$课文65 小象对警察
683. Last Christmas, the circus owner, Jimmy Gates, decided to take some presents to a children's hospital.
去年圣诞节,马戏团老板吉米.盖茨决定送些礼物给儿童医院。
684. Dressed up as Father Christmas and accompanied by a 'guard of honour' of six pretty girls,
他打扮成圣诞老人,在由6个漂亮姑娘组成的“仪仗队”的陪同下,
685. he set off down the main street of the city riding a baby elephant called Jumbo.
骑上一头名叫江伯的小象,沿着城里的主要街道出发了。
686. He should have known that the police would never allow this sort of thing.
他本该知道警察绝不会允许这类事情发生。
687. A policeman approached Jimmy and told him he ought to have gone along a side street as Jumbo was holding up the traffic.
一个警察走过来告诉吉米,他应该走一条小路,因为江泊阻碍了交通。
688. Though Jimmy agreed to go at once, Jumbo refused to move.
虽然吉米同意马上就走,但江伯却拒绝移动。
689. Fifteen policemen had to push very hard to get him off the main street.
15个警察不得不用很大的力气把它推离主要街道。
690. The police had a difficult time, but they were most amused.
警察虽然吃了苦头,但他们还是感到很有趣。
691. 'Jumbo must weigh a few tons,' said a policeman afterwards,
“江伯一定有好几吨重,”一个警察事后这样说,
692. so it was fortunate that we didn't have to carry him.
“值得庆幸的是它没让我们抬它走。
693. Of course, we should arrest him, but as he has a good record, we shall let him off this time.
当然,我们应该逮捕它,但由于它一贯表现很好,这次我们饶了它。”
$课文66 像蜜一样甜!
694. In 1963 a Lancaster bomber crashed on Wallis Island, a remote place in the South Pacific, a long way west of Samoa.
1963年,一架兰开斯特轰炸机在瓦立斯岛毁。那是南太洋中一个很偏僻的小岛,位于萨摩亚群岛以西,距离群岛还有很长一段距离。
695. The plane wasn't too badly damaged, but over the years, the crash was forgotten and the wreck remained undisturbed.
飞机损坏的程度并不严重,但是,多年来这起飞机失事已被遗忘,飞机残骸也没受到破坏。
696. Then in 1989, twenty-six years after the crash, the plane was accidentally rediscovered in an aerial survey of the island.
于是,到了1989年,飞机失事26年后,在对小岛的一次航空勘查中那架飞机被意外地发现了。
697. By this time, a Lancaster bomber in reasonable condition was rare and worth rescuing.
到了那个时候,状况良好的兰开斯特轰炸机实属罕见,值得抢救。
698. The French authorities had the plane packaged and moved in parts back to France.
法国政府让人把飞机包装起来,一部分一部分地搬回法国。
699. Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored.
一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。
700. It has four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, but the group will need to have only three of them rebuilt.
该飞机装装配有4台罗尔斯-罗伊斯的默林发动机,但是他们只需要修复其中的3台。
701. Imagine their surprise and delight when they broke open the packing cases and found that the fourth engine was sweet as honey -- still in perfect condition.
想一想他们所感受到的惊奇和兴奋 -- 当他们拆开包装箱时,他们发现第4台发动机就像蜂蜜一样甜 -- 发动机完好无损。
702. A colony of bees had turned the engine into a hive and it was totally preserved in beeswax!
一群蜜蜂把发动机当作了蜂房,发动机在蜂蜡中被完整地保存了下来。
$课文67 火山
703. Haroun Tazieff, the Polish scientist, has spent his lifetime studying active volcanoes and deep caves in all parts of the world.
波兰科学家哈罗恩.塔捷耶夫花了毕生的精力来研究世界各地的活火山和探洞。
704. In 1948, he went to Lake Kivu in the Congo to observe a new volcano which he later named Kituro.
1948年他去了刚果的基伍湖,对一座后来被他命名为基图罗的新火山进行观察。
705. Tazieff was able to set up his camp very close to the volcano while it was erupting violently.
当火山正在猛烈地喷发时,塔捷耶夫有办法把帐篷搭在离它非常近的地方。
706. Though he managed to take a number of brilliant photographs, he could not stay near the volcano for very long.
尽管他设法拍了一些十分精彩的照片,但他却不能在火山附近停留太长的时间。
707. He noticed that a river of liquid rock was coming towards him.
他发现有一股岩浆正向他流过来,
708. It threatened to surround him completely, but Tazieff managed to escape just in time.
眼看就要将他团团围住,但塔捷耶夫还是设法及时逃离了。
709. He waited until the volcano became quiet and he was able to return two days later.
他等到火山平静下来,两天以后又返回去。
710. This time, he managed to climb into the mouth of Kituro so that he could take photographs and measure temperatures.
这次他设法爬进了基图罗火山口,以便能拍摄照片和测试温度。
711. Tazieff has often risked his life in this way. He has been able to tell us more about active volcanoes than any man alive.
塔捷耶夫经常冒这样的生命危险。他能告诉我们的有关活火山的情况比任何在世的人都要多。