在英语日益重要的今天，考证热也此起彼伏。为方便大家的练习，特收集以下内容：
A Kind Neighbor
Mr. and Mrs. Jones’ apartment was full of luggage, packages, furniture and boxes. Both of them were very busy when they heard the doorbell ring. Mrs. Jones went to open it and she saw a middle-aged lady outside. The lady said she lived next door. Mrs. Jones invited her to come in and apologized because there was no place for her to sit. “Oh, that’s OK.” said the lady. “I just come to welcome to your new home. As you know, in some parts of this city, neighbors are not friendly at all. They are some apartment houses where people don’t know any of their neighbors, not even the ones next door. But in this building, everyone is very friendly with everyone else. We are a big happy family. I am sure you will be very happy here.” Mr. and Mrs. Jones said, “But madam, we are not new dwellers in this apartment. We’ve lived here for two years. We are moving out tomorrow.”
14 That Isn’t Our Fault
Mr. and Mrs. Williams got married when he was twenty-three, and she was twenty. Twenty-five years later, they had a big party, and a photographer came and took some photographs of them.
Then the photographer gave Mrs. Williams a card and said, “They’ll be ready next Wednesday. You can get them from studio.”
“No,” Mrs. Williams said, “please send them to us.”
The photographs arrived a week later, but Mrs. Williams was not happy when she saw them. She got into her car and drove to the photographer’s studio. She went inside and said angrily, “You took some photographs of me and my husband last week, but I’m not going to pay for them.”
“Oh, why not?” the photographer asked.
“Because my husband looks like a monkey,” Mrs. Williams said.
“Well,” the photographer answered, “that isn’t our fault. Why didn’t you think of that before you married him?”15 A Guide’s Answer
In 1861, the Civil War started in the United States between the Northern and the Southern states. The war continued with great bitterness until 1865, when the Northerners were victorious. However, even today, many Southerners have not forgotten their defeat, or forgiven the Northerners.
A few years ago, a party of American tourists were going round one of the battlefields of the Civil War with a guide who came from one of the Southern states. At each place, the guide told the tourists stirring stories about how a few Southern soldiers had conquered powerful forces of Northerners there.
At last, one of the tourists, a lady who came from the North, stopped the guide and said to him, “ But surely that the Northern army must have won at least one victory in the Civil War?”
“Not as long as I’m the guide here, madam,” answered the Southern guide.16 A Qualified Pilot
The captain of a small ship had to go along a rocky coast, but he was unfamiliar with it, so he tried to find a qualified pilot to guide him. He went ashore in one of the small ports, and a local fisherman pretended that he was a pilot because he needed some money. The captain took him on board and asked him where to steer the ship.
After half an hour, the captain began to suspect that the fisherman did not really know what he was doing and where he was going.
“Are you sure you are a qualified pilot?” he asked.
“Oh, yes,” answered the fisherman. “I know every rock on this part of the coast.”
Suddenly there was a terrible crash from under the ship. At once the fisherman added, “And that’s one of them.”17 Living Things React
You and all organisms live an environment. An environment is made up of everything that surrounds an organism. It can include the air, the water, the soil, and even other organisms.
An organism responds to changes in its environment. When an organism responds to a change, it reacts in certain ways. All living things respond in some way.