Lesson 39
Nothing to worry about
不必担心
Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
听录音,然后回答以下问题。
What was the difference between Bruce's behaviour and that of other people?
The rough across the plain soon became so bad that we tried to get Bruce to drive back to the village we had come from.
Even though the road was littered with boulders and pitted with holes, Bruce was not in the least perturbed. Glancing at his
map, he informed us that the next village was a mere twenty miles away. It was not that Bruce always underestimated
difficulties. He simply had no sense of danger at all. No matter what the conditions were, he believed that a car should be
driven as fast as it could possibly go.
As we bumped over eh dusty track, we swerved to avoid large boulders. The wheels scooped up stones which hammered
ominously under the car. We felt sure that sooner or later a stone would rip a hole in our petrol tank or damage the engine.
Because of this, we kept looking back, wondering if we were leaving a trail of oil and petrol behind us.
What a relief it was when the boulders suddenly disappeared, giving way to a stretch of plain where the only obstacles
were clumps of bushes. But there was worse to come. Just ahead of us there was a huge fissure. In response to renewed
pleadings, Bruce stopped. Though we all got out to examine the fissure, he remained in the car. We informed him that the
fissure extended for fifty years and was tow feet wide and four feet deep. Even this had no effect. Bruce went into a low gear
and drove at a terrifying speed, keeping the front wheels astride the crack as he followed its zigzag course. Before we had
time to worry about what might happen, we were back on the plain again. Bruce consulted the map once more and told us that the
village was now only fifteen miles away. Our next obstacle was a shallow pool of water about half a mile across. Bruce charged
at it, but in the middle, the car came to a grinding half. A yellow light on the dashboard flashed angrily and Bruce
cheerfully announced that there was no oil in the engine!
New words and expressions 生词和短语
rough
adj. 崎岖不平的
boulder
n. 大石块
pit
v. 使得坑坑洼洼
perturb
v. 使不安
underestimate
v. 低估
swerve
v. 急转变
scoop
v. 挖出
hammer
v. (用锤)击打,锤打
ominously
adv. 有预兆的,不祥的
rip
v. 划破,撕,扯
petrol
n. 汽油
stretch
n. 一大片(平地或水)
obstacle
n. 障碍
clump
n. 丛,簇
fissure
n. (石,地的)深缝
renew
v. 重复
pleading
n. 恳求
gear
n. 汽车排档
astride
prep.骑,跨
crack
n. 缝隙
zigzag
n. “之”字形
shallow
adj. 浅的
grind (ground, ground)
v. 磨擦
halt
n. 停
dashboard
n. (汽车上的)仪表盘