects are beautifully displayed in glass cases to keep them free from dust is usually a forbidding place. But no one has to m u s t e r u p c o u r a g e to enter a less pretentious

rooms a real rarity will be found amongst the piles of assorted junk that litter the floors.

No one discovers a rarity b y c h a n c e. A truly dedicated b a r g a i n h u n t e r must have patience, and a b o v e a l l, the ability to recognize the worth of something when he sees it. To do this, he must

making a discovery, he must

My old friend, Frank Halliday, is just such a person. He has often described to me how he p i c k e d u p a masterpiece for a mere￡50. One Saturday morning, Frank visited an antique shop in

open it. Frank b e g g e d h i m t o d o so and the dealer reluctantly prised it open. The contents were disappointing. A p a r t f r o m an interesting-looking carved dagger, the box was full of crockery, m u c h o f i t b r o k e n. Frank gently lifted the crockery out of the box and suddenly noticed a miniature painting a t t h e b o t t o m o f the packing-case. As its Composition and line reminded him of an Italian painting he knew well, he decided to buy it. G l a n c i n g a t it briefly, the dealer told him that it was worth￡50. Frank could hardly c o n c e a l h i s e x c i t e m e n t, for he knew that he had m a d e a r e a l d i s c o v e r y. The tiny painting p r o v e d t o b e an unknown masterpiece by Correggio and was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

古玩店对许多人来说有一种特殊的魅力。高档一点的古玩店为了防尘，把文物漂亮地陈列在玻璃柜子里，那里往往令人望而却步。而对不太装腔作势的古玩店，无论是谁都不用壮着胆子才敢往里进。人们还常常有希望在发霉、阴暗、杂乱无章、迷宫般的店堂里，从杂乱地摆放在地面上的、一堆堆各式各样的破烂货里找到一件稀世珍品。

无论是谁都不会一下子就发现一件珍品。一个到处找便宜货买的人必须具有耐心，而且最重要的是看到珍品时要有鉴别珍品的能力。要做到这一点，他至少要像古董商一样在行。他必须像一个专心致志进行探索的科学家那样抱有这样的希望，即终有一天，他的努力会取得丰硕的成果。

我的老朋友弗兰克·哈利戴正是这样一个人。他多次向我详细讲他如何只花50英镑便买到一位名家的杰作。一个星期六的上午，弗兰克去了我家附近的一家古玩店。由于他从未去过那儿，结果他发现了许多有趣的东西。上午很快过去了，弗兰克正准备离去，突然看见地板上放着一只体积很大的货箱。古董商告诉他那只货箱刚到不久，但他嫌麻烦不想把它打开。经弗兰克恳求，古董商才勉强把货箱撬开了。箱内东西令人失望。除了一柄式样别致、雕有花纹的匕首外，货箱内装满了陶器，而且大部分都已破碎。弗兰克轻轻地把陶器拿出箱子，突然发现在箱底有一幅微型画，画面构图与线条使他想起了一幅他所熟悉的意大利画，于是他决定将画买下来。古董商漫不经心看了一眼那幅画，告诉弗兰克那画值50英镑。弗兰克几乎无法掩饰自己兴奋的心情，因为他明白自己发现了一件珍品。那幅不大的画原来是柯勒乔的一幅未被发现的杰作，价值几十万英镑。

Lesson 38 The first calender 最早的日历

own

. W h a t i s m o r e, they will not have to r e l y s o l e l y o n the written word. Films, videos, CDs and CD-ROMS are just some of the bewildering amount of information they will have.

But the historian a t t e m p t i n g t o

deduce what he can from the few scanty clues available. Even seemingly insignificant remains can s h e d i n t e r e s t i n g l i g h t o n the history of early man.

U p t o n o w, historians have assumed that calendars c a m e i n t o b e i n g w i t h t h e a d v e n t o f agriculture, for then man was f a c e d w i t h a r e a l n e e d t o u n d e r s t a n d something about the seasons. Recent scientific evidence seems to indicate that this assumption is incorrect.

engraved on walls, bones, and the ivory tusks of mammoths. The nomads who made these markings l i v e d b y hunting and fishing during the last Ice Age which began about 35,000 B.C. and ended about 10,000 B.C. By correlating markings made in various parts of the world, historians have been able to read this difficult code. They have found that it is connected with the passage of days and

the phases of the moon. It is, i n f a c t, a primitive

the hunting scenes depicted on walls were not simply a form of artistic expression. They had a definite meaning, for they were a s n e a r a s early man could get to writing. I t i s p o s s i b l e t h a t there is a definite relation between these paintings and the markings that sometimes accompany them.

I t s e e m s t h a t man was making a real effort to understand the seasons 20,000 years earlier than has been supposed.

未来的历史学家在写我们这一段历史的时候会别具一格。对于逐渐积累起来的庞大材料，他们几乎不知道选取哪些好，而且，也不必完全依赖文字材料。电影、录像、光盘和光盘驱动器只是能为他们提供令人眼花缭乱的大量信息的几种手段。他们能够身临其境般地观看我们做事，倾听我们讲话。但是，历史学家企图重现遥远的过去可是一项艰巨的任务，他们必须根据现有的不充分的线索进行推理。即使看起来微不足道的遗物，也可能揭示人类早期历史的一些有趣的内容。

历史学家迄今认为日历是随农业的问世而出现的，因为当时人们面临着了解四季的实际需要，但近期科学研究发现，好像这种假设是不正确的。

长期以来，历史学家一直对雕刻在墙壁上、骨头上、古代长毛象的象牙上的点、线和形形色色的符号感到困惑不解。这些痕迹是游牧人留下的，他们生活在从公元前约35，000年到公元前10，000年的冰川期的末期，以狩猎、捕鱼为生。历史学家通过把世界各地留下的这种痕迹放在一起研究，终于弄懂了这种费解的代码。他们发现代码与昼夜更迭和月亮圆缺有关，事实上是一种最原始的日历。大家早就知道，画在墙上的狩猎图景并不是单纯的艺术表现形式，它们有着一定的含义，因为它们已接近古代人的文字形式。有时，这种图画与墙壁上的刻痕共存，它们之间可能有一定的联系。看来人类早就致力于探索四季变迁了，比人们想像的要早20,000年。

Lesson 40Who's who真假难辨

Students often create amusing situations which are funny to everyone except the victims.

When a student recently saw two workmen using a pneumatic drill outside his university, he immediately telephoned the police and informed them that two students d r e s s e d u p as workmen were t e a r i n g u p the road with a pneumatic drill. A s s o o n a s he had h u n g u p, he went over to the workmen and told them that if a policeman ordered them to g o a w a y, they were not to t a k e h i m s e r i o u s l y. He added that a student had dressed up as a policeman and was playing a l l s o r t s o f silly jokes on people. Both the police and the workmen were grateful to the student for this piece

The student hid in an archway nearby where he could watch and hear everything that went on. S u r e e n o u g h, a policeman a r r i v e d o n t h e s c e n e and politely asked the workmen to go away.

S h o r t l y

men refused to stop working, the police attempted to seize the pneumatic drill. The workmen struggled fiercely and one of them l o s t h i s t e m p e r. He t h r e a t e n e d t o call the police. At this, the police p o i n t e d o u t ironically that this would hardly be necessary as the men were already under

him to a p a y p h o n e. Only when he saw that the man was actually telephoning the police did he

谁也弄不清为什么大学生好像比任何人都更喜欢恶作剧。大学生擅长一种特殊的恶作剧——戏弄人。请消防队来扑灭一场根本没有的大火是一种低级骗局，有自尊心的大学生决不会去做。大学生们常常做的是制造一种可笑的局面，除了受害者大家都觉得非常滑稽。

最近有个学生看见两个工人在大学校门外用风钻干活，马上打电话报告警察，说有两个学生装扮成工人，正在用风钻破坏路面。挂上电话后，他又马上来到工人那儿，告诉他们若有个警察来让他们走开，不要把他当回事；还对工人说，有个学生常装扮成警察无聊地同别人开玩笑。警察与工人都对那个学生事先通报情况表示感谢。

那学生躲在附近一拱形门廊里，在那儿可以看见、听到现场发生的一切。果然，警察来了，有礼貌地请工人离开此地；但其中一个工人粗鲁地回了几句。于是警察威胁要强行使他们离开。工人说，悉听尊便。警察去打电话叫

人。一会儿工夫，又来了4个警察，规劝工人离开。由于工人拒绝停下手中的活，警察想夺风钻。两个工人奋力抗争，其中一个发了火，威胁说要去叫警察。警察听后讥讽地说，这大可不必，因为他俩已被逮捕了。其中一个工人装模作样地问道，在被带往警察局之前，是否可以打一个电话。警察同意了，陪他来到一个投币电话前。当他看到那个工人真的是给警察挂电话，才恍然大悟，原来他们都成了一场骗局的受害者。

Lesson 41Illusions of Pastoral Peace宁静田园生活的遐想

a train window, or something you occasionally visit during the weekend. Most of my friends live in the city, yet they always g o i n t o r a p t u r e s a t t h e m e r e m e n t i o n o f the country. Though they extol the virtues of the peaceful life, only one of them has ever gone to live in the country and he was back in town within six months.

gentle pace of living. Nothing can be compared, he maintains, with the first cock crow, the twittering of birds at dawn, the sight of the rising sun glinting on the trees and pastures. This idyllic pastoral scene is only part of the picture. My friend f a i l s t o mention the long and friendless winter evenings i n f r o n t o f the TV ---- virtually the only form of entertainment. He s a y s n o t h i n g a b o u t the poor selection of goods in the shops, or about those unfortunate people who

tolerate a four-hour journey each day for the dubious privilege of living in the country is beyond me. They could be saved so much misery and expense if they c h o s e t o live in the city where they rightly belong.

They invariably live nearby and are always available for an informal chat or an evening's entertainment. Some of my acquaintances in the country c o m e u p t o town once or twice a year to visit the theatre as a special treat. For them this is a major operation which involves considerable planning. As the play d r a w s t o i t s c l o s e, they wonder whether they will ever catch that last train home. The city dweller never experiences anxieties of this sort. The latest exhibitions, films, or plays are only a short bus ride away. Shopping, too, is always a pleasure. T h e r e i s s o m u c h v a r i e t y t h a t you never have to make do with second best. Country people run

comforting about the warm glow shed by advertisements on cold wet winter nights. Few things could be more impressive than the peace that descends on deserted city streets at weekends

宁静的乡村生活从来没有吸引过我。我生在城市，长在城市，总认为乡村是透过火车车窗看到的那个样子，或偶尔周末去游玩一下的景象。我的许多朋友都住在城市，但他们只要一提起乡村，马上就会变得欣喜若狂。尽管他们都交口称赞宁静的乡村生活的种种优点，但其中只有一人真去农村住过，而且不足6个月就回来了。即使他也仍存有幻觉，好像乡村生活就是比城市生活优越。他滔滔不绝地大谈友好的农民，洁净的空气，贴近大自然的环境和悠闲的生活节奏。他坚持认为，凌晨雄鸡第一声啼叫，黎明时分小鸟吱喳欢叫，冉冉升起的朝阳染红树木、牧场，此番美景无与伦比。但这种田园诗般的乡村风光仅仅是一个侧面。我的朋友没有提到在电视机前度过的漫长寂寞的冬夜——电视是唯一的娱乐形式。他也不说商店货物品种单调，以及那些每天不得不从乡下赶到城里工作的不幸的

人们。人们为什么情愿每天在路上奔波4个小时去换取值得怀疑的乡间的优点，我是无法理解的。要是他们愿意住在本来属于他们的城市，则可以让他们省去诸多不便与节约大量开支。

如果你愿舍弃乡下生活那一点点乐趣的话，那么你会发现城市可以为你提供生活中最美好的东西。你去看朋友根本不用跋涉好几英里，因为他们都住在附近，你随时可以同他们聊天或在晚上一起娱乐。我在乡村有一些熟人，他们每年进城来看一回或几回戏，并把此看作一种特殊的享受。看戏在他们是件大事，需要精心计划。当戏快演完时，他们又为是否能赶上末班火车回家而犯愁。这种焦虑，城里人是从未体验过的。坐公共汽车几站路，就可看到最新的展览、电影、戏剧。买东西也是一种乐趣。物品品种繁多，从来不必用二等品来凑合。乡里人进城采购欣喜若狂，每次回家时都买足了外来商品，直到拿不动方才罢休，连走路都摇摇晃晃的。城市也并非没有良辰美景。寒冷潮湿的冬夜里，广告灯箱发出的暖光，会给人某种安慰。周末，当成千上万进城上班的人回到了他们的乡间寓所之后，空旷的街市笼罩着一种宁静的气氛，没有什么能比此时的宁静更令人难忘了。城里人对这一切心里很明白，却偏要执拗地装出他们喜欢住在乡村的样子，这对我来说一直是个谜。

Lesson 42 Modern cavemen 现代洞穴人

Cave exploration, or pot-holing, as it has c o m e t o b e k n o w n, is a relatively new sport. Perhaps it is the desire for solitude or the chance of making an unexpected discovery that lures people d o w n t o the depths of the earth. It is impossible to g i v e a s a t i s f a c t o r y e x p l a n a t i o n for a pot-holer's motives. For him, caves have the same peculiar fascination which high mountains have for the climber. They arouse instincts which can only be dimly understood.

Exploring really deep caves is not a task for the Sunday afternoon rambler. Such undertakings require the precise planning and foresight of m i l i t a r y o p e r a t i o n s. I t c a n t a k e a s l o n g a s eight days to r i g u p rope ladders and to establish supply bases before a descent can be m a d e i n t o a very deep cave. Precautions of this sort are necessary, for it is impossible to foretell the exact nature of the difficulties which will confront the pot-holer. The deepest known cave in the world is the Gouffre Berger near Grenoble. It e x t e n d s t o a depth of 3,723 feet. This immense chasm has been formed by an underground stream which has tunneled a course through a flaw in the rocks. The e n t r a n c e t o the cave is on a plateau in the Dauphine Alps. As it is only six feet across, it is barely noticeable. The cave might never have been discovered had not the entrance been spotted by the distinguished French pot-holer, Berger. Since its discovery, it has become a sort of pot-holers' Everest(珠峰). Though a n u m b e r o f descents have been made, much of it still remains to be explored.

A t e a m o f pot-holers recently w e n t d o w n the Gouffre Berger. After entering the narrow gap o n t h e p l a t e a u, they c l i m b e d d o w n the steep sides of the cave until they came to narrow corridor. They had to e d g e t h e i r w a y along this, sometimes w a d i n g a c r o s s shallow streams, or swimming across deep pools. Suddenly they came to a waterfall which d r o p p e d i n t o an underground lake a t t h e b o t t o m o f the cave. They p l u n g e d i n t o the lake, and after loading their gear on an inflatable rubber dinghy, let the current carry them to the other side. To protect themselves from the icy water, they had to wear special rubber suits. At the far end of the lake, they came to huge piles of rubble which had been washed up by the water. In this part of the cave, they could hear an insistent booming sound which they found was c a u s e d b y a small water-spout shooting down into a pool from the roof of the cave. Squeezing through a cleft in the rocks, the pot-holers a r r i v e d a t an enormous cavern, the size of a huge concert hall. After switching on powerful arc lights, they saw great stalagmites -- some of them over forty feet high --

limestone glistened in all the colours of the rainbow. In the eerie（可怕的）silence of the cavern,

the only sound that could be heard was made by water which dripped continuously from the high dome above them.

洞穴勘查——或洞穴勘探——是一项比较新的体育活动。寻求独处的愿望或寻求意外发现的机会的欲望吸引人们来到地下深处。要想对洞穴探险者的动机作出满意的解释是不可能的。对洞穴探险者来说，洞穴有一种特殊的魅力，就像高山对登山者有特殊魅力一样。为什么洞空能引发人的那种探险本能，人们对此只能有一种模模糊糊的理解。

探测非常深的洞穴不是那些在星期日下午漫步的人所能胜任的。这种活动需要有军事行动般的周密布署和预见能力。有时需要花费整整8天时间来搭起绳梯，建立供应基地，然后才能到一个很深的洞穴里。作出这样的准备是必要的，因为无法预见到洞穴探险者究竟会遇到什么性质的困难。世界上最深的洞穴是格里诺布尔附近的高弗.伯杰洞，深达3,723英尺。这个深邃的洞穴是由一条地下暗泉冲刷岩石中的缝隙并使之慢慢变大而形成的。此洞的洞口在丹芬阿尔卑斯山的高原上，仅6英尺宽，很难被发现。若不是法国著名洞穴探险家伯杰由于偶然的机会发现了这个洞口的话，这个洞也许不会为人所知。自从被发现以后，这个洞成了洞穴探险者的珠穆朗玛峰，人们多次进入洞内探险，但至今尚有不少东西有待勘探。

最近，一队洞穴探险者下到了高弗.伯杰洞里。他们从高原上的窄缝进去，顺着笔直陡峭的洞壁往下爬。来到一条狭窄的走廊上。他们不得不侧着身子往前走，有时过浅溪，有时游过深潭。突然，他们来到一道瀑布前，那瀑布奔泻而下，注入洞底一处地下湖里。他们跳入湖中，把各种器具装上一只充气的橡皮艇，听任水流将他们带往对岸。湖水冰冷刺骨，他们必须穿上一种特制的橡皮服以保护自己。在湖的尽头，他们见到一大堆一大堆由湖水冲刷上岸的碎石。在这儿，他们可以听见一种连续不断的轰鸣声。后来他们发现这是由山洞顶部的一个小孔里喷出的水柱跌落到水潭中发出的声音。洞穴探险者从岩石缝里挤身过去，来到一个巨大的洞里，其大小相当于一个音乐厅。他们打开强力弧光灯，看见一株株巨大的石笋，有的高达40英尺，像树干似地向上长着，与洞顶悬挂下来的钟乳石相接。周围是一堆堆石灰石，像彩虹一样闪闪发光。洞里有一种可怕的寂静，唯一的可以听见的声响是高高的圆顶上不间断地滴水的嘀嗒声。

Lesson 43Fully insured全保险

Insuring public or private

open air garden party or a fete it would be equally possible to insure yourself i n t h e e v e n t o f bad weather. Needless to say, the bigger the risk an insurance company takes, the higher the premium

the cost of salvaging a sunken ship. But the claim made by a local authority to recover the cost of

Admittedly it was an unusual pie dish, for it was eighteen feet long and six feet wide. It had been purchased by a l o c a l a u t h o r i t y so that an enormous pie could be baked for an annual fair. The pie committee decided that the best way to transport the dish would be b y c a n a l, so they

insured

and sank in seven feet of water.

The pie committee telephoned a local garage owner who a r r i v e d i n a recovery truck to salvage the pie dish. Shivering in their wet clothes, the teenagers looked on while three men

They h a d l i t t l e d i f f i c u l t y i n finding it, but hauling it out of the water proved to be a s e r i o u s p r o b l e m. The sides of the dish were so smooth that it was almost impossible to attach hawsers and chains to the rim without damaging it. Eventually chains were fixed to one end of the dish and a powerful winch was p u t i n t o o p e r a t i o n.

time they fixed heavy metal clamps to both sides of the dish so that they could fasten the chains. The dish now had to be lifted vertically because one edge was resting against the side of the canal. The winch was again put into operation and one of the men s t a r t e d u p the truck. Several minutes later, the dish was successfully hauled above the surface of the water. Water streamed in

before the wave returned.

保险公司一般说来愿意承保一切东西。承办公共财产或私人财产保险是世界上大部分国家的正常业务。如果你要举办一次露天游园会或盛宴，为避免碰上不好的天气而遭受损失也同样可以保险。不用说，保险公司承担风险越大，你付的保险费也就越高。航运公司为打捞沉船而提出索赔，这是常有的事，但某地当局为打捞一只焙制馅饼的盘子提出索赔，倒是件新鲜事儿。

这个馅饼盘子确实少见，有18英尺长，6英尺宽。某地方当局买下它用来焙制一个巨大的馅饼为一年一度交易会助兴。馅饼委员会确认运输这只盘子的最佳方案是通过运河水运。于是，他们对这只盘子的运输安全投了保。盘子下水后不久，馅饼委员会成员们来到当地一家小酒店庆贺。就在这个时候，许多十几岁的孩子爬上盘子举行他们自己的集会。他们跳起了舞，盘子难以承受。舞会进行过程中，盘子倾覆，沉入了7英尺深的水中。

馅饼委员会给当地汽车修理库老板打电话，他闻讯后开着一辆急修车前来打捞盘子。那些孩子们穿着湿衣服哆嗦，看着3个工人轮番潜入水中以确定盘子的位置。他们没费多大事儿就找到了盘子，可是把盘子捞出却是一个很大的难题。盘子四边十分光滑，要在盘边拴上绳索或链条而同时又不损坏它是很难办到的。不过，他们终于将链条固定在盘子的一端，一台大功率的绞车开动起来。盘子慢慢浮出水面，被轻轻地拽向运河岸边。在令人忐忑不安的瞬间，盘子晃晃悠悠地上了岸，但它突然失去了平衡，又跌回水中。工人们只得再来一次。这次，他们用沉重的金属夹子把盘子夹住，以便往盘子上安装铁链。这次，盘子必须垂直吊出水面，因为盘子的一边紧靠着运河河岸。绞盘机再次启动，一位工人发动了急修车的引擎。几分钟后，盘子被成功地拽出了水面。波浪从盘子两侧急涌而出，在运河里掀起一股大浪。但是当波浪从河对岸折回来时，就有再次把盘子拖进水里的危险。工人们动作迅速，终于赶在那股大浪返回之前把盘子拽到了岸上。

Lesson 44Speed and comfort又快捷又舒适

People, traveling long distances frequently have to decide whether they would p r e f e r t o go by land, sea, or air. Hardly anyone can positively enjoy sitting in a train for m o r e t h a n a few hours. Train compartments soon g e t c r a m p e d and stuffy. It is almost impossible to take your mind off the journey. Reading is only a partial solution, for the monotonous rhythm of the wheels clicking on the rails soon lulls you to sleep. During the day, s l e e p c o m e s i n s n a t c h e s. At night, when you really wish to g o t o s l e e p, you rarely m a n a g e t o d o so. If you are lucky enough to get a sleeper, you spend half the night s t a r i n g a t the small blue light in the ceiling, or fumbling to find your ticket for inspection. Inevitably you a r r i v e a t your destination almost exhausted. Long car journeys are even less pleasant, for it is quite impossible even to read. On motorways you can, at least, travel fairly safely a t h i g h s p e e d s

stretch your legs on the spacious decks, play games, meet interesting people and enjoy good food----always assuming, of course, that the sea is calm.

E v e n i f you

travel in ideal weather, sea journeys t a k e a l o n g t i m e

Aeroplanes have the reputation of being dangerous and even hardened travellers are

above the clouds, and at over 500 miles an hour is an exhilarating experience. You do not have to devise ways of taking your mind off the journey, for an aeroplane gets you to your destination rapidly. For a few hours, you s e t t l e b a c k in a deep armchair to enjoy the flight. The real escapist can watch a film and sip champagne on some services. But even when such refinements are not available, there is plenty to k e e p y o u o c c u p i e d. An aeroplane offers you an unusual and breathtaking view of the world. You soar effortlessly over high mountains and deep valleys. You really see the shape of the land. If the landscape is hidden from view, you can enjoy the extraordinary sight of unbroken cloud plains that s t r e t c h o u t for miles before you, while the sun shines brilliantly in a clear sky. The journey is so smooth that there is nothing to prevent you from reading or sleeping. However you decide to spend your time, one thing is certain: you will

your destination

出远门的人常常需要决定是走旱路、水路，还是坐飞机。很少有人能够真正喜欢坐几个小时以上的火车。车厢很快就变得拥挤、闷热，想摆脱开旅途的困扰是很难的。看书只能解决部分问题。车轮与铁轨间单调的嘎喳声很快就会送你进入梦乡。白天是忽睡忽醒，到了夜晚，你真想睡了，却很难入睡。即使你走运弄到一个卧铺，夜间有一半时间你会盯着车顶那盏小蓝灯而睡不着觉；要不然就为查票摸索你的车票。一旦抵达目的地，你总是疲惫不堪。乘汽车作长途旅行则更加不舒服，因为连看书都几乎不可能。在公路上还好，你至少能以相当快的速度安全地向前行。但旅行的大部分时间都花在路上，而且只有很少的服务设施，交通也很拥挤。相比之下，坐船旅行或环游可以得到文明世界的各种享受。你可以在甲板上伸展四肢、做游戏，还能见到各种有趣的人，能享用各种美味佳肴——当然，这一切只有在大海风平浪静的情况下才有可能。如果大海肆虐起来，你就可能晕船，那种难受劲儿是任何一种别的旅行方式都不会带来的。即便风平浪静，坐船旅行也要占用很长时间。没有多少人会为了享受坐船旅行的乐趣而牺牲假期的时间。

飞机以危险而著称，连老资格的旅行者也怕飞机。飞机的另一个缺点是昂贵。但就速度与舒适而言，飞机是无与伦比的。腾云驾雾，在3万英尺高空以500英里的时速旅行，这种经历令人心旷神怡。你不必想办法去摆脱旅途的困扰，因为飞机会迅速地把你送到目的地。几小时之内，你躺在扶手椅上，享受着旅途的欢乐。真正会享受的人还可以在某些航班上看一场电影和喝香槟。即使没有这些消遣条件，也总是有事可做。飞机上，你可以观察世界上非同寻常的奇妙的美景。你毫不费劲地飞越高山幽谷，你确能饱览大地的风貌。如果这种景色被遮住了，你便可以观赏一下展现在你面前的、一望数英里的、连绵不断的云海，同时阳光灿烂，天空清澈明朗。旅途平稳，丝毫不妨碍你阅读或睡眠。不管你打算如何消磨时间，有件事是可以肯定的，即当你抵达目的地时，你感到精神焕发，毫无倦意，用不着因为漫长旅途的辛苦而花几天时间休息来恢复精神。

Lesson 45The power of the press新闻报道的威力

In democratic countries any efforts to restrict the freedom of the Press are rightly condemned. However, this freedom can easily be abused. Stories about people often attract far more p u b l i c a t t e n t i o n than political events. Though we may enjoy reading about the lives of others, i t i s e x t r e m e l y d o u b t f u l w h e t h e r we would equally enjoy reading about ourselves. Acting

publishing details about their private lives. Newspapers e x e r t s u c h t r e m e n d o u s i n f l u e n c e that they can not only b r i n g a b o u t major changes to the lives of ordinary people but can even overthrow a government.

The story of a poor family that acquired fame and fortune overnight, dramatically illustrates the power of the press. The family l i v e d i n Aberdeen, a small town of 23, 000 inhabitants in South Dakota. As the parents had five children, life was a perpetual struggle against poverty. They were expecting their sixth child and were f a c e d w i t h even more pressing economic

problems. If they had only had one more child, the fact would have passed unnoticed. They would have continued to s t r u g g l e a g a i n s t economic odds and would have lived in obscurity. But they suddenly became the parents of quintuplets, four girls and a boy, an event which radically changed their lives. The day after the birth of the five children, an aeroplane arrived in Aberdeen bringing sixty reporters and photographers.

T h e r i s e t o f a m e w a s s w i f t. Television cameras and newspapers carried the news to everyone in the country. Newspapers and magazines offered the family huge sums for the exclusive rights to publish stories and photographs. Gifts p o u r e d i n n o t o n l y from unknown people, b u t from baby food and soap manufacturers who wished to advertise their products. The old farmhouse the family lived in was to be r e p l a c e d b y a new ＄500, 000 home. Reporters kept pressing for interviews so lawyers had to be employed to a c t a s spokesmen for the family at press conferences. While the five babies were still quietly sleeping in oxygen tents in a hospital

a c q u i r e d a m a r k e t v a l u e. I n s t e a d o f being five new family members, these children had immediately become a commodity.

在民主国家里，任何限制新闻自由的企图都理所当然地受到谴责。然而，这种自由很容易被滥用。常人轶事往往比政治事件更能引起公众注意。我们都喜欢看关于别人生活的报道，但是否同样喜欢看关于自己生活的报道，就很难说了。记者按事实至上的论点行事，发表有关别人私生活的细节，有时会给当事人造成极大的痛苦。新闻具有巨大的威力。它们不仅可以给寻常人家的生活带来重大的变化，甚至还能推翻一个政府。

下面这户穷人一夜之间出名发财的故事戏剧性地说明了新闻报道的威力。这户人家住在南达科他州一个人口为23，000的小镇上，镇名为阿拜丁。家里已有5个孩子，全家人常年在贫困中挣扎。第6个孩子即将问世，他们面临着更为严峻的经济问题。如果他们只是添了1个孩子，这件事本来就不会引起任何人的注意。这家人会继续为克服经济上的拮据而奋斗，并默默无闻地活下去。但是他们出人意料地生了个五胞胎，4女1男。这事使他们的生活发生了根本的变化。五胞胎降生第二天，一架飞机飞抵阿拜丁，随机带来60名记者与摄影师。

这一家迅速出了名。电视摄像机和报纸把消息传送到全国。报纸、杂志出高价向他们购买文字、图片的独家报道权。不但素昧平生的人寄来了大量的礼物，而且婴儿食品、婴儿肥皂制造厂商为了替自己产品做广告也寄来了大量的礼物。这家人住的旧农舍将由一座价值50万美元的新住宅所取代。由于记者纷纷要求会见，他们不得不请了律师充当他们家的发言人举行记者招待会。眼下，五胞胎还静静地躺在医院婴儿室的氧气帐里，他们的父母却为这名声付出了代价，他们再也无法过正常的生活。他们成了商业化的受害者，因为他们的名字具有了市场价值。这些孩子立即成了商品，而不是5个新的家庭成员。

Lesson 47 Too high a price? 代价太高？

c o m e t o t h i n k a b o u t it, there are only four ways you can

into something you can use again, a t t e m p t t o produce less of it. We

Rubbish, however, is only part of the problem of polluting our planet. The need to produce ever-increasing quantities of cheap food l e a d s t o a different kind of pollution. Industrialized farming methods produce cheap meat products: beef, pork and chicken. The use of pesticides and fertilizers produces cheap grain and vegetables. The price we pay for cheap food may be already too high: Mad Cow Disease (BSE) in cattle, salmonella in chicken and eggs, and wisteria in dairy

abandon meat and become a vegetarian, you have the c h o i c e o f very expensive o r g a n i c a l l y-g r o w n v e g e t a b l e s or a steady diet of pesticides every time you think

areas and invades our daily lives, and that is noise. Burglar alarms g o i n g o f f a t a n y t i m e of the day or night serve only to annoy passers-by and actually assist burglars to burgle. Car alarms

the effects of noise revealed (surprisingly?) that dogs barking incessantly in the night rated the

late-night parties in apartment blocks, noisy neighbors, vehicles of al kinds, especially large c o n t a i n e r t r u c k s thundering through quiet village, planes and helicopters flying overhead, large radios carried round in public places and played at maximum volume. New technology has also

o b j e c t t o mobile phones, especially when

conversations on mobile phones invade our thoughts or interrupt the pleasure of meeting friends for a quiet chat. The noise pollution survey revealed a rather spurring and possibly amusing old fashioned source of noise. It t u r n e d o u t t o b e snoring! Men were found to be the worst offenders. It was revealed that 20% of men in their mid-thirties snore. This figure r i s e s t o a staggering 60% of men in their sixties. A g a i n s t t h e s e f i g u r e s, it was found that only 5% of women snore regularly, while the rest are constantly woken or k e p t a w a k e by their trumpeting partners. Whatever the source of noise, one thing is certain: silence, it seems, has become a golden memory.

污染就是我们为这个人口过密，过度工业化的星球所付出的代价。当我们开始考虑垃圾问题时，我们只有4种对付垃圾的方法：倾倒、焚烧、把垃圾变成再生材料或试图少产生一些垃圾。我们一直在试这4种方式，但是，我们在世界范围内仅产生的垃圾的量就有把我们覆盖的危险。

然而，垃圾只是我们这个星球的污染问题的一个方面。日益增长的对廉价食物的需求导致了另一种形式的污染。工业化的农作方式生产出廉价的肉类制品——牛肉、猪肉和鸡肉。使用杀虫剂和化肥生产出廉价的谷物和蔬菜。为了廉价食物我们付出代价已经太高了：牛肉中的疯牛病，鸡肉和鸡蛋中的沙门氏菌，奶制品中的利斯特杆菌。如果你想放弃肉类而变成一位素食者，那么你可以两者择一：或是选用价格昂贵、有机培植的蔬菜，或是当你认为在享用新鲜色拉和新鲜蔬菜或饮用一杯无害的水的时候，实际上每次都不断吃进杀虫剂。

但是，还有一种更加隐蔽有害的污染，它专门影响城镇地区，侵袭我们的日常生活，那就是噪音。防盗警报器在白天和黑夜的任何时候都会响起来，它的作用只是骚扰过路行人，而实际上却帮助窃贼入室行窃。在街上，汽车的防盗警报不断对我们吼叫，这是人们极度烦燥的一个原因，最近一个有关噪音的作用的调查（令人吃惊地）指出，夜间连续不断的狗叫声，在一个从1级至7级刻度表上应列为最严重的噪间污染。这个调查揭示了我们所不喜欢的大量的噪间的来源：夏天呜呜作响的割草机，公寓楼里深夜聚会的喧哗声，大声吵闹的邻居，各式各样的车辆，特别是穿越寂静的村庄的集装箱卡车，从头顶飞过的飞机和直升机，被带到公共场所、音量开到最大的大功率收音机。新技术也为噪音作了它的贡献。许多人都反对移动式电话，特别是在如饭店，公共交通车等公共场所使用移动电话。用移动电话大声交谈干扰我们的思路，破坏我们和朋友在一起轻声聊天所得到的乐趣。这个有关噪音的污染调查还揭示了一种出人意外而同时可能会引人意外而同时可能会引人发笑的老式噪音源。它竟然是鼾声。人类是这方面的罪魁祸首。调查指出，20%的35岁左右的男人打鼾；而到60岁这个年龄段，这个数字上升到令人惊愕的60%。与这些数字相比，只有5% 的女性经常打鼾；而其余则经常被与她们同睡、像吹号似地打着呼噜的男人吵醒或弄得睡不着。不管噪声来自何方，有一点是肯定的：看来寂静已变成一种珍贵的回忆。

Lesson 50New Year resolutions新年的决心

formidable lists of ?dos‘and ?don'ts‘. The same old favourites recur y e a r i n y e a r o u t with monotonous regularity. We r e s o l v e t o get up earlier each morning, eat less, find more time to p l a y w i t h the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, be n i c e t o people we don't

inveterate smokers, it is only

because we have so often experienced the frustration

our efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to

modest ambitions: to d o p h y s i c a l e x e r c i s e s every morning and to read more of an evening. An all-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying on either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously

The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I p r o p o s e d t o do them early in the morning before anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to drag myself o u t o f bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable. Nevertheless, I m a n a g e d t o c r e e p d o w n into the living-room for two days before anyone found me out. After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions, I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition. It was this that betrayed me. The next morning the whole family t r o o p e d i n to watch the performance. That was really unsettling, but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and soon everybody g o t u s e d t o the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned. The time I spent at exercise gradually diminished. L i t t l e b y l i t t l e the eleven minutes fell to zero. By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from. I argued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning, I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from work. Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to a book. One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read. That proved to be my undoing, for I soon g o t b a c k t o m y o l d b a d h a b i t o f d o z i n g o f f in front of the screen. I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading. In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I just haven't had time to read it!

新年是下决心的时候，至少在大多数人的心里会编排出一份―应做什么‖和―不应做什么‖的令人生畏的单子。相同的决心以单调的规律年复一年地出现。我们决心每天早晨起得早些；吃得少些；多花点时间与孩子们一起做游戏；做大量的家务；对不喜欢的人友善一些；小心驾车；每天都要带着狗散步；等等。以往的经验告诉我们有些事是办不到的。如果我们烟瘾大，戒不掉，那是因为屡戒屡败，失去了信心。我们大多数人想自我完善却遭到失败，这是因为我们的规划过于宏大，而又根本没有时间去实施。我们还犯有一个根本性的错误，即把我们的决心向大家宣布。这样一旦滑回到那些环的老习惯上去，我们在别人眼里会显得更加难堪。我深知这些问题，于是，今年我对自己的计划要严加保密，只给自己定下两项适中的任务：每天早上锻炼身体，每天晚上多看点书。新年除夕举办的一次通宵晚会，使我理直气壮地在新年头一天免去了这两项任务。不过，新年第二天，我全力以赴地照着去做了。

早锻炼一共只有11分钟，我打算在别人起床之前进行。这就要求我比平日早11分钟把自己从床上拽起来，这种自我约束是很艰苦的。不过开头两天我还是成功地蹑手蹑脚地来到楼下起居室，被谁也没发现。我在地毯上跳过来蹦过去，扭曲身子，摆出各种姿势，弄得浑身不舒服，然后坐到桌边吃早饭，一副筋疲力尽的样子。正是这副模样泄露了我的秘密。第二天早晨全家人结队来到起居室看我表演。这真叫人不好意思，但我心平气和地顶住了全家人的嘲笑和奚落。不久，大家对我习以为常了，而这时我的热情却减退了。我花在锻炼上的时间逐渐减少，慢慢地从11分钟减到了零。到了1月10日，我恢复了原来的作息时间。我辩解说，早晨少耗费精力锻炼，晚上下班回家看书时头脑更清醒些。有几天晚上，我极力摆脱了电视的诱惑，坐在自己房间里，两眼盯在书上。可是，有一天夜里，我感到又冷又孤单，便来到楼下坐在电视机前假装看书。这下我可完了，因为不一会儿，我就恢复了以前的坏习惯，在屏幕前打起瞌睡来。但我还没有放弃多看些书的决心。事实上，我刚买来一本叫《一分钟读一千字的诀窍》的书。也许这本书能解决我的问题，但我一直还没时间去看这本书！

Lesson 53In the public interest为了公众的利益

The Scandinavian countries are much admired a l l o v e r t h e w o r l d for their enlightened social policies. Sweden has evolved an excellent system for protecting the individual citizen from

high-handed or incompetent public officers. The system has worked so well, that it has been adopted in other countries too.

The Swedes were t h e f i r s t t o recognize that public officials like c i v i l s e r v a n t s, police officers, health inspectors or t a x-c o l l e c t o r s can m a k e m i s t a k e s or act over-zealously i n t h e b e l i e f t h a t they are s e r v i n g t h e p u b l i c. A s l o n g a g o as 1809, the Swedish Parliament introduced a scheme to s a f e g u a r d t h e i n t e r e s t o f t h e i n d i v i d u a l. A parliamentary committee representing all political parties appoints a person who is suitably q u a l i f i e d t o investigate private grievances against the State. The official title of the person is ?Justiteombudsman‘, but the Swe des commonly r e f e r t o h i m a s the ?J. O.‘ or

He investigates complaints l a r g e a n d s m a l l that c o m e t o him from a l l l e v e l s o f s o c i e t y. As complaints must be made in writing, the Ombudsman receives a n a v e r a g e o f1, 200 letters a year. He has eight lawyer assistants to help him and he examines every single letter i n d e t a i l

nothing secretive about the Ombudsman's work, for his correspondence is open to public . If a citizen's complaint is justified, the Ombudsman will a c t o n h i s b e h a l f. The action he takes varies a c c o r d i n g t o the nature of the complaint. He may gently reprimand an official or even suggest to parliament that a law be altered. The following case is a typical example of the Ombudsman's work.

A foreigner living in a Swedish village w r o t e t o the Ombudsman complaining that he had been i l l-t r e a t e d b y the police, simply because he was a foreigner. The Ombudsman immediately w r o t e t o the Chief of Police in the district asking him to send a record of the case. There was nothing in the record to show that the foreigner's complaint was justified and the Chief of Police strongly denied the accusation. I t w a s i m p o s s i b l e f o r the Ombudsman to t a k e a c t i o n, but when he received a similar complaint from another foreigner in the same village, he immediately sent one of his lawyers to investigate the matter. The lawyer ascertained that a policeman had indeed dealt roughly with foreigners o n s e v e r a l o c c a s i o n s. T h e f a c t t h a t the policeman was prejudiced against foreigners could not be recorded in the official files. It was only possible for the Ombudsman to find this out by sending one of his representatives to c h e c k t h e f a c t s. The policeman i n q u e s t i o n was severely reprimanded and was informed that if any further complaints were l o d g e d a g a i n s t him, he would be prosecuted. The Ombudsman's p r o m p t a c t i o n at once p u t a n e n d t o an unpleasant practice which might have gone unnoticed.

斯堪的纳维亚半岛各国实行的开明的社会政策，受到全世界的推崇。在瑞典，已逐渐形成了一种完善的制度以保护每个公民不受专横的和不称职的政府官员的欺压。由于这种制度行之有效，已被其他国家采纳。

是瑞典人首先认识到政府工作人员如文职人员、警官、卫生稽查员、税务人员等等也会犯错误或者自以为在为公众服务而把事情做过了头。早在1809年，瑞典议会就建立了一个保护公民利益的制度。议会内有一个代表各政党利益的委员会，由它委派一位称职的人选专门调查个人对国家的意见。此人官衔为―司法特派员‖，但瑞典人一般都管他叫―J．O．‖，即―司法特派员‖。司法特派员不受任何政治压力的制约。他听取社会各阶层的各种大小意见，并进行调查。由于意见均需用书面形式提出，司法特派员每年平均收到1，200封信。他有8位律帅做他的助手协助工作，每封信都详细批阅。司法特派员的工作没有什么秘密可言，他的信件是公开的，供公众监督。如果公民的意见正确，司法特派员便为他伸张正义。司法特派员采取的行动因意见的性质不同而有所不同。他可以善意地批评某位官员，也可以甚至向议会提议修改某项法律。下述事件是司法特派员工作的一个典型例子。

一个住在瑞典乡村的外国人写信给司法特派员，抱怨说他受到警察虐待，原因就是因为他是个外国人。司法特派员立即写信给当地的警察局长，请他寄送与此事有关的材料。材料中没有任何文字记载证明外国人所说的情况符合事实，警察局长矢口否认这一指控。司法特派员难以处理。但是，当他又收到住在同一村庄的另一个外国人写的一封内容类似的投诉信时，他立即派出一位律师前去调查。律师证实有个警察确实多次粗鲁地对待外国人。警察歧视外国人的事在官方档案中不可能加以记载，司法特派员只有派他的代表去核对事实才能了解真相。当事的警察受到严厉斥责，并被告知，如果再有人投诉他，他将受到起诉。司法特派员及时采取的行动，迅速制止了这一起不愉快的事件，不然这件事可能因未得到人们注意而不了了之。

Lesson 54 Instinct or cleverness? 是本能还是机智

unnecessary creatures that

contaminate our food,

unreasonable, but they are impossible to erase. A t t h e s a m e t i m e, however, insects are strangely fascinating. We enjoy reading about them, especially when we find that, like the praying

Last summer I spent days in the garden watching thousands of ants c r a w l i n g u p the trunk of my prize peach tree. The tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of the house. I am especially p r o u d o f it, not only because it has survived several severe winters, but because it occasionally produces luscious peaches. During the summer, I noticed that the leaves of the tree were beginning to wither. Clusters of tiny insects called aphides were to be found on the underside of the leaves. They were visited by a l a r g e c o l o n y o f ants which obtained a sort of honey from them. I immediately e m b a r k e d o n an experiment which, even though if failed to g e t r i d o f the ants, kept me fascinated for twenty-four hours. I bound the base of the tree with sticky tape, m a k i n g i t i m p o s s i b l e f o r the ants to reach the aphides. The tape was so stick that they did not dare to cross it. F o r a l o n g t i m e. I watched them scurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment. I even w e n t o u t at midnight with a torch and noted with satisfaction (and surprise) that the ants were still swarming around the sticky tape without being able to do anything about it.

Instead, I saw that they had discovered a new route. They were climbing up the wall of the house and then on to the leaves of the tree. I realized sadly that I had been completely defeated by their ingenuity. The ants had been quick to f i n d a n a n s w e r t o my thoroughly unscientific methods!

我们自幼就在对昆虫的惧怕中长大。我们把昆虫当作害多益少的无用东西。人类不断同昆虫斗争，因为昆虫弄脏我们的食物，传播疾病，吞噬庄稼。它们无缘无故地又叮又咬；夏天的晚上，它们未经邀请便飞到我们房间里，或者对着露出亮光的窗户乱扑乱撞。我们在日常生活中，不但憎恶如蜘蛛、黄蜂之类令人讨厌的昆虫，而且憎恶并无大害的飞蛾等。阅读有关昆虫的书能增加我们对它们的了解，却不能消除我们的恐惧的心理。即使知道勤奋的蚂蚁生活具有高度组织性的社会里，当看到大群蚂蚁在我们精心准备的午间野餐上爬行时，我们也无法抑制对它们的反感。不管我们多么爱吃蜂蜜，或读过多少关于蜜蜂具有神秘的识别方向的灵感的书，我们仍然十分害怕被蜂蜇。我们的恐惧大部分是没有道理的，但去无法消除。同时，不知为什么昆虫又是迷人的。我们喜欢看有关昆虫的书，尤其是当我们了解螳螂等过着一种令人生畏的生活时，就更加爱读有关昆虫的书了。我们喜欢入迷地看它们做事，它们不知道（但愿如此）我们就在它们身边。当看到蜘蛛扑向一只苍蝇时，一队蚂蚁抬着一只巨大的死甲虫凯旋归时，谁能不感到敬畏呢？

去年夏天，我花了好几天时间站在花园里观察成千只蚂蚁爬上我那棵心爱的桃树的树干。那棵树是靠着房子有遮挡的一面暖墙生长的。我为这棵树感到特别自豪，不仅因为它度过了几个寒冬终于活了下来，而且还因为它有时

结出些甘甜的桃子来。到了夏天，我发现树叶开始枯萎，结果在树叶背面找到成串的叫作蚜虫小虫子。蚜虫遭到一窝蚂蚁的攻击，蚂蚁从它们身上可以获得一种蜜。我当即动手作了一项试验，这项试验尽管没有使我摆脱这些蚂蚁，却使我着迷了24小时。我用一条胶带把桃树底部包上，不让蚂蚁接近蚜虫。胶带极粘，蚂蚁不敢从上面爬过。在很长一段时间里，我看见蚂蚁围着大树底部来回转悠，不知所措。半夜，我还拿着电筒来到花园里，满意地（同时惊奇地）发现那些蚂蚁还围着胶带团团转。无能为力。第二天早上，我起床后希望看见蚂蚁已因无望而放弃了尝试，结果却发现它们又找到一条新的路径。它们正在顺着房子的外墙往上爬，然后爬上树叶。我懊丧地感到败在了足智多谋的蚂蚁的手下。蚂蚁已很快找到了相应的对策，来对付我那套完全不科学的办法！

lesson 59Collecting收藏

they owned. Those who never have to move house become indiscriminate collectors of w h a t

people also accumulate belongings for two other reasons, l a c k o f physical and m e n t a l e n e r g y, both of which are essential i n t u r n i n g o u t and throwing away, and sentiment. Things owned for

they gradually acquire a value beyond their true worth.

these I would list string and brown paper, kept by thrifty people when a parcel has been opened, to s a v e b u y i n g these two requisites. Collecting small items can easily become a mania. I know someone who always cuts sketches out from newspapers of model clothes that she w o u l d l i k e t o buy, if she had the money. As she is not rich, the chances that she will ever b e a b l e t o a f f o r d such purchases are remote; but she is never sufficiently strongminded to be able to stop the practice.

loose bits of paper fall out in every direction.

o f, stamps, records, first editions of books, china, glass, antique furniture, pictures, model cars,

stuffed

right place for the latest addition, to verifying

n o t e s, to e x c h a n g e a r t i c l e s, to show off the latest find. So one's circle of friends grows. Soon the hobby leads to travel, perhaps to a meeting in another town, possibly a trip abroad i n s e a r c h o f a rare specimen, for collectors are not confined to any one country. Over the years, one may well become an authority on one's hobby and will very probably be asked to give informal talks to little gatherings and then, if successful, to larger audiences. I n t h i s w a y s e l f-c o n f i d e n c e g r o w s, first

人们喜欢收藏东西，有时并没有意识到自己在这样做。确实，一旦无意之中从自己的收藏品中找到某件有用的东西时，可以给人一种惊喜的感觉。那些从来不必搬家的人们成了一种无所不容的收藏家。他们专门收藏那些只能被称作杂货的东西。他们在抽屉里、碗柜中、阁楼上堆放着一些不用的东西，一放就是好几年，相信总有一天需要的正好是那些东西。人们年老之后也喜欢收藏东西，不过是出于两个不同的原因：一是体力、精力均告不佳，这二者是清除无用的东西必不可少的因素；另一个原因是感情因素。东西搁得时间久了，便会充满着与过去岁月的联系，

比方说与死去的亲戚有关。因此这些东西慢慢获得了一种超出它本身的价值。

居家度日，有目的地收藏某些东西是为了防止浪费。这些东西中我想举出线绳和包装纸为例。节俭的人们打开包裹后便把这两样必备的东西收藏起来，省得日后去买。收集小玩艺儿很容易着迷。我认识一个人，她总喜欢从报纸上剪下流行服装的图样，等以后有钱时去买服装。由于她并不富裕，她买得起这些服装的可能性十分渺茫。但她又缺乏足够坚强的意志把这一收集活动停下来。这种习惯无害，只是把写字台里堆得满满当当，以致每次打开抽屉总能带出许多纸片四处飞扬。

作为一种严肃的业余爱好的收藏活动完全是另外一回事，它具有许多益处。它可以使人在闲暇中得到休息，因为欣赏自己收藏的珍品总会充满了乐趣。人们不必走到户外去寻求娱乐，因为收藏品都是存放在家中。不管收藏品是什么，邮票、唱片、头版书籍、瓷器、玻璃杯、老式家具、绘画、模型汽车、鸟类标本，还是玩具动物，从为新增添的收藏品寻找摆放位置到核对参考书中的事实，总归有事可做。这种爱好不仅能使人从选择的专题中受到教育，而且也能从与之有关的一般事物中获得长进。除此之外，还有其他的益处。收藏者要会见情趣相投的收藏者，以获取教益、交流经验、交换收藏品、炫耀自己的最新收藏。朋友的圈子就这样不断扩太。用不了多久，有这种爱好的人便开始旅行，也许是去另一个城市参加会议，也可能是出国寻找一件珍品，因为收藏家是不分国籍的。一人积了多年经验会成为自己这种爱好的权威，很可能应邀在小型集会上作非正式的讲话。如果讲得好，可能向更多的人发表演说。这样，你自信心不断增强，先是因为掌握了一门学问，接下来是因为能够就此发表见解。收藏活动通过富有建设性地利用业余时间使人感到心满意足，不再有无聊之日。

Lesson 60Too early and too late太早和太晚

sparsely-populated rural community is it possible to disregard it.I n o r d i n a r y l i v i n g, there can be some tolerance of unpunctuality. The intellectual, who is working on some abstruse problem, has everything coordinated and organized for t h e m a t t e r i n h a n d. He is therefore forgiven, if late for a dinner party. But people are often r e p r o a c h e d f o r unpunctuality when their only fault is c u t t i n g t h i n g s f i n e. It is h a r d f o r energetic, quick-minded people to w a s t e t i m e, so they are often tempted to finish a job before s e t t i n g o u t to k e e p a n a p p o i n t m e n t. If no accidents occur on the way, like punctured tyres, diversions of traffic, sudden descent of fog, they will be o n t i m e. They are often more industrious, useful citizens than those who are never late.

hour too soon is the greatest nuisance. Some friends of my family had this irritating

just when we wanted them.

If you are catching a train, it is always b e t t e r t o b e comfortably early than even a fraction of a minute too late. Although being early may mean wasting a little time, this will be l e s s t h a n if you

alone.

She entered the station twenty minutes before the train was due, since her parents had i m p r e s s e d u p o n her that it would be unforgivable to miss it and cause the friends with whom she was going to stay to make two journeys to meet her. She gave her luggage to a porter and showed him her ticket. T o h e r h o r r o r he said that she was two hours too soon. She felt in her handbag for the piece of paper on which her father had written down all the details of the journey and gave it to the porter. He agreed that a train did come into the station a t t h e t i m e on the paper

and arrived back with the station master, who produced it with a flourish and p o i n t e d o u t a microscopic?o‘ beside the time of the arrival of the train at his station; this little ?o‘ indicated that

the station. The girl,

master was adamant: rules could not be broken.

towards her destination while she was left behind.

准时是文明社会中进行一切社交活动时必须养成的习惯。不准时将一事无成，事事都会陷入混乱不堪的境地。只有在人口稀少的农村，才可以忽视准时的习惯。在日常生活中人们可以容忍一定程度的不准时。一个专心钻研某个复杂问题的知识分子，为了搞好手头的研究，要把一切都协调一致、组织周密。因此，他要是赴宴迟到了会得到谅解。但有些人不准时常常是因为掐钟点所致，他们常常会受到责备。精力充沛、头脑敏捷的人极不愿意浪费时间，因此他们常想做完一件事后再去赴约。要是路上没有发生如爆胎、改道、突然起雾等意外事故，他们是决不会迟到的。他们与那些从不迟到的人相比，常常是更勤奋有用的公民。早到的人同迟到的人一样令人讨厌。客人提前半小时到达是最令人讨厌的。我家有几个朋友就有这种令人恼火的习惯。唯一的办法就是请他们比别的客人晚来半小时。这样，他们可以恰好在我们要求的时间到达。

如果赶火车，早到总比晚到好，哪怕早到一会儿也好。虽然早到可能意味着浪费一点时间，但这比误了火车、等上一个多小时坐下一班车浪费的时间要少，而且可以避免那种正好在火车驶出站时赶到车站，因上不去车而感到的沮丧。更难堪的情况是虽然及时赶到站台上，却眼睁睁地看着那趟火车启动，把你抛下。一个小姑娘第一次单独出门就碰到了这种情况。

在火车进站20分钟前她就进了车站。因为她的父母再三跟她说，如果误了这趟车，她的东道主朋友就得接她两趟，这是不应该的。她把行李交给搬运工并给他看了车票。搬运工说她早到了两个小时，她听后大吃一惊。她从钱包里摸出一张纸条，那上面有她父亲对这次旅行的详细说明，她把这张纸条交给了搬运工。搬运工说，正如纸条上所说，确有一趟火车在那个时刻到站，但它只停站装邮件，不载旅客。姑娘要求看时刻表，因为她相信父亲不能把这么大的事给弄错。搬运工跑回去取时刻表，同时请来了站长。站长拿着时刻表一挥手，指着那趟列车到站时刻旁边的一个很小的圆圈标记。这个标记表示列车是为装邮件而停车。正在这时，火车进站了。女孩泪流满面，央求让她不声不响地到押车员车厢里去算了。但站长态度坚决，规章制度不能破环，姑娘只得眼看着那趟火车消逝在她要去的方向而撇下了她。

新概念四Lesson 1Finding fossil man 发现化石人

We can r e a d o f things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first

from one generation of story-tellers to another. These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they did. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands c a m e f r o m. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.

archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to f i n d o u t where the first?modern men‘ came from.

Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds. They may also have used wood and skins, but these have r o t t e d a w a y

我们从书籍中可以读到5,000年前近东发生的事情，那里的人最早学会了写字。但直到现在，世界上仍然有些地方；人们还不会书写。他们保存历史的唯一办法是将历史当作传说讲述，由讲述人一代接一代地将史实描述为传奇故事口传下来。这些传说是很有用的，因为它们能告诉我们以往人们迁居的情况。但是；没有人能把他们当时做的事情记载下来。人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛上的波利尼西亚人的祖先来自何方，当地人的传说却告诉了人们：其中有一部分是约在2,000年前从印度尼西亚迁来的。

新概念英语第一册课文(背诵版)

Lesson 1 Excuse me! Excuse me! Yes? Is this your handbag? Pardon? Is this your handbag? Yes, it is. Thank you very much. Lesson 3 Sorry, sir. My coat and my umbrella please. Here is my ticket. Thank you, sir. Number five. Here's your umbrella and your coat. This is not my umbrella. Sorry sir. Is this your umbrella? No, it isn't. Is this it? Yes, it is. Thank you very much. Lesson 5 Nice to meet you : Good morning. STUDENTS: Good morning, Mr. Blake. MR. BLAKE: This is Miss Sophie Dupont. Sophie is a new is French. MR. BLAKE: Sophie, this is is German. HANS: Nice to meet you. MR. BLAKE: And this is 's Japanese. NAOKO: Nice to meet you. MR. BLAKE: And this is 's Korean. CHANG-WOO: Nice to meet you. MR. BLAKE: And this is is Chinese. LUMNG: Nice to meet you. MR. BLAKE: And this is 's Chinese, too. XIAOHUI: Nice to meet you. Lesson 7 Are you a teacher? ROBERT: I am a new name's Robert. SOPHIE: Nice to meet you. My name's Sophie. ROBERT: Are you French? SOPHIE: Yes, I am. SOPHIE: Are you French too? ROBERT: No, I am not. SOPHIE: What nationality are you? ROBERT: I'm Italian. ROBERT: Are you a teacher? SOPHIE: No, I'm not. ROBERT: What's your job? SOPHIE: I'm a keyboard operator. SOPHIE: What's your job? ROBERT: I'm an engineer. Lesson 9 How are you today? STEVEN: Hello, Helen. HELEN: Hi, Steven. STEVEN: How are you today? HELEN: I'm very well, thank you. And you? STEVEN: I'm fine, thanks. STEVEN: How is Tony? HELEN: He's fine, thanks. How's Emma? STEVEN: She's very well, too, Helen. STEVEN: Goodbye, to see you. HELEN: Nice to see you, too, Steven. Goodbye. Lesson 11 Is this your shirt? HEACHER：Whose shirt is that? HEACHER：Is this your shirt, Dave? DAVE: No. Sir. It's not my shirt. DAVE: This is my shirt. My shirt's blue. TEACHER: Is this shirt Tim's? DAVE: Perhaps it is, 's shirt's white. HEACHER：Tim! TIM: Yes, sir? HEACHER：Is this your shirt? TIM: Yes, sir. HEACHER：Here you are. Catch! TIM: Thank you, sir. Lesson 13 A new dress LOUISE: What colour's your new dress? ANNA: It's green. ANNA: Come upstairs and see it. LOUISE: Thank you. ANNA: Look!Here it is! LOUISE: That's nice 's very smart. ANNA: My hat's new, too. LOUISE: What colour is it? ANNA: It's the same 's green, too. LOUISE: That is a lovely hat! Lesson 15 Your passports, please. CUSTOMS OFFICER: Are you Swedish? GIRLS: No, we are are Danish. CUSTOMS OFFICER: Are your friends Danish, too? GIRLS: No, they aren't. They are Norwegian. CUSTOMS OFFICER: Your passports, please. GIRLS: Here they are. CUSTOMS OFFICER: Are these your cases? GIRLS: No, they aren't. GIRLS: Our cases are brown. Here they are. CUSTOMS OFFICER: Are you tourists? GIRLS: Yes, we are. CUSTOMS OFFICER: Are your friends tourists too? GIRLS: Yes, they are. CUSTOMS OFFICER: That's fine. GIRLS: Thank you very much. 1

新概念英语第三册Lesson32~34必背词汇

新概念英语第三册Lesson32~34必背词汇 新概念英语第三册Lesson32必背词汇 ●salvage v. 救助，营救;打捞 ●Barents n. 巴伦支(海) ●sunken adj. 沉没的 ●cargo n. 货物 ●bullion n. 金条;银条 ●scour v. 彻底搜索 ●chest n. 大箱子 ●contents n.(复数)所装的东西 ●belongings n. (复数)所有物 ●item n. 物件 ●cruiser n. 巡洋舰 ●find n. 找到的物品 ●log book 航海日志 ●piece v. 拼成整体 ●convoy n. 护航 ●torpedo v. 用鱼雷攻击 ●submarine n. 潜水艇 ●naval adj. 海军的

新概念英语第三册Lesson33必背词汇 ●prelude n. 序幕，前奏 ●unforeseen adj. 意料之外的 ●series n. 系列 ●catastrophe n. 大祸，灾难 ●cr ockery n. 陶器，瓦器 ●suburb n. 郊区 ●collide v. 猛撞 ●learner n. 初学者 ●panic n. 惊慌，恐慌 ●windscreen n. (汽车的)挡风玻璃 ●alongside prep. 在……的旁边，与……并排●slide v. 滑 ●stray adj. 离群的 ●confusion n. 混乱 ●greedily adv. 贪婪地 ●devour v. 狼吞虎咽地吃 ●prelude n. 序幕，前奏 a prelude to sth ……的前奏 Eg： a prelude to serious trouble 麻烦的前奏introduction 导言，绪论

新概念英语第二册课文(背诵版)

Lesson 1 A private conversation 私人谈话 Last week I went to the theatre. I had a very good seat. The play was very interesting. I did not enjoy it. A young man and a young woman were sitting behind me. They were talking loudly. I got very angry. I could not hear the actors. I turned round. I looked at the man and the woman angrily. They did not pay any attention. In the end, I could not bear it. I turned round again. ‘I can't hear a word!’I said angrily. ‘It's none of your business, ’the young man said rudely. ‘This is a private conversation!’ Lesson 2 Breakfast or lunch? 早餐还是午餐？ It was Sunday. I never get up early on Sundays. I sometimes stay in bed until lunchtime. Last Sunday I got up very late. I looked out of the window. It was dark outside. ‘What a day!’I thought. ‘It's raining again. ’Just then, the telephone rang. It was my aunt Lucy. ‘I've just arrived by train, ’she said. ‘I'm coming to see you. ’ ‘But I'm still having breakfast, ’I said. ‘What are you doing?’she asked. ‘I'm having breakfast, ’I repeated. ‘Dear me, ’she said. ‘Do you always get up so late? It's one o'clock!’ Lesson 3 Please send me a card 寄张明信片 Postcards always spoil my holidays. Last summer, I went to Italy. I visited museums and sat in public gardens. A friendly waiter taught me a few words of Italian. Then he lent me a book. I read a few lines, but I did not understand a word. Every day I thought about postcards. My holidays passed quickly, but I did not send cards to my friends. On the last day I made a big decision. I got up early and bought thirty-seven cards. I spent the whole day in my room, but I did not write a single card! Lesson 4 An exciting trip 激动人心的旅行 I have just received a letter from my brother, Tim. He is in Australia. He has been there for six months. Tim is an engineer. He is working for a big firm and he has already visited a great number of different places in Australia. He has just bought an Australian car and has gone to Alice Springs, a small town in the centre of Australia. He will soon visit Darwin From there, he will fly to Perth. My brother has never been abroad before, so he is finding this trip very exciting. Lesson 5 No wrong numbers 无错号之虞 Mr. James Scott has a garage in Silbury and now he has just bought another garage in Pinhurst. Pinhurst is only five miles from Silbury, but Mr. Scott cannot get a telephone for his new garage, so he has just bought twelve pigeons. Yesterday, a pigeon carried the first message from Pinburst to Silbury. The bird covered the distance the first three minutes. Up to now, Mr. Scott has sent a great many requests for spare parts and other urgent messages from one garage to the other. In this way, he has begun his own private‘telephone’service. Lesson 6 Percy Buttons 珀西·巴顿斯 I have just moved to a house in Bridge Street. Yesterday a beggar knocked at my door. He asked me for a meal and a glass of beer. In return for this, the beggar stood on his head and sang songs. I gave him a meal. He ate the food and drank the beer. Then he put a piece of cheese in his pocket and went away. Later a neighbour told me about him. Everybody knows him. His name is Percy Buttons. He calls at every house in the street once a month and always asks for a meal and a glass of beer. Lesson 7 T oo late 为时太晚 The plane was late and detectives were waiting at the airport all morning. They were expecting a valuable parcel of diamonds from South Africa. A few hours earlier, someone had told the police that thieves would try to steal the diamonds. When the plane arrived, some of the detectives were waiting inside the main building while others were waiting on the airfield. T wo men took the parcel off the plane and carried it into the Customs House. While two detectives were keeping guard at the door, two others opened the parcel. T o their surprise, the precious parcel was full of stones and sand! Lesson 8 The best and the worst 最好的和最差的 Joe Sanders has the most beautiful garden in our town. Nearly everybody enters for‘The Nicest Garden Competition’each year, but Joe wins every time. Bill Frith's garden is larger than Joe's. Bill works harder than Joe and grows more flowers and vegetables, but Joe's garden is more interesting. He has made neat paths and has built a wooden bridge over a pool. I like gardens too, but I do not like hard work. Every year I enter for the garden competition too, and I always win a little prize for the worst garden in the town! Lesson 9 A cold welcome 冷遇

新概念英语必背优秀文章精读第5篇

新概念英语必背优秀文章精读第5篇 1.文中个别句子空缺，请根据中文句子填写出来，以主动的方式实行学习和背诵，效果更好。 2.本文还提供了背诵提纲，协助大家增强理解，更易于背诵。 3.还整理出了需要注意的语言点，让大家学以致用，应用于平时的口语或写作中。 请根据中文翻译，看一下下面两个句子能否顺利地填写出来。 原文： It has been said that everyone lives by selling something. _________________1______________________ philosophers by selling wisdom and priests by selling spiritual comfort. Though it may be possible to measure the value of material good in terms of money, it is extremely difficult to estimate the true value of the services which people perform for us. There are times when we would willingly give everything we possess to save our lives, yet we might grudge paying a surgeon a high fee for offering us precisely this service. The conditions of society are such that skills have to be paid for in the same way that goods are paid for at a shop. Everyone has something to sell. Tramps seem to be the only exception to this general rule. _________________2__________________ But real tramps are not beggars. They have nothing to sell and require nothing from others. In seeking independence, they do not sacrifice their human dignity. A tramp may ask you for money, but he will never ask you to feel sorry for him. He has deliberately chosen to lead the life he leads and is fully aware of the

考研英语满分作文必备 新概念英语36篇文章

考研英语作文满分必备 新概念英语必背36篇文章 新概念三Lesson 14 A noble gangster 贵族歹徒 promptly, the by destroying his shop. Obtaining Six hundred years ago, Sir Johan Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of soldiers and settled as Giovanni Acuto. Whenever the Italian city-states were a t w a r w i t h each other, Hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to princes who were willing to pay the high price he demanded. I n t i m e s o f peace, when business was bad, Hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state and, after b u r n i n g d o w n a few farms, would o f f e r t o go away if protection money was paid to them. Hawkwood m a d e l a r g e s u m s o f m o n e y in this way. I n s p i t e o f t h i s, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero. When he died a t t h e a g e o f eighty, the Florentines gave him a state funeral and had dedicated t o t h e m e m o r y o f 'the most valiant soldier and most notable leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue.' 曾经有一个时期,芝加哥的店主和商行的老板们不得不拿出大笔的钱给歹徒以换取"保护"。如果交款不及时,歹徒们就会很快捣毁他的商店,让他破产.榨取"保护金"并不是一种现代的罪恶行径.早在14世纪,英国人约翰.霍克伍德就有过非凡的发现:"人们情愿拿出大笔的钱,也不愿毕生的心血毁于歹徒之手. 600年前,约翰.霍克伍德爵士带着一队士兵来到意大利,在佛罗伦萨附近驻扎下来,很快就出了名.意大利人叫他乔凡尼.阿库托.每次意大利各城邦之间发生战争,霍克伍德把他的士兵雇佣给愿给他出高价的君主。和平时期,当生意萧条时,霍克伍德便带领士兵进入某个城邦,纵火烧毁一两个农场,然后提出,如向他们缴纳保护金,他们便主动撤离。霍克伍德用这种方法挣了大笔钱.尽管如此,意大利人还是把他视作某种英雄。他80岁那年死去时,佛罗伦萨人为他举行了国葬,并为他画像以纪念这位"骁勇无比的战士、杰出的领袖乔凡尼.阿库托先生." Lesson 17 The longest suspension bridge in the world 世界上最长的吊桥 Verrazano, an Italian about whom little is known, sailed into New York Harbour in 1524 and named it Angouleme. He described it as 'a very agreeable situation located within two small hills in the midst of which flowed great explorer, his name will probably remain immortal, for on November 21st, 1964, the longest The Verrazano Bridge, which was designed by Othmar Ammann, joins Brooklyn to Staten Island. It has a span of 4,260 feet. The bridge is so long that the shape of the earth had to be support four huge cables. The towers are built on immense underwater platforms m a d e o f steel and concrete. The platforms e x t e n d t o a depth of over 100 feet under the sea. These alone took sixteen months to build. Above the

新概念英语必背短文50篇：Knock knock 敲敲门

新概念英语必背短文50篇：Knock knock 敲敲门新概念短文： Knock, knock! 敲敲门! HELEN： Isn't there anyone at home? JIM： I'll knock again, Helen. Everything's very quiet. I'm sure there's no one at home. HELEN： But that's impossible. Carol and Tom invited us to lunch. Look through the window. HELEN： Can you see anything? JIM： Nothing at all. HELEN： Let's try the back door. JIM： Look! Everyone's in the garden. CAROL： Hello, Helen. Hello, Jim. TOM： Everybody wants to have lunch in the garden. It's nice and warm out here.

CAROL： Come and have something to drink. JIM： Thanks, Carol. May I have a glass of beer please? CAROL： Beer? There's none left. You can have some lemonade. JIM： Lemonade! TOM： Don't believe her, Jim. She's only joking. Have some beer! 新概念翻译： 海伦：家里没有人吗? 吉姆：海伦，我再敲一次。毫无动静，肯定家里没有人。 海伦：但这是不可能的。卡罗尔和汤姆请 我们来吃午饭。从窗子往里看看。 海伦：你能看见什么吗? 吉姆：什么也看不见。 海伦：让我们到后门去试试。 吉姆：瞧!大家都在花园里。

新概念英语高效背诵方法总结

新概念英语高效背诵方法总结 学习英语，选择了新概念，选择了背诵，那我们应该如何去背诵呢?现在网络上广泛流传的方法是： 一、1.明确目的，集中精力;2.确定任务，寻找窍门;3.坚持复背，及时检查;4.加强默写，强化训练。 二、1.反复阅读与再现相结合;2.试背;3.熟背;4.默写。 其次是： 三、机械操练：重复朗读无数遍，直至脱口而出。 四、循环背诵法：根据艾宾浩斯记忆曲线及时复习。 五、分段分句背诵。 六、先听录音，再背诵，再听写。 七、四熟：看熟、听熟、读熟、译熟---->背熟

八、6月学习法：把新一至四贯穿起来，当作一篇长篇小说，前两个月背新新一-四的单词;下两个月熟读新一至四的课文;最后一个两个月就是反复听写新一至四的课文。 以上背诵方法都很好，同学们都可以参考。现在我来谈谈我自己的方法： 准备工作： 1.找一处安静无人为干扰的环境; 2.排除大脑中一切杂念，静下心来; 3.集中精力，做3-4次胸腹式呼吸和冥想，保证大脑供氧充足，使背诵处于状态。 具体方法： 首先申明：使用以下任一方法背诵的前提是你对课文已经很熟，至少是朗读了10遍以上。 1.情景图像联想法： 以第1课为例简单阐述此方法：把文中作者想象成你自己，作者就是你，你就是作者，文中所发生的一切就是曾经发生在你身上的。就是你去戏院看戏的一次不太愉快的经历，那是你的切身体验，你只不过是把曾经发生在自己身上的故事讲给你朋友、同学听而已。假如你的想象力还不够丰富，那么当你看

见一个具体的名词时，在你大脑中至少你能想象出这个名词所对应的图像，然后根据这个关键名词联系文中所对应的句子，再把句子连成一篇文章。 新概念英语二所有的文章都是故事性的记叙文，所以都可以用此方法。这个方法不但可以丰富想象力，加快背诵速度，提高英语能力，同时可以养成左右脑平衡思维的良好习惯，你将受益终身。 2.滚雪球记忆法： 新概念二的文章一般在10句话左右，即使是第四单元的文章也一样，只是从句多了而已。所以有的同学根据意群把文章分成三、四部分，采用逐部击破法，这中方法也不错，至少减轻了心理压力。但是有的时候会发现，背到后面忘记了前面的内容，或者把中间的内容忘了。所以我采用了逐句击破法，即1，12，123，1234，12345，123456，1234567。即每次只背诵一句话，在背诵接下来的一句话的同时连带复习刚刚背诵过的内容，就像滚雪球似的，一次比一次多一句，这样的话，不但记住了新内容，同时巩固了旧内容。 3.关键字抽取法： 以第13课为例：本课共10句话，把中间的1个并列句拆成2句，这样共11句话。抽取11句话中的谓语动词，分别是 are,visiting,arriving,coming,meeting,singing,staying,give,have,trying ,is.记住这11个关键动词。还可以把每个动词的首字母取出来：avac， m,ssg,hti。avac是关于绿林少年的，m是关于镇上年轻人的，ssg是关于绿林少年的，hti是关于警察的。这样一来，只要记住这11个字母就可以了。至于如何记这11个关键字母，读者朋友可以根据形象记忆法来记，也可以自己想办法。 4.数字编码法: ①数字编码，从1到100根据象形、谐音、联想原则依次编码;

新概念英语第三册必背词汇Lesson26_28

新概念英语第三册必背词汇Lesson26~28 新概念英语第三册必背词汇Lesson26 affect影响(负面) care much about关注 mean a lot对…意义重大 make great difference巨大影响 make no difference没有影响 exert influence on施加影响 affect one’s mood情绪 My mother cares much about me. He means a lot to me.

His arrival makes great difference to me. l take pride in (me)为…自豪 =be proud of I pride myself on my good taste. l exert汉语中的施加都可用它 exert pressure on压力 exert influence on exert fascination on魔力，魅力fascination奇妙的 miraculous奇谈般的 amazing让人惊奇的

fantastic妙不可言的 magic奇妙的 maternal love母爱 新概念英语第三册必背词汇Lesson27 philosopher 哲学家 wisdom 智慧 priest 牧师 spiritual 精神上的 grudge 不愿给 surgeon 外科大夫 passer(s)-by 过路人

dignity 尊严deliberately 故意地consequence 后果afflict 使精神苦恼ease 容易 nature 自然，本质contempt 蔑视envious 嫉妒的Notes on the text philosophy 哲学psychology心理学sociology社会学

新概念英语1(第三版)要求背诵内容

We have confidence that your journey toward self-discovery and your progress toward finding your own passion will yield more than personal advancement. We belibve that as you become members of our community of scholars,you will soon come to recognize that with the abundant opportunities for self-enrichment provided by the university,there also come responsibilities. A wise man said:''Education is simply the soul of A society as it passes from one generation to another.'' You are the inheritors of the hard work of your families and the hard work of many countless others who came before you . They built and transmitted the knowledge you will need to succeed. Now it is your turn. What knowledge will you acquire? What passions will you discover? What will you do to build a strong and prosperous future for the generations that will come after you?

新概念英语第三册：必背词汇(7)

新概念英语第三册：必背词汇（7）【篇一】 gaily ad.愉快地 gallery n.美术馆 gangster n.暴徒，歹徒 gaoler n.(监狱)看守 gap n.裂口 gather vi.聚集 gathering n.集会 gear n.用具 gear n.(汽车等的)排挡 general a.普遍的 gentle a.从容的 gentleman n.绅士 genuine a.真正的 genuinely ad.由衷地 geological a.地质的 gesticulate vi.打手势 glare vi.怒目注视 【篇二】 gleaming a.闪闪发光的 glint vi.闪烁

glisten vi.闪烁 glove n.手套 glow n.白热光 goat n.山羊 goddess n.女神 good n.好处 good-humouredly ad.和气地grab vt.强夺 graceful a.优美的 gradually ad.逐渐地gramophone record n.留声机唱片grant vt.同意 grapple vt.抓住 grateful a.感激的 grave a.严重的 grave n.坟墓 grease n.润滑油 greedily ad.贪婪地 greet vt.冲鼻 【篇三】 greetings n.问候 greyish a.淡灰色的

grievance n.不平，不满 grieve v.(使)悲痛,(使)伤心,忧伤grinding a.嘎嘎响的 grocer n.杂货商 grudge vt.舍不得，不愿给guard's van n.列车员车厢guest n.客人 guest-room n.客房 guilt n.罪行 guilty a.感到有罪的 guinea n.几尼(英国金币)

一个过来人学新概念英语的经验之谈

一个过来人学新概念英语的经验之谈 一、新概念选择英音还是美音？ 答：在书店购买的《新概念》配套磁带就是英音版，由外研社出版。一般我们说的经典语音就是这个版本。但是，对于第一册来说，偶数课，这个版本的录音是没有的。只有美语版《新概念》第一册的录音是完全的。 但是，对于学习美语又喜欢《新概念》的朋友来说，最好是听美音版的，由上海外国语大学出版。市场上很少见了，需要耐心的在网上找。 美音与英音的原则全凭个人喜好，没有谁好、谁不好的区别。只要是学英语的人，在练习听力时应该美音、英音都接触，因为在现实生活中，你不知道你碰到的外国人是欧洲人，还是美洲人，即使是美国人也有说英式英语的。 那么你自己的语音要始终遵循一种，不要英美混杂。 二、学习《新概念》该从第一册开始，还是从第二册开始？怎么去背诵课文？ 答：对于《新概念》的学习，首先要告诉你的是一定要下苦功夫，不能嫌烦，坚持下去。而且要从第一册开始学起，这样对于你以后的学习会有好处的。相对来说，第一册简单一些，基本上是一些日常对话，或者简单的叙述性短文。别看简单，如果你能脱口而出、运用自如的话，口语方面就已经相当了不起了，而且，对于第二、三、四册的学习，提供了良好的坚实基础。 说说新概念一的学习： 1、不要去看那些背着 2、 3、4册人的感言。大多数都是为了应付考试而去背诵的。没意义！即使背了，说的时候也都是想那些最简单的句子去表达，因为难的一个都想不起来，简单的还怕自己表达不准确呢。 2、你可知道生活中的英语就是很简单的，哪里有书本上那么复杂？陈述式的表达方式就是比日常口语要复杂。它不像 “您住哪儿？” “我住天安门广场正中央”这种对话那么简单。 3、打开新概念第一册，看哪儿哪儿会，当然是觉得非常的简单了。你别去看书，就听录音，尤其是那些对话的录音，一句一句的播放，相当于在和别人交谈，你看你能否回答正确？即使你的回答不是和书上的一样，那么你想想你能顺利的做出回答吗？ 4、每课学完后，你能把这些简单的对话用到生活中去吗？生活中不用英语，4册书都背下来最大的成就也就是顺利通过考试，其他的什么都不是！没有人会听你滔滔不绝的背课文的，课文是别人的，不是自己的！ 5、新概念第一册，语速是慢，这种情况下，你能在听英文的时候反应出它的中文解释吗？你能在听录音的同时，直接做出它所表现的动作或想像出它表达的意思吗？是不是还在心里“听到英文――翻译成中文――想中文回答再翻译成英文做出反应”这么一个过程？ 6、新概念第一册的每篇文章学完后，你能照着原文自己写出一篇来吗？ 7、没有第一册的基础积累，2、3、4册想学好才怪呢。盖房子是要打地基的，没有地基，上面的房子再漂亮，扇下扇子都会吹倒的。英语同样如此，要学就学好，别学“豆腐渣”英语。 8、如果简单的第一册没有用，作者干什么不直接写第二册，非要凑个1-4册呢？2-4册不就得了？ 9、知道为什么很多人没有毅力了吗？懒惰只是原因之一，更多的是大多数人好高骛远，总想一蹴而就！基础的，简单的看不上，复杂的，难度大的又学不明白，于是就开始困惑、茫然，实在不行了就换教材，还是从第一课开始学，简单，心里高兴！那速度，一

新概念英语必背优秀文章精读 第6篇 A day to remember

新概念英语必背优秀文章精读第6篇 A day to remember 1.文中个别句子空缺，请根据中文句子填写出来，以主动的方式实行学习和背诵，效果更好。 2.本文还提供了背诵提纲，协助大家增强理解，更易于背诵。 3.还整理出了需要注意的语言点，让大家学以致用，应用于平时的口语或写作中。 请根据中文翻译，看一下下面两个句子能否顺利地填写出来。 原文： We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong. _______________1____________________What invariably happens is that a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment. It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions. Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and keeping an eye on the baby at the same time. The telephone rings and this marks the prelude to an unforeseen series of catastrophes. While you are on the phone, the baby pulls the table-cloth off the table, smashing half your best crockery and cutting himself in the process. You hang up hurriedly and attend to baby, crockery, etc. Meanwhile, the meal gets burnt. As if this were not enough to reduce you to tears, your husband arrives, unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner. Things can go wrong on a big scale, as a number of people recently discovered in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney. _____________2_________________ The woman immediately behind