一、【Text】课文
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 the 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 yards and was two 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 zig-zag 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 halt. A yellow light on the dash- board flashed angrily and Bruce cheerfully announced that
there was no oil in the engine!
●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. 争转变
●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