$课文77  一例成功的手术

829. The mummy of an Egyptian woman who died in 800 B.C. has just had an operation.

死于公元前800年的一位埃及妇女的木乃伊刚刚接受了一次手术。

830. The mummy is that of Shepenmut who was once a singer in the Temple of Thebes.

这是曾在底比斯神殿里当过歌手的赛潘姆特的木乃伊。

831. As there were strange marks on the X-ray plates taken of the mummy,

由于在给这个木乃伊拍摄的X光片子上有点奇怪的斑点，

832. doctors have been trying to find out whether the woman died of a rare disease.

所以，医生们一直试图搞清这位妇女是否死于一种罕见的疾病。

833. The only way to do this was to operate.

搞清的唯一办法就是手术。

834. The operation, which lasted for over four hours, proved to be very difficult because of the hard resin which covered the skin.

手术持续了4个多小时，非常难做，因为皮肤上覆盖着一层硬硬的树脂。

835. The doctors removed a section of the mummy and sent it to a laboratory.

医生们从木乃伊身上取下一个切片，送去化验。

836. They also found something which the X-ray plates did not show: a small wax figure of the god Duamutef.

他们还发现了X光片所没有显示的东西：一个蜡制的杜瓦木特夫神小塑像。

837. This god which has the head of a cow was normally placed inside a mummy.

这种牛头人身的神像通常被放在木乃伊体内。

838. The doctors have not yet decided how the woman died.

医生们至今还未确定这位妇女的死因。

839. They feared that the mummy would fall to pieces when they cut it open, but fortunately this has not happened.

他们曾担心在把木乃伊切开后，它会散成碎片，但幸运得很，这种情况并未发生。

840. The mummy successfully survived the operation.

这具木乃伊成功地经受了这次手术。

$课文78  最后一枝吗？

841. After reading an article entitled 'Cigarette Smoking and Your Health' I lit a cigarette to calm my nerves.

读完一篇题为《吸烟与健康》的文章之后，我点上了一枝香烟，来镇定一下自己紧张的神经。

842. I smoked with concentration and pleasure as I was sure that this would be my last cigarette.

我聚精会神而又愉快地吸着这枝烟。因为我确信这是我最后一枝烟了。

843. For a whole week I did not smoke at all and during this time, my wife suffered terribly.

整整一个星期我根本没有吸烟。在此期间，我妻子吃尽了苦头。

844. I had all the usual symptoms of someone giving up smoking: a bad temper and an enormous appetite.

我具备了戒烟者通常表现出来的所有症状：脾气暴躁和食欲旺盛。

845. My friends kept on offering me cigarettes and cigars.

我的朋友们不断地向我递香烟和雪茄。

846. They made no effort to hide their amusement whenever I produced a packet of sweets from my pocket.

每当我从口袋里掏出一包糖果时，他们都毫不掩饰地表现出他们对此感到非常好笑。

847. After seven days of this I went to a party.

这样过了7天以后，我去参加一次聚会。

848. Everybody around me was smoking and I felt extremely uncomfortable.

我周围的每个人都在吸烟，我感到非常不自在。

849. When my old friend Brian urged me to accept a cigarette, it was more than I could bear.

当我的老朋友布赖恩极力劝我接受一枝香烟时，我再也忍不住了。

850. I took one guiltily, lit it and smoked with satisfaction.

我内疚地接过一枝点上，心满意足地抽起来。

851. My wife was delighted that things had returned to normal once more.

一切又都恢复了正常，为此我妻子十分高兴。

852. Anyway, as Brian pointed out, it is the easiest thing in the world to give up smoking.

不管怎么说，正如布赖恩指出的那样，戒烟是世界上最容易的事情，

853. He himself has done it lots of times!

他自己就已戒了很多次了！

$课文79  乘飞机

854. I used to travel by air a great deal when I was a boy.

我在幼年的时候，曾多次乘飞机旅行。

855. My parents used to live in South America and I used to fly there from Europe in the holidays.

我的父母曾经住在南美洲，所以假期里我常从欧洲乘飞机到他们那里。

856. A flight attendant would take charge of me and I never had an unpleasant experience.

我总是由一位空中乘务员照管，从未遇到过不愉快的经历。

857. I am used to travelling by air and only on one occasion have I ever felt frightened.

我习惯了乘飞机旅行，只是有一次把我吓坏了。

858. After taking off, we were flying low over the city and slowly gaining height,

起飞之后，我们在城市上空低低地飞行，然后慢慢爬高。

859. when the plane suddenly turned round and flew back to the airport.

这时飞机突然调转头来，飞回了机场。

860. While we were waiting to land,

在我们等待降落时，

861. a flight attendant told us to keep calm and to get off the plane quietly as soon as it had touched down.

一位空中乘务员告诉我们要保持镇静，待飞机一着陆，就马上不声不响地离开飞机。

862. Everybody on board was worried and we were curious to find out what had happened.

飞机上的人都很着急，大家都急于想知道究竟出了什么事。

863. Later we learnt that there was a very important person on board.

后来我们才得知，飞机上坐了一位非常重要的人物。

864. The police had been told that a bomb had been planted on the plane.

有人报告警察，说飞机上安放了一枚炸弹。

865. After we had landed, the plane was searched thoroughly.

我们降落之后，飞机被彻底搜查了一遍。

866. Fortunately, nothing was found and five hours later we were able to take off again.

幸运的是，什么也没有找到。5个小时后，我们又起飞了。