What was 'sweet as honey' and why?

In 1963 a Lancaster bomber crashed on Wallis Island, a remote place in theSouth Pacific, a long way west of Samoa. The plane wasn't too badly damaged, butover the years, the crash was forgotten and the wreck remained undisturbed. Thenin 1989, twenty-six years after the crash, the plane was accidentallyrediscovered in an aerial survey of the island. By this time, a Lancaster bomberin reasonable condition was rare and worth rescuing. The French authorities hadthe plane packaged and moved in parts back to France. Now a group of enthusiastsare going to have the plane restored. It has four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines,but the group will need to have only three of them rebuilt. Imagine theirsurprise and delight when they broke open the packing cases and found that thefourth engine was sweet as honey -- still in perfect condition. A colony of beeshad turned the engine into a hive and it was totally preserved in beeswax!

New words and expressions 生词与短语

Lancaster n. 兰开斯特

bomber n. 轰炸机

remote adj. 偏僻的

Pacific n. 太平洋

damage v. 毁坏

wreck n. 残骸

rediscover v. 重新发现

aerial adj. 航空的

survey n. 调查

rescue v. 营救

package v. 把......打包

enthusiast n. 热心人

restore v. 修复

imagine v. 想像

packing case 包装箱

colony n. 群

bee n. 蜂

hive n. 蜂房

preserve v. 保护

beeswax n. 蜂蜡新概念mp3

本文参考译文

1963年，一架兰开斯特轰炸机在瓦立斯岛毁。那是南太洋中一个很偏僻的小岛，位于萨摩亚群岛以西，距离群岛还有很长一段距离。飞机损坏的程度并不严重，但是，多年来这起飞机失事已被遗忘，飞机残骸也没受到破坏。于是，到了1989年，飞机失事26年后，在对小岛的一次航空勘查中那架飞机被意外地发现了。到了那个时候，状况良好的兰开斯特轰炸机实属罕见，值得抢救。法国政府让人把飞机包装起来，一部分一部分地搬回法国。一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。该飞机装装配有4台罗尔斯-罗伊斯的默林发动机，但是他们只需要修复其中的3台。想一想他们所感受到的惊奇和兴奋—— 当他们拆开包装箱时，他们发现第4台发动机就像蜂蜜一样甜 —— 发动机完好无损。一群蜜蜂把发动机当作了蜂房，发动机在蜂蜡中被完整地保存了下来。

(兼职编辑：张博)