Successful operation

【課文】

The mummy of an Egyptian woman who died in 800 B.C. has just had an operation. The mummy is that of Shepenmut who was once a singer in the Temple of Thebes. As there were strange marks on the X-ray plates taken of the mummy, doctors have been trying to find out whether the woman died of a rare disease. The only way to do this was to operate. The operation, which lasted for over four hours, proved to be very difficult because of the hard resin which covered the skin. The doctors removed a section of the mummy and sent it to a laboratory. They also found something which the X-ray plates did not show: a small wax figure of the god Duamutef. This god which has the head of a cow was normally placed inside a mummy. The doctors have not yet decided how the woman died. They feared that the mummy would fall to pieces when they cut it open, but fortunately this has not happened. The mummy successfully survived the operation.

【課文翻譯】

死于公元前800年的一位埃及婦女的木乃伊剛剛接受了一次手術(shù)。這是曾在底比斯神殿里當(dāng)過歌手的賽潘姆特的木乃伊。由于在給這個(gè)木乃伊拍攝的X光片子上有點(diǎn)奇怪的斑點(diǎn)，所以，醫(yī)生們一直試圖搞清這位婦女是否死于一種罕見的疾病。搞清的唯一辦法就是手術(shù)。手術(shù)持續(xù)了4個(gè)多小時(shí)，非常難做，因?yàn)槠つw上覆蓋著一層硬硬的樹脂。醫(yī)生們從木乃伊身上取下一個(gè)切片，送去化驗(yàn)。他們還發(fā)現(xiàn)了X光片所沒有顯示的東西：一個(gè)蠟制的杜瓦木特夫神小塑像。這種牛頭人身的神像通常被放在木乃伊體內(nèi)。醫(yī)生們至今還未確定這位婦女的死因。他們曾擔(dān)心在把木乃伊切開后，它會(huì)散成碎片，但幸運(yùn)得很，這種情況并未發(fā)生。這具木乃伊成功地經(jīng)受了這次手術(shù)。

【生詞匯總】

mummy n. 木乃伊

Egyptian adj. 埃及的

temple n. 廟

mark n. 斑點(diǎn)

plate n. (照相)底片

disease n. 疾病

last v. 持續(xù)

prove v. 顯示出

resin n. 樹脂

skin n. 皮膚

section n. 切片

figure n. (人的)體形;人像

normally adv. 通常地

survive v. 幸免于

【知識(shí)點(diǎn)講解】

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

死于公元前800年的一位埃及婦女的木乃伊剛剛接受了一次手術(shù)。

mummy [n]木乃伊，干尸

在小孩口語中也可表示媽媽，但美式英語多寫作mommy。

operation [n]手術(shù);運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)，操作

① 表示手術(shù)時(shí)的短語有 give an operation on sb. 給某人做手術(shù) have an operation on sb. 給某人做手術(shù) undergo an operation 接受一項(xiàng)手術(shù)

② 表示運(yùn)作，操作時(shí)的短語有 in operation 操作中;運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)中 come/be into operation 生效;開始實(shí)行 bring sth. into operation (使某事物)生效，起作用

e.g. He is accepting a lung transplant operation.

他在接受一項(xiàng)肺移植手術(shù)。

When will these regulations come into operation?

這些條例何時(shí)生效?

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

這是曾在底比斯神殿里當(dāng)過歌手的賽潘姆特的木乃伊。

that of 這里的that指代前面的the mummy，避免與前面重復(fù)。在比較狀語從句中，指代特定的事物時(shí)，通常用that或those來指代前面提到的事物，使整個(gè)人句子更加簡潔明了。that of和those of一般用于比較正式的句子中。例如：

The economy of America is much more prosperous than that of Japan.

美國的經(jīng)濟(jì)比日本繁榮很多。

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

由于在給這個(gè)木乃伊拍攝的X光片子上有點(diǎn)奇怪的斑點(diǎn)。

① mark 表示斑點(diǎn)、標(biāo)記 其他意思類似的還有sign，signal，symbol。它們的主要區(qū)別如下：

mark 很顯眼的標(biāo)記，一般是指可用眼睛直接看到的。

symbol 一般指象征意義上的標(biāo)志，可以是實(shí)物，也可能是虛有的。

sign 指人們公認(rèn)事物的記號，也可指某種情況的征兆。

signal 指為某一目的而有意發(fā)出的信號。

② plate (照相用的)感光底片;玻璃感光片

take the plate of 給……拍底片

在課文中，plates taken of the mummy 這里是過去分詞taken做后置定語修飾plates。

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

醫(yī)生們一直試圖搞清這位婦女是否死于一種罕見的疾病。

① have been trying 這是一個(gè)現(xiàn)在完成進(jìn)行時(shí)動(dòng)作

② 該句子為whether引導(dǎo)的賓語從句。if或whether引導(dǎo)賓語從句時(shí)，作“是否”講，常放在動(dòng)詞ask 、see 、say 、know和find out等后面。一般情況下，兩者�？蓳Q用，在口語中多用if。

I don't know whether it will rain tomorrow.

我不知道明天是否會(huì)下雨。

if和whether引導(dǎo)賓語從句時(shí)要注意以下幾個(gè)方面：

a. whether或if不能和that 或其它連詞(副詞)同時(shí)使用，也不能省去。例如：

[誤] I didn't know that whether (if) he was back.

[正]I didn't know whether (if) he was back.

b. whether或if引導(dǎo)的賓語從句時(shí)，雖具有疑問意義，但從句語序應(yīng)用陳述句語序。例如：

Did you finish your essay? The professor asked me. →The professor asked me whether I had finished my essay.

c. whether /if引導(dǎo)的賓語從句應(yīng)和主句的時(shí)態(tài)保持一致。即主句為一般現(xiàn)在時(shí)，從句用任一種時(shí)態(tài);主句為一般過去時(shí)，從句則用過去時(shí)中的任一種時(shí)態(tài)。具體如上例。

在某些情況下，從句中用whether還是if要看具體情況。

if和whether的區(qū)別：

A 在動(dòng)詞不定式之前只能用whether 。如：

I can't decide whether to stay. 我不能決定是否留下。

B 在whether …… or not 的固定搭配中。如：

例9 I want to know whether it’s good news or not . 我想知道是否是好消息。

C 在介詞后，只能用whether。如：

His father is worried about whether he lose his work . 他的父親擔(dān)心是否會(huì)失去工作。

D 賓語從句放在句首表示強(qiáng)調(diào)時(shí)，只能用whether 。如：

Whether they can finish the work on time is still a problem . 他們是否能準(zhǔn)時(shí)完成這項(xiàng)工作還是個(gè)問題。

E 用if會(huì)引起歧義時(shí)，只用whether。如：

Could you tell me if you know the answer?

這句話有兩種意思：“你能告訴我是否知道答案嗎?”或“如果你知道答案，請告訴我，好嗎?”如用whether可避免歧義。

5. The operation, which lasted for over four hours.

手術(shù)持續(xù)了4個(gè)多小時(shí)。

這個(gè)句子中，last表示持續(xù)，與此類似的詞還有stay，keep等。這三個(gè)詞的區(qū)別在于：

last作系動(dòng)詞，表示持續(xù)一段時(shí)間。它既可以單獨(dú)使用，也可以在后面接表示時(shí)間的詞。例如：

I believe that the bad whether won't last. 我相信這壞天氣不會(huì)持續(xù)下去的。

stay也可作系動(dòng)詞，后面可接形容詞、副詞、名詞、介詞短語等，表示保持某種狀態(tài)。例如：

I have been stayed awake for a whole night. 我已經(jīng)失眠整整一晚上了!

keep作實(shí)義動(dòng)詞，表示繼續(xù)、處于……狀態(tài)，后接名詞、代詞、副詞或現(xiàn)在分詞。例如：

Why did you keep me waiting outside for such a long time? 為什么讓我在外面等這么久?!

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