lesson 1 a puma at large
pumas are large,cat-like animals which are found in America .when reports came into London zoo that a wild puma had been spotted forty-five 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 description given by people who claimed to have seen the puma were extraordinarily similar.
The hunt for the puma began in a small village where a women picking blackberries saw “ a large kat “only five yards away from her. It immediately run away when she saw it. And Exsperts confirmed that a puma will not attack a human being unless it is cornered . the search proved difficalt . for the puma was often observed at one place in evening and at another place twenty miles away in the evening .wherever it went .it left a trail of dead deer and small animals like rabbits. Paw prints were seen in a number place and puma fur were found clinging to bushes .several peoples complained of cat-like noises at night and a businessman on a fishing trip saw the puma up a tree. The experts now fully convinced that the animal was was a puma .but where had it come from? As no puma had been reported missing from any zoo in the country, this one must have been in the possession of private collector and somhow managed to escape the hent went on for several weeks ,but the puma was not caught. it is disturbing to think that a dangerous animal is still at large in the quiet countryside.
At large 自由的
It is disturbing to think 一想起什么就心烦
Convince sb of sth 使某人确信
Take sth seriously 严肃地对待某事
In the possession of 为谁谁所有
Our vicar is always raising money for one cause or another . but he never managed to get enough money to have the church clock repaired, the big clock which used to strike hours day and night was damaged many years ago and has been silient ever since .
One night ,however ,our vicar woke up with a start .the clock was striking the hours ! looking at his watch ,he saw that ti was one o”clock , but the bell struck thirteen times before it stopped , armed with a torch ,the vicar went into the clock tower to see what was going on , in the torchnight , he caught sight of a figure whom he immediately recognized as bill wilkins .our local grocer .
“ whatever are you doing up here bill ?” asked the vicar in surprise .
“I am trying to repair the bell”, answered bill . “ I have been coming up here night after night for weeks now you see ,I was hopping to give you a surprise ,”
“you certainly did give me a surprise !” said the vicar . “you have probably woken up everyone in the village as well ,still , I am glad the bell is working again .”
“that’s the trouble , vicar ,its working all right ,but I am afraid that at one oclock it will strike thirteen times and theres nothing I can do about it .”
“we will get used to that ,bill , thirteen is not as good as one ,but its better than nothing ,now lets go downstairs and have a cup of tea .”
1 woke up with a start 受到惊吓而醒来
2 be equal to + n 相匹敌
+ doing 有力量做某事
3 raise 募集 筹款
4 recognize as 认出
these days ,people who do manual works often receive far more many than people who work in offices .people who work in offices are frequently refered to as “white-collor workers”for the simple reason that the usually wear a collor and tie to go to work .such is human nature ,that a great many people are often willing to sacrifice higher pay for the privilage of becoming white-collor workers .this can give rise to curious situations,as it did in the case of Alfred bloggs who worked as a dustman for ellesmere corporation .
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 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 shower and changed back into his suit .alf did this for over two years and his fellow dustmen kept this secret .alf’s wife has never discovered that she married a dustmen and she never will ,for alf has just found another job ,he will soon be working in an office .he will be earning only half as much as he used to ,but he feels that his rise in status is well worth the loss of money .from now on ,he will wear a suit all day and others will call him “mr .bloggs”,nor :alf”.
生词： sacrifice 牺牲 shower 淋浴 status 地位
词组： half as much as he used to 只相当于过去的一半
give rise to 引起 使发生
in the case of 在。。。的情况下
take shower 洗淋浴
be worth 值得
from now on 从此以后
some time ago ,an interesting discovery was made by archaeologist on the aegean island of kea .an American team explored a temple which stands in an ancient city on promontory of ai . the city at one time must have been prosperous ,for it enjoyed a high level civilization .house ----often three storeys high ---were built of stone .they had large rooms with beautifully decorated walls .the city e ven equipped with a drainaged system ,for a great many clay pipes were found beneath the narrow street . .
the temple which the archaeologists explored was use as place of worship from the fifteenth century b.c until roman times .in the most sacrad room of the temple ,clay fragment of fifteen status were found ,each of these represented a goddess and had ,at one time ,been painted ,the body of one status was found among remains dating from the fifteenth centery b.c its missing head happened to be among remains of the fifteenth b.c .this head must have been found in classical times carefully preserved .it very old and precious even then .when archaeologist reconstructed the fragments ,they were amazed to find that the goddess turned out to be a very modern-looking women .she stood three feet high and her hand rested on her hips .she was wearing a full-length skirt which swept the ground ,despite her great age ,she was very graceful indeed ,but ,so far ,the archaeologist have been unable to dicover her identity.
rested on 倚放
so far 至今为止
modern-looking 相貌摩登
date from 追溯到
remains 遗迹 遗体
represented 象征，代表
drainaged 排水系统
sacred 宗教
decorated 装饰
turned out to be 原来是。。。。
