Hot snake 觸電的蛇

　　At last firemen have put out a big forest fire in California. Since then， they have been trying to find out how the fire began. Forest fires are often caused by broken glass or by cigarette ends which people carelessly throw away. Yesterday the firemen examined the ground carefully， but were not able to find any broken glass. They were also quite sure that a cigarette end did not start the fire. This morning， however， a firemen accidentally discovered the cause. He noticed the remains of a snake which was wound round the electric wires of a 16，000-volt power line. In this way， he was able to solve the mystery. The explanation was simple but very unusual. A bird had snatched up the snake from the ground and then dropped it on to the wires. The snake then wound itself round the wires. When it did so， it sent sparks down to the ground and these immediately started a fire.

　　New words and expressions 生詞和短語

　　hot adj. 帶電的，充電的

　　fireman n. 消防隊員

　　cause v. 引起; n. 原因

　　examine v. 檢查

　　accidentally adv. 意外地，偶然地

　　remains n. 尸體，殘骸

　　wire n. 電線

　　volt n. 伏特(電壓單位)

　　power line 電力線

　　solve v. 解決

　　mystery n. 謎

　　snatch v. 抓住

　　spark n. 電火花

　　參考譯文

　　消防隊員們終于撲滅了加利福尼亞的一場森林大火。從那時起，他們一直試圖找出起火的原因。森林火災時常由破碎的玻璃或人們隨手扔掉的香煙頭引起。昨天，消防隊員仔細查看了地面，但未能發現碎玻璃。他們還十分肯定火災也不是由煙頭引起的。然而今天上午，一個消防隊員偶然發現了起火的原因。他發現了纏繞在16，000伏高壓線上的一條死蛇。就這樣，他解開了起火之謎。解釋很簡單，卻異乎尋常。一只鳥把蛇從地上抓起來，然后把它扔到了電線上。于是蛇就纏住了幾根電線。當它這樣做時，把火花送到了地面，這些火花立刻引起了一場大火。

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