An Exciting Trip 课文讲解，附后
一、原文
I have just received a letter from my brother, Tim. He is in Australia. He has been there for six months. Tim is an engineer. He is working for a big firm and he has already visited a great number of different places in Australia. He has just bought an Australian car and has gone to Alice Springs, a small town in the centre of Australia. He will soon visit Darwin. From there, he will fly to Perth. My brother has never been abroad before, so he is finding this trip very exciting.
二、译文
我刚刚收到弟弟蒂姆的来信，他正在澳大利亚。他在那儿已经住了6个月了。蒂姆是个工程师，正在为一家大公司工作，并且已经去过澳大利亚的不少地方了。他刚 买了一辆澳大利亚小汽车，现在去了澳大利亚中部的小镇艾利斯斯普林斯。他不久还将到达尔文去，从那里，他再飞往珀斯。我弟弟以前从未出过国，因此，他觉得 这次旅行非常激动人心。
三、本课重要知识点
1．He is working for a big firm and he has already visited a great number of different places in Australia. 他正在为一家大公司工作，并且已经去过澳大利亚的不少地方了。
（1） work for… 在……上班／任职
表达“上班”这个意思时还可以说work at：
She works at a department store.
她在一家百货商店上班。
（2）a number of只能接可数名词的复数形式。通常，number前有great, large, good, small, certain等形容词，数量大小也随之改变：
A large/ great number of our students are Danish.
我们的学生中有许多是丹麦人。
There are a small number of spelling mistakes in your homework.
你的家庭作业里有少数几个拼写错误。
2．He will soon visit Darwin. 他不久还将到达尔文去。
will 表示将来要发生的事。这句话的时态是一般将来时。（cf. 第12课语法）下一句话From there, he will fly to Perth也是一般将来时。
3．My brother has never been abroad before, so he is finding this trip very exciting.
我弟弟以前从未出过国，因此，他觉得这次旅行非常激动人心。
（1）这句话由两个简单句组成，后一句由连词so引导，为表示结果的状语从句。
（2）find作“发现”、“发觉”讲时宾语往往带补足语（一般为形容词），说明宾语的状况、性质等：
I find the film very interesting.
我觉得这电影很有趣。
She found Tom's room very dirty.
她发现汤姆的房间非常脏。
She has already found herself wrong.
她已经发现自己错了。
需要注意的是，find一词很少用于进行时态，一般用于过去时、完成时及一般现在时等。
