全文 12 句（男女对话）· 12 个生词和短语（加粗 + 红色音标 / 词性 / 释义）
作者1. At last firemen /'faɪəmən/ n. 消防员 have put out a big forest fire in California.
作者2. Since then, they have been trying to find out how the fire began.
作者3. Forest fires are often caused /kɔːzd/ v. 引起；n. 原因 by broken glass or by cigarette ends which people carelessly throw away.
作者4. Yesterday the firemen examined /ɪɡ'zæmɪnd/ v. 检查 the ground carefully, but were not able to find any broken glass.
作者5. They were also quite sure that a cigarette end did not start the fire.
作者6. This morning, however, a fireman accidentally /ˌæksɪ'dentəli/ adv. 意外地，偶然地 discovered the cause.
作者7. He noticed the remains /rɪ'meɪnz/ n. 尸体，残骸 of a snake which was wound round the electric wires /'waɪəz/ n. 电线 of a 16,000-volt /vəʊlt/ n. 伏特（电压单位） power line /'paʊə-laɪn/ 电力线.
作者8. In this way, he was able to solve /sɒlv/ v. 解决 the mystery /'mɪstəri/ n. 谜.
作者9. The explanation was simple but very unusual.
作者10. A bird had snatched /snætʃt/ v. 抓住 up the snake from the ground and then dropped it on to the wires.
作者11. The snake then wound itself round the wires.
作者12. When it did so, it sent sparks /spɑːks/ n. 电火花 down to the ground and these immediately started a fire.
作者1. 消防队员们终于扑灭了加利福尼亚的一场森林大火。
作者2. 从那以后，他们一直试图找出起火的原因。
作者3. 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。
作者4. 昨天，消防队员仔细查看了地面，但未能发现碎玻璃。
作者5. 他们还十分肯定火灾也不是由烟头引起的。
作者6. 然而今天上午，一个消防队员偶然发现了起火的原因。
作者7. 他发现了缠绕在16,000伏高压线上的一条死蛇。
作者8. 就这样，他解开了起火之谜。
作者9. 解释很简单，却异乎寻常。
作者10. 一只鸟把蛇从地上抓起来，然后又把它扔到电线上。
作者11. 于是蛇就缠住了几根电线。
作者12. 当它这样做时，火花顺着电线落到了地上，这些火花立刻引起了一场大火。