《新概念英语》第二册第53课 Hot Snake  触电的蛇

【课文】
First listen and then answer the question.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。
What caused the fire?

At last firemen have put out a big forest fire in California. Since then, they have been trying to find out how the fire began. Forest fires are often caused by broken glass or by cigarette ends which people carelessly throw away. Yesterday the firemen examined the ground carefully, but were not able to find any broken glass. They were also quite sure that a cigarette end did not start the fire. This morning, however, a firemen accidentally discovered the cause. He noticed the remains of a snake which was wound round the electric wires of a 16,000-volt power line. In this way, he was able to solve the mystery. The explanation was simple but very unusual. A bird had snatched up the snake from the ground and then dropped it on to the wires. The snake then wound itself round the wires. When it did so, it sent sparks down to the ground and these immediately started a fire.

【课文翻译】
消防队员们终于扑灭了加利福尼亚的一场森林大火。从那时起，他们一直试图找出起火的原因。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。昨天，消防队员仔细查看了地面，但未能发现碎玻璃。他们还十分肯定火灾也不是由烟头引起的。然而今天上午，一个消防队员偶然发现了起火的原因。他发现了缠绕在16,000伏高压线上的一条死蛇。就这样，他解开了起火之谜。解释很简单，却异乎寻常。一只鸟把蛇从地上抓起来，然后把它扔到了电线上。于是蛇就缠住了几根电线。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。

【生词和短语】
hot adj. 带电的，充电的
fireman n. 消防队员
cause v. 引起； n. 原因
examine v. 检查
accidentally adv. 意外地，偶然地
remains n. 尸体，残骸
wire n. 电线
volt n. 伏特（电压单位）
power line 电力线
solve v. 解决
mystery n. 谜
snatch v. 抓住
spark n. 电火花

【知识点讲解】
1. 与put相关的几个重要短语（At last firemen have put out a big forest fire in California）
①put on 穿上，也指“长胖”  ②put off 推迟   ③put away 收拾起来   ④put out 扑灭
例1：you put on weight recently.你最近长胖了。
例2：the meeting is put off because of the rain.因为阴雨会议被推迟了。
例3：put out your cigarette，now！马上把烟给我灭掉！

2. be able to 与can 的区别（ he was able to solve the mystery）
两者意思一致，主要的区别是词性区别，前者是动词短语，后者是情态动词，所以前者遵循一般be动词的原则，后者则要遵循情态动词的使用规则。我们可以说can be able to，但是绝对不可以说be able to can。

3. try to 与try doing的区别（they have been trying to find out how the fire began）
try doing侧重于过程，不强调结果，所以仅仅是“试试看”“尝试着”的意思；

而 to do则注重结果，意思是“竭尽全力”“力争”的意思。

【上期作业回顾】
翻译以下三个句子。
1  你能不能把你的书摆放整齐？
→can you get your books in order?
2  当前最重要的问题是完成作业。
→at the moment, the most important thing is to finish the homework.
3  更糟糕的是，我没带现金。
→to make things worse, I didn't bring money with me.

【课后作业】
翻译以下三个句子。
1  我有能力独立完成工作。
2  能不能帮我把制造噪音的人揪出来？
3  就这样，王子和公主开始了幸福的生活。