Lesson 39 Nothing to worry about不必?fù)?dān)心

Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
聽(tīng)錄音，然后回答以下問(wèn)題。
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!
參考譯文
穿越平原的道路高低不平，開(kāi)車(chē)走了不遠(yuǎn)，路面愈加崎嶇。我們想勸說(shuō)布魯斯把車(chē)開(kāi)回我們出發(fā)的那個(gè)村莊去。盡管路面布滿石頭，坑坑洼洼，但布魯斯卻一點(diǎn)兒不 慌亂。他瞥了一眼地圖，告訴我們前面再走不到20英里就是一個(gè)村莊。這并不是說(shuō)布魯斯總是低估困難，而是他壓根兒沒(méi)有一點(diǎn)兒危險(xiǎn)感。他認(rèn)為不管路面情況如 何，車(chē)必須以最高速度前進(jìn)。
我們?cè)趬m士飛揚(yáng)的道路上顛簸，車(chē)子?xùn)|拐西彎，以躲開(kāi)那些大圓石。車(chē)輪攪起的石塊錘擊車(chē)身，發(fā)出不祥的錘擊聲。我們想念遲早會(huì)飛起一個(gè)石塊把油箱砸開(kāi)一個(gè)窟窿，或者把發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)砸壞。因此，我們不時(shí)地掉過(guò)頭，懷疑車(chē)后是否留下了機(jī)油和汽油的痕跡。
突然大石塊不見(jiàn)了，前面是一片平地，唯一的障礙只有一簇簇灌木叢。這使我們長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)地松了口氣。但是更糟糕的事情在等著我們，離我們不遠(yuǎn)處，出現(xiàn)一個(gè)大裂縫。 我們?cè)俅窝肭蟛剪斔剐⌒模@才把車(chē)停了下來(lái)。我們紛紛下車(chē)察看那個(gè)大裂縫，他卻呆在車(chē)上。我們告訴他那個(gè)大裂縫長(zhǎng)50碼，寬2英尺，深4英尺。這也沒(méi)有 對(duì)他產(chǎn)生任何影響。布魯斯掛上慢檔，把兩只前輪分別擱在裂縫的兩邊，順著彎彎曲曲的裂縫，以發(fā)瘋的速度向前開(kāi)去。我們還未來(lái)得及擔(dān)心后果，車(chē)已重新開(kāi)上了 平地。布魯斯又看了一眼地圖，告訴我們那座村莊離我們只有15英里了。下一個(gè)障礙是一片約半英里寬的淺水塘。布魯斯向水塘沖去，但車(chē)開(kāi)到水塘當(dāng)中，嘎吱一 聲停住了。儀表盤(pán)一盞黃燈閃著刺眼的光芒，布魯斯興致勃勃地宣布發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)里沒(méi)油了！

New words and expressions 生詞和短語(yǔ)
rough
adj. 崎嶇不平的

boulder
n. 大石塊

pit
v. 使得坑坑洼洼

perturb
v. 使不安

underestimate
v. 低估

swerve
v. 急轉(zhuǎn)變

scoop
v. 挖出

hammer
v. （用錘）擊打，錘打

ominously
adv. 有預(yù)兆的，不祥的

rip
v. 劃破，撕，扯

petrol
n. 汽油

stretch
n. 一大片（平地或水）

obstacle
n. 障礙

clump
n. 叢，簇

fissure
n. （石，地的）深縫

renew
v. 重復(fù)

pleading
n. 懇求

gear
n. 汽車(chē)排檔

astride
prep.騎，跨

crack
n. 縫隙

zigzag
n. “之”字形

shallow
adj. 淺的

grind (ground, ground)
v. 磨擦

halt
n. 停

dashboard
n. （汽車(chē)上的）儀表盤(pán)

Notes on the text課文注釋
1 get sb. to do sth.，說(shuō)服某人做某事。
2 in the least，一點(diǎn)兒也不，完全不。
3 It was not that Bruce always underestimated difficulties這并不是說(shuō)布魯斯總是低估困難。
4 sooner or later，作“遲早”、“總有一天”講。
5 giving way to a stretch of plain，出現(xiàn)了一片平原。
give way to…，此處作“為...所代替”解釋。
6 charge at，沖向。

Lesson 39 課后練習(xí)和答案Exercises and Answer