Lesson 43  Over the South Pole

  In 1929, three years after his flight over the North Pole, the American explorer, R.E. Byrd, successfully flew over the South Pole for the first time. Though, at first, Byrd and his men were able to take a great many photographs of the mountains that lay below, they soon ran into serious trouble. At one point, it seemed certain that their plane would crash. It could only get over the mountains if it rose to 10,000 feet. Byrd at once ordered his men to throw out two heavy food sacks. The plane was then able to rise and it cleared the mountains by 400 feet. Byrd now knew that he would be able to reach the South Pole which was 300 miles away, for there were no more mountains in sight. The aircraft was able to fly over the endless white plains without difficulty.

美国探险家 R.E. 伯德在飞越北极3年之后，于1929年第一次飞越了南极。虽然开始时伯德和他的助手们拍下了飞机下面连绵群山的大量照片，但他们很快就陷入了困境。在有个地方，飞机似乎肯定要坠毁了。只有在飞至10,000英尺的高度时，它才能飞过这些山头。伯德马上命令他的助手们把两个沉重的食物袋扔掉，于是飞机可以上升了，它在离山头400英尺的高度飞越了过去。伯德这时知道他能够顺利飞抵300英里以外的南极了，因为前面再没有山了。飞机可以毫无困难地飞过这片茫茫无际的白色原野！

录音

Grammar

can, could, be able to的用法。

be able to意为“能够做某事”，有时可与can, could互换；但是can，could 只能表示一般现在时与一般过去时，而be able to可用于各种时态

Exercises.

1. He said he had lost his passport(护照) and hadn’t __________ leave the country.

A. been able to    B. be able to    C. could    D. can

2. Luckily, he __________ escape from the big fire in the end.

A. should    B. must    C. are able to    D. could

1. 解析：本题考查be able to的过去完成时，所以答案为A。

2. 解析：本题考查can的过去式could的用法，表示“能够”所以答案选D。