Successful operation

【课文】

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.

【课文翻译】

死于公元前800年的一位埃及妇女的木乃伊刚刚接受了一次手术。这是曾在底比斯神殿里当过歌手的赛潘姆特的木乃伊。由于在给这个木乃伊拍摄的X光片子上有点奇怪的斑点，所以，医生们一直试图搞清这位妇女是否死于一种罕见的疾病。搞清的唯一办法就是手术。手术持续了4个多小时，非常难做，因为皮肤上覆盖着一层硬硬的树脂。医生们从木乃伊身上取下一个切片，送去化验。他们还发现了X光片所没有显示的东西：一个蜡制的杜瓦木特夫神小塑像。这种牛头人身的神像通常被放在木乃伊体内。医生们至今还未确定这位妇女的死因。他们曾担心在把木乃伊切开后，它会散成碎片，但幸运得很，这种情况并未发生。这具木乃伊成功地经受了这次手术。

【生词汇总】

mummy n. 木乃伊

Egyptian adj. 埃及的

temple n. 庙

mark n. 斑点

plate n. (照相)底片

disease n. 疾病

last v. 持续

prove v. 显示出

resin n. 树脂

skin n. 皮肤

section n. 切片

figure n. (人的)体形;人像

normally adv. 通常地

survive v. 幸免于

【知识点讲解】

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

死于公元前800年的一位埃及妇女的木乃伊刚刚接受了一次手术。

mummy [n]木乃伊，干尸

在小孩口语中也可表示妈妈，但美式英语多写作mommy。

operation [n]手术;运转，操作

① 表示手术时的短语有 give an operation on sb. 给某人做手术 have an operation on sb. 给某人做手术 undergo an operation 接受一项手术

② 表示运作，操作时的短语有 in operation 操作中;运转中 come/be into operation 生效;开始实行 bring sth. into operation (使某事物)生效，起作用

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

他在接受一项肺移植手术。

When will these regulations come into operation?

这些条例何时生效?

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

这是曾在底比斯神殿里当过歌手的赛潘姆特的木乃伊。

that of 这里的that指代前面的the mummy，避免与前面重复。在比较状语从句中，指代特定的事物时，通常用that或those来指代前面提到的事物，使整个人句子更加简洁明了。that of和those of一般用于比较正式的句子中。例如：

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

美国的经济比日本繁荣很多。

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

由于在给这个木乃伊拍摄的X光片子上有点奇怪的斑点。

① mark 表示斑点、标记 其他意思类似的还有sign，signal，symbol。它们的主要区别如下：

mark 很显眼的标记，一般是指可用眼睛直接看到的。

symbol 一般指象征意义上的标志，可以是实物，也可能是虚有的。

sign 指人们公认事物的记号，也可指某种情况的征兆。

signal 指为某一目的而有意发出的信号。

② plate (照相用的)感光底片;玻璃感光片

take the plate of 给……拍底片

在课文中，plates taken of the mummy 这里是过去分词taken做后置定语修饰plates。

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

医生们一直试图搞清这位妇女是否死于一种罕见的疾病。

① have been trying 这是一个现在完成进行时动作

② 该句子为whether引导的宾语从句。if或whether引导宾语从句时，作“是否”讲，常放在动词ask 、see 、say 、know和find out等后面。一般情况下，两者常可换用，在口语中多用if。

I don't know whether it will rain tomorrow.

我不知道明天是否会下雨。

if和whether引导宾语从句时要注意以下几个方面：

a. whether或if不能和that 或其它连词(副词)同时使用，也不能省去。例如：

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

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

b. whether或if引导的宾语从句时，虽具有疑问意义，但从句语序应用陈述句语序。例如：

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

c. whether /if引导的宾语从句应和主句的时态保持一致。即主句为一般现在时，从句用任一种时态;主句为一般过去时，从句则用过去时中的任一种时态。具体如上例。

在某些情况下，从句中用whether还是if要看具体情况。

if和whether的区别：

A 在动词不定式之前只能用whether 。如：

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

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 在介词后，只能用whether。如：

His father is worried about whether he lose his work . 他的父亲担心是否会失去工作。

D 宾语从句放在句首表示强调时，只能用whether 。如：

Whether they can finish the work on time is still a problem . 他们是否能准时完成这项工作还是个问题。

E 用if会引起歧义时，只用whether。如：

Could you tell me if you know the answer?

这句话有两种意思：“你能告诉我是否知道答案吗?”或“如果你知道答案，请告诉我，好吗?”如用whether可避免歧义。

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

手术持续了4个多小时。

这个句子中，last表示持续，与此类似的词还有stay，keep等。这三个词的区别在于：

last作系动词，表示持续一段时间。它既可以单独使用，也可以在后面接表示时间的词。例如：

I believe that the bad whether won't last. 我相信这坏天气不会持续下去的。

stay也可作系动词，后面可接形容词、副词、名词、介词短语等，表示保持某种状态。例如：

I have been stayed awake for a whole night. 我已经失眠整整一晚上了!

keep作实义动词，表示继续、处于……状态，后接名词、代词、副词或现在分词。例如：

Why did you keep me waiting outside for such a long time? 为什么让我在外面等这么久?!

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