aote八十年代的英语课本第五册课文

2021年1月22日发(作者：chemistry)
Why the bat comes out only at night
？

（
80
年代初中英语课本第五册第
1
课）

Long, long ago, there was a war between the birds and the beasts. No
one knows what they fought about.

The bat did not know whose side he should take. He thought and
thought, then decided he must try to be on the side of the winners.

So he watched from far away. After a while, it seemed that the birds
were going to win. He flew over to join them.


“What on earth are you doing here?” a bird shouted at him.


“Can’t you see I’m

a bird?” the bat said with a smile. “Look, I have
swings, just like you.”


“Come along, then,” said the bird. “Don’t hide behind others.”

But things changed soon. Now it seemed that the beasts were
winning. So the bat left the birds in a hurry and went over to the beasts.


“What are you doing on our side?” and animal called out to him. “Are
you spying on us?”


“Don’t you know I’m one of you?” asked the bat, showing his teeth.
“Look. Can’t you see I’ve got teeth, too?”


“Who are trying to fool?” said the animals. “We saw you fighting on
the side of the birds just now.”

So the beasts drove him off. Of course the birds refused to take him
back.

When the beasts and the birds saw neither side could win, they
decided to stop fighting.

Neither beasts nor birds would have the bat as their friend, so he was
afraid to leave his home. Ever since then, he comes out only at night.



Lesson 2

Nathan Hale

（
80
年代初中英语课本第五册第
2
课）

The young American stood quietly while the British guards searched
his clothes. They found nothing. “If they don’t find the maps in my boot,”
he thought, “maybe they will let me go. Then I’ll try to send the maps to
General Washington.”


“Take off your boots,” one of the guards ordered. The American’s
heart beat faster. He took off his boots and handed them to the guard.

The guard looked inside one boot, then another.


“Use your knife, man!” ordered the British officer nearby.

The guard brought out his knife and cut one boot open. He stopped
suddenly and the American knew what it meant. The maps of the British
army’s defence works!

The guards took the American to General Howe. The general looked
at the maps. “I see you’ve made some drawing of our defence works,” he
said. “This can only mean one thing.”


“Yes, sir.”


“Do you have anything to say for yourself?”


“No, nothing.”


“What’s your name?”


“Nathan Hale.”


“Rank?”


“Captain.”


The general studied the maps a few more minutes. “Captain

Hale,” he
said finally. “I’ve never seen such fine drawings. You know, we could use
a man like you. Why not join us? You don’t have to worry about rank or
pay.”


Nathan Hale looked straight at the general. “Nothing could make me
turn against my count
ry!”


“Then there’s only one thing I can do, you understand?”


“Yes, sir.”


“You will be hanged as a spy early tomorrow morning.”

* * *

Nathan Hale looked around as a British soldier put the rope around
his neck.


“Now, Nathan Hale,” said the British officer. “Let’s hear what you have
to say before you die.”


Nathan Hale took a last look at his beautiful country and said, “I only
regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”



Lesson 3

A question of pronunciation

（
80
年代初中英语课本第五册第
3
课）

This happened in London. It was November and the weather was
very wet and cold.

A Frenchman had caught a very bad cold. He coughed day and night.
So he decided to go and get some medicine for his cough. As he did not
know much English, he got out his dictionary and looked up the word
“cough”. But the dictionary did not tell him how to pronounce the word. He
thought it over and remembered that he had learned the word “plough”.
He remembered that it was pronounced [plau]. So he thought that
c-o-u-g-h must be pronounced [kau].


The he put on his coat and hat and went to a chemist’s shop. When
the man in the shop asked him what he wanted, the Frenchman said:


“I want something for my cow, please.”

The man in the shop looked at him. Had he heard him correctly?


“I beg your pardon, sir?” he asked.


The Frenchman repeated: “I want some medicine for my cow.”


“For your cow?” asked the man. “Are you a farmer?”


“A farmer?” said the Frenchman in surprise. “What makes you think
I’m a farmer? I come from

Paris. I’m not a farmer.”


“Where’s your cow, then?” asked the man in the shop.


“It’s here!” replied the Frenchman. He put his hand on his chest and
began to cough. “Here it is!” he said. “I’ve a very bad cow here.”

Then the man in the shop understood what the Frenchman meant. He
wanted some medicine for his cough.



Lesson 4

The Arab in the desert

（
80
年代初中英语课本第五册第
4
课）

An Arab was walking alone through the desert when he met two men.
The men looked worried. It seemed that they had lost something. The
Arab went over to them.


“Have you lost one of your camels?” he asked them.


“Yes,” they said.


“Was he blind in the right eye and lame in the left foot?” asked the
Arab.


“Yes, he was?


“Had he lost a tooth and was he carrying corn?”


“Yes,” said the men. “Please tell us where he is.”


“I don’t know where he is,” said the Arab. “I’ve never seen such an
animal.”


“Did someone tell you about him?”


“No.”

The two men looked at each other in surprise. They could not believe
the Arab’s words. Finally, they came up close to him, took hold of him,
and shouted:


“Where’s the animal? And what have you done with our goods?”

The Arab insisted that he had never seen the camel. At last the men
took him before a judge. They said that the Arab had stolen their camel.


“I’ve never seen their camel,” insisted the Arab. “But I’m a man of the
desert, and I’ve learned to look carefully at everythi
ng I see. This morning
I saw the tracks of a lost camel. I knew this because there were no man’s
tracks near those of the camel. I also saw that the camel must be blind in
the right eye, because he had only eaten the grass on his left side and
had not touched the grass on his right. The animal was lame because
with one foot he left a track much lighter that any of the others. He had
lost a tooth, because wherever he ate grass, there was always a small
space left untouched. I also found groups of ants near the tracks of the
camel. They were pulling pieces of corn. From these facts I was able to
tell what goods the animal was carrying.”

The judge and the two men were satisfied with what the Arab had said.
Together the four men set out to look for the lost animal.



Lesson 5

The seagulls of Salt Lake City

（
80
年代初中英语课本第五册第
5
课）

Salt Lake City is a beautiful city in the west of North America. The
name comes from a great salt lake nearby. The city lies in a valley with
high mountains all around it. But long ago there was almost nothing in this
place and there were very few people living here.

More than a hundred years ago, a group of men, women and children
moved from the east to the west. They had traveled a long way. At last
these brave people came to the great mountains by the salt lake. They
crossed the mountains and reached this quiet place. They decided to stay
here, and so they built their homes and made their farms. This was
where Salt Lake City now lies.

The people had to work hard on their farms, because their lives
depended on their crops.

One day while they were working in the fields, some farmers saw
something strange in the sky.


“What’s that?” asked one of them.


“Where?” asked another, as he stopped to look.


“Over there,” was the reply.

They saw something like a cloud coming, but it was too low in the sky.
As they watched, it came nearer and nearer. Suddenly a shout went up:
“Locusts! Millions of them!”

The words put fear into the hearts of all, because they knew what
locusts could do, and they had never seen so many of them before.

In no time the locusts came down and started eating everything
–
the
wheat, the corn, the grass and even the leaves on the trees.

The farmers brought out things to fight the locusts. They tried
everything. But while they were killing the locusts in one place, millions
more arrived in another. What could the farmers do?

Suddenly there was a great noise. As they looked up, they saw
another cloud coming towards them. To their surprise, they saw not
locusts th
is time, but seagulls. The farmers cried out, “They’ve come to
eat what the locusts have left.”

But to their joy, they found that the seagulls had come to eat not the
crops, but the locusts. They had seen or smelled the locusts and had
come from the Great Salt Lake. Now they were eating the locusts! In a
short while they ate up millions of them. The farmers’ crops were saved!

The people were very thankful. They decided that from then on no
one should ever kill a seagull. And today, if you go to Salt Lake City, you
can see a monument with seagulls on top of it.



Lesson 7

The Pyramids

（
80
年代初中英语课本第五册第
7
课）

Thousand of years ago, the kings of Egypt built strong bombs for
themselves. Over these tombs they built pyramids. They thought their
bodies would be well kept in these until they could come back to life. They
also hoped the world could look on the pyramids as monuments to them
and would remember them for ever.

There are around 80 pyramids in Egypt. But the Great Pyramid is the
biggest of all. It is nearly 5,000 years old. It is about 137 metres high
today, but it was once highter. It is made of 2,300,000 huge stones. Most