2006广东高考英语阅读题及译文

（A）Scientific experiments can sometimes go wrong and when they do the results may range from the disastrous to the troubling. One such experiment took place in South America about fifty years ago. Whether its final consequences will cause serious damage or nothing more than a small trouble still remains to be seen.The story began in 1956 when an American scientist working in Brazil decided to solve the problem of increasing the productivity of that country’s bees. He imported a very active type of African bee from Tanzania and mated (交配) it with the more easy-going native variety to produce a new kind of bees. The new bees worked harder and produced twice as much honey. It seemed that Professor Kerr, for that was the scientist’s name, had a total success on his hands.Then things began to go wrong. For some reason as yet unseen, but perhaps as a result of something in their environment, the new bees began to develop extremely attacking personalities. They became bad-tempered and easy to be angry, attacked the native bees and drove them from their living places.But worse was to follow. Having taken over the countryside, the new bees, with their dangerous stings (叮) , began to attack its neighbors—cats, dogs, horses, chickens and finally man himself. A long period of terror began that has so far killed a great number of animals and about 150 human beings.This would have been bad enough if the bees had stayed in Brazil. But now they are on the move, heading northwards in countless millions towards Central and North America, and moving at the alarming speed of 200 miles a year. The countries that lie in their path are naturally worried because it looks as if nothing can be done to stop them.科学实验有时候会是错误的，当它们做出结果的时候也许可能从灾难性到令人烦恼的。

一个这样的实验大约在50年前发生在南美洲。

究竟它的最后结果会造成严重损坏，还是只不过是一个一个小小的麻烦，这还是未知的。

这个故事发生在1956年，那时候一个美国科学家在巴西工作，他决定去解决这个国家的蜜蜂生产问题。

他从坦桑尼亚引入了一种非常活跃的蜜蜂然后让它和本土的更加温和的蜜蜂交配来产出一种新的蜜蜂。

新的蜜蜂工作非常勤奋，能生产出两倍的蜂蜜。

似乎Kerr教授，因着这是个科学家的名字，把彻底的成功握在手里。

接着事情开始出现问题了。

由于已经在整个农村散播，这些有着危险的刺的新的蜜蜂，开始袭击它们的邻居——猫，狗，马，鸡，最后是人。

一段长时间的恐怖开始了，到目前为止已经死了许多的动物和大约150个人。

如果这些蜜蜂停留在巴西的话，情况已经够坏了。

但是现在它们以数百万的数目在朝向北方移动，去往美洲中部和北部，而且移动速度令人担忧，达到了200英里每年。

在它们路上的国家现在自然很担忧，因为看起来似乎没有什么能够阻止它们。

（B）He’s an old cobbler (修鞋匠) with a shop in the Marais, a historic area in Paris. When I took him my shoes, he at first told me, “I haven’t time. Take them to the other fellow on the main street; he’ll fix them for you right away.”But I’d had my eye on his shop for a long time. Just looking at his b ench loadedwith tools and pieces of leather, I knew he was a skilled craftsman(手艺人). “No,”I replied, “the other fellow can’t do it well.”“The other fellow” was one of those shopkeepers who fix shoes and make keys “while-U-wait” —without knowing much about mending shoes or making keys. They work carelessly, and when they have finished sewing back a sandal strap (鞋带) you might as well just throw away the pair.My man saw I wouldn’t give in, and he smiled. He wiped his hands on his blue apron(围裙), looked at my shoes, had me write my name on one shoe with a piece of chalk an d said, “Come back in a week.”I was about to leave when he took a pair of soft leather boots off a shelf.“See what I can do?” he said with pride. “Only three of us in Paris can do this kind of work. ”When I got back out into the street, the world seemed brand-new to me. He was something out of an ancient legend, this old craftsman with his way of speaking familiarly, his very strange, dusty felt hat, his funny accent from who-knows-where and, above all, his pride in his craft.These are times when nothing is important but the bottom line, when you can do things any old way as long as it “pays”, when, in short, people look on work as a path to ever-increasing consumption(消费) rather than a way to realize their own abilities. In such a period it is a rare comfort to find a cobbler who gets his greatest satisfaction from pride in a job well done.他是一个老修鞋匠，店开在一个巴黎的历史名区玛莱。

当我把我的鞋子拿给他的时候，他一开始告诉我：“我没有时间。

把他拿去在中央街的那个伙计那儿吧，他会立马帮你修的。

”但是我一直看着他的店子。

只是看着他放慢工具和皮革的长凳。

我知道他是一个纯熟的手艺人。

“不，”我说，“其他人不能做好。

”“那个伙计”是那些“当你等着”的时候帮你修鞋盒配钥匙的店主。

他们干活不细心，当他们缝完一个凉鞋的鞋带的时候你也许会把鞋子扔掉。

那个修鞋师傅看见我不会放弃，于是他笑了。

他在他的蓝色围裙上擦了手，看着我的鞋子，让我把名字用粉笔写一只鞋子上，然后说：“一周之后回来拿吧。

”我将要走的时候，他突然从架子上拿出一双软皮靴子。

“看见我在做什么吗？”他自豪地说。

“在巴黎只有三个人可以干这个活。

”当我走回街上的时候，世界在我看起来似乎是崭新的。

他是从古时传说中出来的，这个老匠人不拘礼节的说话方式，他的奇怪的、感觉布满灰尘的帽子，他的谁知道哪里来的滑稽的口音，还有，最重要的，他对他手艺的自豪。

有些时候只有底线再是最重要的，这些时候只要能赚到钱，你可以用陈旧的方式去做事；这些时候，简而言之，人们把工作看成是增加消费的途径，而不是实现他们能力的方式。