Lesson 54: Sticky fingers 粘糊的手指
    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!
    句子講解：
    8、I picked up the receiver between two slicky fingers and was dismayed when I recognized the voice of Helen Bates.
    我用兩個(gè)沾滿面糊的手指捏起了話筒。當(dāng)我聽(tīng)出是海倫.貝茨的聲音時(shí)，我非常沮喪。
    語(yǔ)言點(diǎn) 1) pick sth. up把某物撿起來(lái)
    2) pick sb. up 接某人
    3) pick up領(lǐng)取；自然習(xí)得：Where did you pick up those tricks?你從哪兒學(xué)到的這些騙人的花招？
    9. It took me ten minutes to persuade her to ring back later.
    我花了10分鐘的時(shí)間才說(shuō)服她過(guò)一小會(huì)兒再打電話過(guò)來(lái)。
    語(yǔ)言點(diǎn) 這是一個(gè)典型的it作形式主語(yǔ)的句式結(jié)構(gòu)，真正的主語(yǔ)是to persuade her to ring back later. 原句可改為：To persuade her to ring back later took me ten minutes.很明顯，由不定式構(gòu)成的主語(yǔ)太長(zhǎng)，顯得頭重腳輕。
    10. At last I hung up the receiver.
    我終于掛上了話筒。
    語(yǔ)言點(diǎn) hung up表示“掛線”；而hanged up則是“上吊”。