1. 新概念二冊課文77
《新概念英語》第二冊第77課: Successful operation
【課文】
First listen and then answer the question.
聽錄音，然後回答以下問題。
Did the doctors find out how the woman died?
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】
死於公元前800年的一位埃及婦女的木乃伊剛剛接受了一次手術。這是曾在底比斯神殿里當過歌手的賽潘姆特的木乃伊。由於在給這個木乃伊拍攝的X光片子上有點奇怪的斑點，所以，醫生們一直試圖搞清這位婦女是否死於一種罕見的疾病。搞清的唯一辦法就是手術。手術持續了4個多小時，非常難做，因為皮膚上覆蓋著一層硬硬的樹脂。醫生們從木乃伊身上取下一個切片，送去化驗。他們還發現了X光片所沒有顯示的東西：一個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。醫生們至今還未確定這位婦女的死因。他們曾擔心在把木乃伊切開後，它會散成碎片，但幸運得很，這種情況並未發生。這具木乃伊成功地經受了這次手術。
【生詞彙總】
mummy n. 木乃伊
Egyptian adj. 埃及的
temple n. 廟
mark n. 斑點
plate n. （照相）底片
disease n. 疾病
last v. 持續
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. 倖免於