Lesson 54 Sticky fingers

After breakfast, I sent the children to school and then I went to the shops. It was still early when I returned home. The children were at school, my husband was at work and the house was quiet. So I decided to make some meat pies. In a short time I was busy mixing butter and flour and my hands were soon covered with sticky pastry. At exactly that moment, the telephone rang. Nothing could have been more annoying. I picked up the receiver between two sticky fingers and was dismayed when I recognized the voice of Helen Bates. It took me ten minutes to persuade her to ring back later. At last I hung up the receiver. What a mess! There was pastry on my fingers, on the telephone, and on the doorknobs. I had no sooner got back to the kitchen than the doorbell rang loud enough to wake the dead. This time it was the postman and he wanted me to sign for a registered letter!

早饭后，我送孩子们上学，然后就去了商店。我回到家时，时间还早。孩子们在上学，我丈夫在上班，家里清静得很。于是我决定做些肉馅饼。不一会儿我就忙着调拌起了黄油和面粉，很快我的手上就沾满了粘粘的面糊。恰恰在此时，电话铃响了。没有什么能比这更烦人了。我用两个沾满面糊的手指捏起了话筒。当听出是海伦.贝茨的声音时，非常丧气。我用了10分钟的时间才说服她过会儿再来电话。我终于挂上了话筒。真是糟糕透了！我的手指上、电话机上以及门的把手上，都沾上了面糊。我刚回到厨房，门铃又响了起来，响声足以把死人唤醒。这次是邮递员，他要我签收一封挂号信！

Grammar

1. no sooner…than词组用法

2. 复合不定代词使用

no sooner… than…的结构为：no sooner+过去完成时 than + 一般过去时；类似的句式还有：hardly+过去完成时+when+一般过去时。需要注意的是当hardly位于句首时，分句需要倒装。

Exercise

1. No sooner__________I __________ the shop than a man came to me and asked me if my name was Peter.

A.had; left   B. did; left   C. have; left   D. was; left

2.You don’t need to do everything for him. He is__________ to do his own things.

A.enough old   B.too old   C.old enough   D.too much old

解析：1. 答案：A。No sooner…than…词组时态为：No sooner＋过去完成时＋than＋一般过去时，如遇到No sooner放句首，需要进行倒装。

2. 答案：C。enough用法：放在形容词或副词后面，放在名次前面。