书城英文图书英国学生文学读本(套装共6册)
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第124章 THE HOUSE I LIVE IN

1.What a wonderful thing our body is!It is far more skilfully formed than any machine that man ever made.How many things the hand can do,for example!It can hold a pen or pencil,or a ball or a cricket bat.It can pull a rope or thread a needle,or do hundreds of other things for me.

2.Look at the black-smith ,how easily he wields his heavy

hammer,and how firmly his hand grasps the handle.This shows how strong the hand is,and how well it can do heavy work for us.

3.Look at the blind man,how cleverly his hand moves about among the things he isworking with.His fingers are his eyes,and by gently touching anything he knows all about it almost as well as if he were looking at it.His books are printed in raised letters,and by feeling these letters he reads withhis fingers almost as well as you can do with your eyes.

4.This wonderful body of mine is the house in which I live.It is not me,it is only my house.This house has five gates,through which messages from the outside world can get in to me.There is Eye Gate,and Ear Gate,and Nose Gate,and Taste Gate,and Touch Gate.All my knowledge of the things around me has come in through these five gates.

5.This house of mine has,in its lower story ,akitchen called the stomach,where the food is cooked (or “digested,”as we call it)and prepared for being mixed with the blood.In the story above,there is a great pump,the heart,which sends the blood through the house,to keep it warm and in good repair .

6.Then in the top story,or the head,is the room where I,the master or mistress of the house,live.It is my part to keep everything right in my house,and to see that nothing goes out of order.

7.The wise master or mistress of a house will take care of it.When people are young,they do not know how to do this,and they are not fit to have a house of their own.But they learn many things about it at school and at home.A boy learns to work for his house when he is a man,and a girl learns to keep a house in order.Story,flat;floor.Repair,good order.

8.It is exactly the same with the body-the house in which each of us dwells.We must learn all we can about this house,and what we should do to keep it right.We must learn how to keep the body in good health;we must find out what is bad for it and what is good,that we may keep from the one and seek the other.

9.By heeding these lessons,we may hope to grow up into strong and healthy men and women.Good health will cheer us,and make all our work easy and pleasant.Let us learn,then,some of the lessons which are needed in order to keep ourselves in good health.