同步拓展阅读：新概念英语第3册第31课
一、往期回顾
【参考答案】
1. There weren’t many cars in the parking lot.
2. To blow out hot air.
3. That someone or a few people were there.
4. It was a calm and cool day without any wind.
5. Seeing what appeared to be people walk past equipment in his peripheral vision but seeing nothing when he would turn around.
二、本期内容
【课文主题】
第31课讲了一个古怪的人（Eccentric）的故事，为此我也选了一篇有关古怪的人的故事。
【拓展阅读】
一、文章内容
Visit any other country, ask what the residents most associate with the British, and one answer is sure to emerge. Somewhere between “tea”, “rain” and “Shakespeare”, you’re likely to hear “eccentrics” – and with good reason, as few nations have produced so many. Here are three of the most notable.
Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839)
The niece of British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, Lady Hester was among the first Europeans to explore Syria and Lebanon. A failed romance made her abandon the British shores and in 1813 she rode into Palmyra dressed as an Arab warrior, where she was hailed “queen of the desert”. In her wanderings around the desert she built up a following, and soon she began to believe in her royalty, retreating to a hilltop fort where she received local Sheikhs.
Her life was carried to greater extremes as she began to study alchemy. Soon, her debts mounted, the British government cut off her pension, and her influence waned, before she had her servants brick her into her “palace” vowing never to communicate with the outside world again.
John Mytton (1796-1834)
John “Mad Jack” Mytton began life as he meant to go on, securing expulsion from Westminster School for assaulting a master. The Shropshire landowner soon found his true vocation as one of the most notorious rakes of the Regency era.
His exploits included setting fire to his own shirt to cure hiccups; riding a horse up a hotel’s grand staircase and onto the balcony before jumping down over diners in the restaurant below and coming to dinner riding on a bear.
William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland (1800-1879)
Few recluses have guarded their seclusion as seriously as the Duke of Portland. He turned his estate, Welbeck Abbey, into a honeycomb of underground rooms and passages, including a one-and-a-half-mile tunnel that could spirit him off the grounds without being seen.
His valet was allegedly the only person allowed to see him in person, with all other contact being via two mailboxes in his private rooms.
【词汇注释】
1. resident：居民
2. emerge：出现
3. notable：著名的
4. romance：爱情
5. warrior：战士
6. hail：欢呼
7. royalty：王室成员
8. Sheikh：酋长；族长
9. alchemy：炼金术
10. wane：衰弱
11. vow：发誓
12. expulsion：驱逐
13. assault：袭击
14. notorious：臭名昭著的
15. rake：放荡的男人
16. regency：摄政
17. exploit：引人注目的行为
18. hiccup：打嗝
19. recluse：隐士
20. seclusion：隐居
21. honeycomb：蜂巢
22. valet：男仆
二、阅读题目
根据短文内容，判断下列句子对（T）错（F）：
1. In 1813, Lady Hester left Britain for Palmyra on a honeymoon holiday.
2. Lady Hester built up a following in a fort on a hilltop.
3. Lady Hester’s influenced decreased because of the shortage of fund.
4. John Mytton once rode a bear onto the balcony of a hotel.
5. The Duke of Portland allowed no one to see him in person.
三、参考答案