Lesson 9   A cold welcome

   On Wednesday evening, we went to the Town Hall. It was the last day of the year and a large crowd of people had gathered under the Town Hall clock. It would strike twelve in twenty minutes' time. Fifteen minutes passed and then, at five to twelve, the clock  stopped. The big minute hand did not move. We waited and waited, but nothing happened. Suddenly someone shouted, ‘It's two minutes past twelve! The clock  has stopped!" I looked at my watch. It was true. The big clock refused to welcome the New Year. At that moment, everybody began to laugh and sing.

星期三的晚上，我们去了市政厅。 那是一年的最后一天，一大群人聚集在市政厅的大钟下面。再过20分钟，大钟将敲响12下。15分钟过去了，而就在11点55分时，大钟停了。那根巨大的分针不动了。 我们等啊等啊，可情况没有变化。突然有人喊道：“已经12点零2分了！那钟已经停了！”我看了一下我的手表，果真如此。那座大钟不愿意迎接新年。此时，大家已经笑了起来，同时唱起了歌。

录音

Grammar

时间介词：at, on, in, during等

介词 on多用在具体某天或节日等特定的时间;介词in多用在年，月，季节等一段时间前;介词 at多用在具体的时间点或短暂的时间前：by多用于表示“在…之前” “直到……时候”：during经常表示在某一段特定时间内

小口诀：in年in月on日at几点钟

Exercises.

1. He will leave for Beijing __________April 4th and come back __________ June.

A. in; on   B. on; on   C. in; in   D. on; in

2.We will finish the book ___________5 months’ time.

A. in   B. on   C. for   D. at

1. 解析：本题考查时间介词，第一空为日期，第二空为月份，根据小口诀：in年in月on日，所以答案选D。

2. 解析：will表示将要，使用介词in意为：…之后，所以答案为A。