$课文53 触电的蛇
544. At last firemen have put out a big forest fire in California.
消防队员们终于扑灭了加利福尼亚的一场森林大火。
545. Since then, they have been trying to find out how the fire began.
从那时起，他们一直试图找出起火的原因。
546. Forest fires are often caused by broken glass or by cigarette ends which people carelessly throw away.
森林火灾时常由破碎的玻璃或人们随手扔掉的香烟头引起。
547. Yesterday the firemen examined the ground carefully, but were not able to find any broken glass.
昨天，消防队员仔细查看了地面，但未能发现碎玻璃。
548. They were also quite sure that a cigarette end did not start the fire.
他们还十分肯定火灾也不是由烟头引起的。
549. This morning, however, a firemen accidentally discovered the cause.
然而今天上午，一个消防队员偶然发现了起火的原因。
550. He noticed the remains of a snake which was wound round the electric wires of a 16,000-volt power line.
他发现了缠绕在16,000伏高压线上的一条死蛇。
551. In this way, he was able to solve the mystery.
就这样，他解开了起火之谜。
552. The explanation was simple but very unusual.
解释很简单，却异乎寻常。
553. A bird had snatched up the snake from the ground and then dropped it on to the wires.
一只鸟把蛇从地上抓起来，然后把它扔到了电线上。
554. The snake then wound itself round the wires.
于是蛇就缠住了几根电线。
555. When it did so, it sent sparks down to the ground and these immediately started a fire.
当它这样做时，把火花送到了地面，这些火花立刻引起了一场大火。
$课文54 粘糊的手指
556. After breakfast, I sent the children to school and then I went to the shops.
早饭后，我送孩子们上学，然后就去了商店。
557. It was still early when I returned home.
我回到家时，时间还早。
558. The children were at school, my husband was at work and the house was quiet.
孩子们在上学，我丈夫在上班，家里清静得很。
559. So I decided to make some meat pies.
于是我决定做些肉馅饼。
560. In a short time I was busy mixing butter and flour and my hands were soon covered with sticky pastry.
不一会儿我就忙着调拌起了黄油和面粉，很快我的手上就沾满了粘粘的面糊。
561. At exactly that moment, the telephone rang.
恰恰在此时，电话铃响了。
562. Nothing could have been more annoying.
没有什么能比这更烦人了。
563. I picked up the receiver between two sticky fingers and was dismayed when I recognized the voice of Helen Bates.
我用两个沾满面糊的手指捏起了话筒。当听出是海伦.贝茨的声音时，非常丧气。
564. It took me ten minutes to persuade her to ring back later.
我用了10分钟的时间才说服她过会儿再来电话。
565. At last I hung up the receiver.
我终于挂上了话筒。
566. What a mess! There was pastry on my fingers, on the telephone, and on the doorknobs.
真是糟糕透了！我的手指上、电话机上以及门的把手上，都沾上了面糊。
567. I had no sooner got back to the kitchen than the doorbell rang loud enough to wake the dead.
我刚回到厨房，门铃又响了起来，响声足以把死人唤醒。
568. This time it was the postman and he wanted me to sign for a registered letter!
这次是邮递员，他要我签收一封挂号信！
$课文55 并非金矿
569. Dreams of finding lost treasure almost came true recently.
最近，找到失踪宝藏的梦想差一点儿变成现实。
570. A new machine called 'The Revealer' has been invented and it has been used to detect gold which has been buried in the ground.
一种叫“探宝器”的新机器已经发明出来，并被人们用来探测地下埋藏的金子。
571. The machine was used in a cave near the seashore where -- it is said -- pirates used to hide gold.
在靠近海边的一个据说过去海盗常在里面藏金子的岩洞里，这种机器被派上了用场。
572. The pirates would often bury gold in the cave and then fail to collect it.
海盗们过去常把金子埋藏在那个洞里，可后来却没能取走。
573. Armed with the new machine, a search party went into the cave hoping to find buried treasure.
一支用这种新机器装备起来的探宝队进入了这个岩洞，希望找到埋藏着的金子。
574. The leader of the party was examining the soil near the entrance to the cave when the machine showed that there was gold under the ground.
当这个队的队长正在检查洞口附近的土壤时，那台机器显示出它的下面埋有金子。
575. Very excited, the party dug a hole two feet deep.
队员们异常激动，就地挖了一个两英尺深的坑，
576. They finally found a small gold coin which was almost worthless.
但最后找到的是一枚几乎一钱不值的小金币。
577. The party then searched the whole cave thoroughly but did not find anything except an empty tin trunk.
队员们接着又把整个洞彻底搜寻了一遍，但除了一只空铁皮箱外什么也没找到。
578. In spite of this, many people are confident that'The Revealer'may reveal something of value fairly soon.
尽管如此，很多人仍然相信“探宝器”很快就会探出值钱的东西来。