Unit 1 Great scientists learning about language课时作业

第一节 阅读理解

　　The news one day reached Gabriel that Bathsheba had left the neighborhood. Her abrupt departure is more emphatic than her verbal refusal of his offer. It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out of love as there is for getting in. All that Gabriel learnt of Bathsheba's movements was done indirectly. It appeared that she had gone to a place called Weatherbury, which, whether as a visitor or permanently, he could not discover.

　　Gabriel had two dogs. George, the elder, had originally belonged to a shepherd (牧羊人) of inferior morals and dreadful temper. Long experience had so precisely taught the animal the difference between different orders. Though old, he was clever and trustworthy still. The young dog, George's son, might possibly have been the image of his mother, for there was not much resemblance between him and George. He was learning the sheep-keeping business. So earnest and yet so wrongheaded was this young dog that if sent behind he did it so thoroughly that he would have chased them across the whole country with the greatest pleasure if not called off.

　　One night, when Gabriel had returned to his house, he called as usual to the dogs, previously shutting them up in the outhouse till next morning. Only one responded----old George; the other could not be found. ① Gabriel then concluded that the young one had not finished his meal, and he went indoors to the luxxury of a bed.

　　It was a still and wet night. Just before dawn he was woken by the abnormal reverberation of familiar music. To the shepherd, the note of the sheep-bell is beating with unusual violence and rapidity. The experienced ear of Gabriel knew the sound was caused by the running of the flock with great speed. ② He jumped out of bed and ascended the hill. These two hundred ewes( female sheep) seemed to have absolutely vanished from the hill. Gabriel called at the top of his voice:

　　'Ovey, ovey, ovey!'

　　He called again: the valleys and furthest hills resounded but no sheep. He passed through the trees and along the ridge of the hill. ③ He advanced: at one point the rails were broken through, and there he saw the footprints of his ewes. The dog came up, licked his hand, and made signs implying that he expected some great reward. Gabriel looked over the side of the mountain. The ewes lay dead----a pile of two hundred dead bodies.

　　As far as could be learnt, it appeared that the poor young dog, still under the impression that since he was kept for funning after sheep, the more he ran after them the better, had at the end of his meal off the dead lamb, which may have given him additional energy and spirits, collected all the ewes into a corner and driven the timid creatures through the hedge, breaking down a portion of the rotten railing. ④

Gabriel was an intensely humane man; his first feeling now was one of pity for the untimely fate of these gentle ewes and their unborn lambs. It was a sxecond to remember another stage of the matter. All the savings had been gone at a blow; his hopes of being an independent farmer