课文对话 · Hot snake 触电的蛇（课本 Lesson 53，印刷页 248-251）
1At last firemen /'faɪəmən/ n. 消防员 have put out a big forest fire in California.
消防队员们终于扑灭了加利福尼亚的一场森林大火。
2Since then, they have been trying to find out how the fire began.
从那以后，他们一直试图找出起火的原因。
3Forest fires are often caused /kɔːzd/ v. 引起；n. 原因 by broken glass or by cigarette ends which people carelessly throw away.
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。
4Yesterday the firemen examined /ɪɡ'zæmɪnd/ v. 检查 the ground carefully, but were not able to find any broken glass.
昨天，消防队员仔细查看了地面，但未能发现碎玻璃。
5They were also quite sure that a cigarette end did not start the fire.
他们还十分肯定火灾也不是由烟头引起的。
6This morning, however, a fireman accidentally /ˌæksɪ'dentəli/ adv. 意外地，偶然地 discovered the cause.
然而今天上午，一个消防队员偶然发现了起火的原因。
7He 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.
他发现了缠绕在16,000伏高压线上的一条死蛇。
8In this way, he was able to solve /sɒlv/ v. 解决 the mystery /'mɪstəri/ n. 谜.
就这样，他解开了起火之谜。
9The explanation was simple but very unusual.
解释很简单，却异乎寻常。
10A bird had snatched /snætʃt/ v. 抓住 up the snake from the ground and then dropped it on to the wires.
一只鸟把蛇从地上抓起来，然后又把它扔到电线上。
11The snake then wound itself round the wires.
于是蛇就缠住了几根电线。
12When it did so, it sent sparks /spɑːks/ n. 电火花 down to the ground and these immediately started a fire.
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。
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