Mr.James Scott has a garage in Silbury and now he has just bought another garage in Pinhurst.

garage ^{n. 车库, 车行（英美读音不同）}

Pinhurst is only five miles from Silbury, but Mr. Scott cannot get a telephone for his new garage, so he has just bought twelve pigeons.

get a telephone ^{得到电话(安装电话)}

1. This company installs phones for businesses.
2. We need to set up the phone in the new office.
3. The technician will connect the phone lines tomorrow.
4. I activated the new phone line yesterday.
5. The IT team will deploy the phones throughout the building.
6. The electrician hooked up the phones to the main system.
7. He configured the phone system to work with our network.
8. They mounted the phone on the wall in the conference room.

Yesterday, a pigeon carried the first message from Pinhurst to Silbury.

from…to… ^{表示从一个地方到另一个地方}

• He looked at the girl from head to foot.
• The news spread from house to house. 家家户户都得知了这条消息。

The bird covered the distance in three minutes.

cover the distance ^{飞过那段距离}

• The searchers spread out to cover the area faster. ^{搜索人员分散开来，好更快地搜索这一地区。}
• It took three applications of paint to cover the graffiti. ^{刷了三道油漆才盖住了涂鸦。}
• Leftover food and unwashed dishes cover the dirty counters. ^{剩饭和没洗的盘子铺满了肮脏的台面。}

虽然 in two days’ time = in two days (大多数情况下)，但若表示“用了多长时间”只用“in + 一段时间” ，之后不能出现所有格's。

• The bird covered the distance in three minutes. ^{花了多久时间}
• The bird covered the distance in three minutes’ time. ^X

Up to now, Mr.Scott has sent a great many requests for spare parts and other urgent messages from one garage to the other.

up to now ^{直到现在为止}

• Up to now he's been very quiet.^{到目前为止，他一直很安静。}
• Up to now, he has not been very hard-working. ^{到目前为止，他一直不是很用功。}
• Up to now, the bank has revised its estimate very little. ^{至今为止，世行对此估计修改甚少。}
• Up to now, we have finished three tasks. ^{到目前为止，我们已经完成了三项任务。}

到目前为止，到现在为止(作时间状语，时态多用现在完成时，相当于 until / till now),现在的之前，持续到现在，所以要用现在完成时。

request for ^{对…的需求}

• They made a request for further aid. ^{他们要求再给一些帮助。}
• I also put in a request for some overtime. ^{我也提交了加班申请。}
• As for the organization itself, it declined a request for an interview. ^{至于该组织本身，它拒绝了采访的要求。}

a great many ^{(可数名词复数) 许多…大量…}

• A great many trees were destroyed in the storm. ^{做形容词短语}
• A great many students took part in the activity. ^{很多学生参加了这次活动。}

urgent ^{adj. 紧急的}

• something urgent ^{紧急的事情}

上一课: Lesson 4 An exciting trip

• a (great / large) number of ... + 可数名词复数
• a great deal of ... + 不可数名词

In this way, he has begun his own private 'telephone' service.

• Each year, hundreds of animals are killed in this way. ^{每年，数百只动物就是这样被杀死的。}
• He performed in this way for many years. ^{他就这样表演了很多年。}
• In this way the stories were passed along. ^{故事就这样流传下去。}