Lesson 33 A day to remember難忘的一天
Listen to the tape then answer the question below.聽錄音，然后回答以下問題。
What incident began the series of traffic accidents?
We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong. A day may begin well enough, but suddenly everything seems to get out of control. 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 tablecloth 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. During the rush hour one evening two cars collided and both drivers began to argue. The woman immediately behind the two cars happened to be a learner. She suddenly got into a panic 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 drawing up alongside the car, pulled up all of a sudden. The lorry was loaded with empty beer bottles and hundreds of them slid off the back of the vehicle and on to the road. This led to yet another angry argument. Meanwhile, the traffic piled up behind. It took the police nearly an hour to get the traffic on the move again. In the meantime, the lorry driver had 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!
參考譯文
我們大家都有過事事不順心的日子。一天開始時(shí)，可能還不錯(cuò)，但突然間似乎一切都失去了控制。情況經(jīng)常是這樣的，許許多多的事情都偏偏趕在同一時(shí)刻出問題， 好像是一件無關(guān)緊要的小事引起了一連串的連鎖反應(yīng)。假設(shè)你在做飯，同時(shí)又在照看孩子。這時(shí)電話鈴響了。它預(yù)示著一連串意想不到的災(zāi)難的來臨。就在你接電話 時(shí)，孩子把桌布從桌子上扯下來，將家中最好的陶瓷餐具半數(shù)摔碎，同時(shí)也弄傷了他自己。你急急忙忙掛上電話，趕去照看孩子和餐具。這時(shí)，飯又燒糊了。好像這 一切還不足以使你急得掉淚，你的丈夫接著回來了，事先沒打招呼就帶來3個(gè)客人吃飯。
就像許多人最近在悉尼郊區(qū)帕拉馬塔發(fā)現(xiàn)的那樣，有時(shí)亂子會(huì)鬧得很大。一天傍晚交通最擁擠時(shí)，一輛汽車撞上前面一輛汽車，兩個(gè)司機(jī)爭吵起來。緊跟其后的一輛 車上的司機(jī)碰巧是個(gè)初學(xué)者，她一驚之下突然把車停了下來。她這一停使得跟在后頭的司機(jī)也來個(gè)急剎車。司機(jī)妻子正坐在他身邊，手里托著塊大蛋糕。她往前一 沖，蛋糕從擋風(fēng)玻璃飛了出去掉到馬路上。此時(shí)，一輛卡車正好從后邊開到那輛汽車邊上，司機(jī)看見一塊蛋糕從天而降，緊急剎車。卡車上裝著空啤酒瓶。成百只瓶 子順勢從卡車后面滑出車外落在馬路上。這又引起一場唇槍舌劍的爭吵。與此同時(shí)，后面的車輛排成了長龍，警察花了將近一個(gè)小時(shí)才使車輛又開起來。在這段時(shí)間 里，卡車司機(jī)不得不清掃那幾百只破瓶子。只有兩只野狗從這一片混亂中得到好處，它們貪婪地吃掉了剩下的蛋糕。這就是事事不順心的那么一天！
New words and expressions 生詞和短語
prelude
n. 序幕，前奏
unforeseen
adj. 意料之外的
series
n. 系列
catastrophe
n. 大禍，災(zāi)難
crockery
n. 陶器，瓦器
suburb
n. 郊區(qū)
collide
v. 猛撞
learner
n. 初學(xué)者
panic
n. 驚慌，恐慌
windscreen
n. （汽車的）擋風(fēng)玻璃
alongside
prep.在……的旁邊，與……并排
slide (slid, slid)
v. 滑
stray
adj. 迷失的，離群的
confusion
n. 混亂
greedily
adv. 貪婪地
devour
v. 狼吞虎咽地吃
Notes on the text課文注釋
1 get out of control，失去控制。
2 It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions.就好像一件無關(guān)緊要的小事引起了一連串的連鎖反應(yīng)。as if引導(dǎo)的從句中用的是虛擬語氣;set up，引起，產(chǎn)生;a chain of,一連串。
3 keep an eye on，照看，照管。
4 you are on the phone，你在接電話。
5 reduce you to tears，使你流淚。
6 on a big scale，大規(guī)模地。
7 rush hour，上下班時(shí)間。
8 draw up，追上。
9 pull up。停車。
10 get the traffic on the move，使車輛動(dòng)起來。
Lesson 33 課后練習(xí)和答案Exercises and Answer
