一、【Text】课文

We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong. A day may begin well enough, but suddenly everything seems to get out of control. What invariably happens is that a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment. It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions. Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and keeping an eye on the baby at the same time. The telephone rings and this marks the prelude to an unforeseen series of catastrophes. While you are on the phone, the baby pulls the tablecloth off the table smashing half your best crockery and cutting himself in the process. You hang up hurriedly and attend to baby, crockery, etc. Meanwhile, the meal gets burnt. As if this were not enough to reduce you to tears, your husband arrives, unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner.

Things can go wrong on a big scale as a number of people recently discovered in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney. During the rush hour one evening two cars collided and both drivers began to argue. The woman immediately behind the two cars happened to be a learner. She suddenly got into a panic and stopped her car. This made the driver following her brake hard. His wife was sitting beside him holding a large cake. As she was thrown forward, the cake went right through the windscreen and landed on the road. Seeing a cake flying through the air, a lorry driver who was drawing up alongside the car, pulled up all of a sudden. The lorry was loaded with empty beer bottles and hundreds of them slid off the back of the vehicle and on to the road. This led to yet another angry argument. Meanwhile, the traffic piled up behind. It took the police nearly an hour to get the traffic on the move again. In the meantime, the lorry driver had to sweep up hundreds of broken bottles. Only two stray dogs benefited from all this confusion, for they greedily devoured what was left of the cake. It was just one of those days!

二、【New words and expressions】生词和短语

●prelude n. 序幕，前奏

●unforeseen adj. 意料之外的

●series n. 系列

●catastrophe n. 大祸，灾难

●crockery n. 陶器，瓦器

●suburb n. 郊区

●collide v. 猛撞

●learner n. 初学者

●panic n. 惊慌，恐慌

●windscreen n. (汽车的)挡风玻璃

●alongside prep. 在……的旁边，与……并排

●slide v. 滑

●stray adj. 离群的

●confusion n. 混乱

●greedily adv. 贪婪地

●devour v. 狼吞虎咽地吃

■prelude n. 序幕，前奏

a prelude to sth ……的前奏

Eg: a prelude to serious trouble 麻烦的前奏

introduction 导言，绪论

introduction to the book

preface 序，前言

foreword 序

■unforeseen adj. 意料之外的

foresee == see before hand

I foresee a bright future for you.

foreseeable 可预见的

foreseeing 预料之中的

unforeseeing 意料之外的

foretell 预言，主语可以是人或物

predict 预言，预示(语气较强)，主语必须是人

Eg: He predicted that it would happen in ten years.

forecast : 预测，预报(主要指天气的预报)

Eg: Timely snow foretells a bumper harvest. 瑞雪照丰年

■series n. 系列

series 单复数形式同形

a series of

We’ve got a series of good harvest.

chain 连串，连锁

a chain of 一系列

a series of reaction 一系列反应

a chain of reaction一系列反应

chain store 连锁店，

chain reaction 连锁反应

chain smoker 吸烟很严重的人

succession 侧重时间上的连续

a suucession of failures 一系列的失败

Eg.: We’ve got a succession of successes.

string 连续不断相似的事件

Eg.: a string of cars 一连串的汽车

train 一个接一个发生的事

a train of thoughts/ ideas 一个个的想法

■catastrophe n. 大祸，灾难

worldwide catastrophe 世界范围的灾难

national catastrophe 波及全国的灾难

disaster 灾难，不幸(语气较弱)

calamity 灾害，不幸事件

nature calamity 自然灾害

■crockery n. 陶器，瓦器

■suburb n. 郊区

■collide v. 猛撞

■learner n. 初学者

■panic n. 惊慌，恐慌

panic : uncontrollable quickly spreading fear or terror

get into a panic 陷入惊慌之中

He suddenly got into a panic and stop his car.

be struck with panic== be seized with panic 惊慌失措

He was seized with panic.

terror 惊骇

horror 恐惧

fright 害怕

alarm 惊恐

■windscreen n. (汽车的)挡风玻璃

■alongside prep. 在……的旁边，与……并排

■slide v. 滑

■stray adj. 迷失的，离群的

The dog strayed from home.

■confusion n. 混乱

condition out of order

in order 秩序井然

out of order 混乱

in confusion 乱七八糟

be covered with confusion 局促不安

throw sb into confusion 使某人惊慌失措

■greedily adv. 贪婪地

■devour v. 狼吞虎咽地吃

devour:

1. eat like an animal

The dog devoured the cake

2. destroy 吞灭，席卷

The flames devoured the whole building

3. take in eagerly with eyes, ears, or mind 贪婪地看

His eyes devoured the scene. 他两眼贪婪地看着。新概念英语第二册下载

三、【课文精析】

Every dog has its day 每个人都会有飞黄腾达的日子

get out of control 失控

uncontrollable, beyond control

invariably: always

What happened yesterday was that he couldn’t deal with the hot potato.

precisely: exactly

It is as if

It seems as if

It looks as if

似乎好象看起来

set up = cause 引起，导致，造成

What set up the accident?

set up a world record 创世界纪录

set up = creat 创立，建立

The unimportant event is the prelude to trouble. 不重要的事情是麻烦事的前奏。

keep an eye on tha baby 照料孩子

keep an eye on = look after = take care of

Please keep an eye on my bouse while I am out.

keep one’s eyes open 睁大眼睛

When I am out, please keep your eyes open.

have an eye to

eye for eye 以牙还牙

have eyes only for 只要，只爱

Eg: I have eyes only for you.

look sb in the eyes 两眼直视某人

eye to eye with sb 与某人看法完全一样

Eg: I invariably see eye to eye with my sister.

turn a blind eye to sth. 对……视而不见

Eg: He even turned blind eye to me.

make eyes at sb 含情报脉脉地看着某人

Eg: The boy is making eyes at his girlfriend.

on teh phone = answer the phone

pull off 拉下来

pick off 取下来

knock off 碰落下来

smash half 摔成两半

in the process 在这个过程中

hang up == put on the receiver

attend to == look after == deal with

Please attend to my baby.

Excuse me, I have something urgent to attend to.

reduce you to tears.

reduce sb to + 名词： 迫使某人处于……状态

Eg: You almost reduce me to tears.

His comforting words almost reduced his wife to tears.

His answer reduced me to silence.

The bomb reduced the city to ruins.

we can draw a conclusion.

Everything seems to get out of control suddenly and a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment.

on a big scale == to a great degree == to great extent

as 引导非限制性定语从句(二册已详细说过)

Troubles never come single 祸不单行

as we know 众所周知

As we know, the earth is round.

As brane pointed out, giving up smoking is the easiest thing to do in the world.

As the headmaster mentioned, one is never too old to learn.

as重点突出整个句子的含义，而which有可能指代主句当中的某个词汇，也有可能指代整个句子的含义。

As we expected, John was admitted to the university.

She married him, which was unexpected.

She married him as (was ) unexpected.

The material is elastic as shown in the figure.

The material is elactic which is shown in the figure.

during the rush hour 上下班高峰期

It happened that the woman behind the two cars was a learner.

happen to do 恰巧

I happened to hear the news.

It happened that I heard about it the day before yesterday.

following 现在分词做定语

right ==straight

draw up ==pull up 停车

all of sudden ==suddenly

was loaned with == was filled with

lead to == cause

meanwhile == at the same time 与此同时

get the traffic on the move 使得车辆开动起来

on the move == move from place to place

on the rise 正在上升

on the boil 正在沸腾

on the go 正在忙碌中

on the watch 正在监视

on the turn 正在转变中

on thw run 正在逃跑中

on thw fly 正在飞行中

on the decrease 正在减少

benefit from 从......得益

You benefit a lot from your reading.