大学英语综合教程第四单元重难点.doc

unit 4 The Watery Place It was just an error, a stupid error, the kind anyone could make. Only now Earth is never going to have another visitor from space. Not ever. The Watery Place Issac Asimov 1 Were never going to have visitors from space. No extraterrestrials will ever land on Earth -- at least, any more. 2 Im not just being a pessimist. As a matter of fact, extraterrestrials have landed. I know that. Space ships are crisscrossing space among a million worlds, probably, but they will never come here. I know that, too. All on account of a ridiculous error. 3 Ill explain. 4 It was actually Bart Camerons error and youll have to understand about Bart Cameron. Hes the sheriff at Twin Gulch, Idaho, and Im his deputy. Bart Cameron is an impatient man and he gets most impatient when he has to work up his income tax. You see, besides being sheriff, he also owns and runs the general store, hes got some shares in a sheep ranch, hes got a kind of pension for being a disabled veteran (bad knee) and a few other things like that. Naturally, it makes his tax figures complicated. 5 It wouldnt be so bad if hed let a taxman work on the forms with him, but he insists on doing it himself and it makes him a bitter man. By April 14, he isnt approachable. 6 So its too bad the flying saucer landed on April 14, 1956. 7 I saw it land. My chair was backed up against the wall in the sheriffs office, and I was looking at the stars through the windows and wondering if I ought to knock off and hit the sack or keep on listening to Cameron curse real steady as he went over his columns of figures for the hundred twenty-seventh time. 8 It looked like a shooting star at first, but then the track of light broadened into two things that looked like rocket exhausts and the thing came down without a sound. 9 Two men got out. 10 I couldnt say anything or do anything. I couldnt choke or point; I couldnt even bug my eyes. I just sat there. 11 Cameron