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Then, instead of having someone answering the phone all day, people can ring up the railway station and listen to a tape recording of the information.

然后，人們可以打電話到火車站，從錄音電話中獲取信息，而不要安排一個專人整天接電話。

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What is more, this information line operates 24 hours a day.

而且，這種"問訊線路每天工作24小時。

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What Caused The Fire ?

是什么引發了火災？

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A navy ship was in a port in Scotland for repairs.

一艘軍艦停靠在蘇格蘭的一個碼頭等待維修。

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It was important to carry out the work quickly, so an extra team of men were asked to work on the repairs one evening.

因為盡快投入修理工作顯得十分重要，于是一天晚上加派了一支工作隊來參加維修工作。

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They had to work inside the ship, cutting away old metal, fixing new metal plates, drilling holes, laying electrical and phone wires and fixing new pipes for water and steam.

他們要在船艙里工作，切掉舊的金屬，焊接新的金屬板，鉆孔，埋電線和電話線以及安裝新的水管和蒸汽管。

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The team started work on a new section inside the ship near the front.

工作隊在靠近船頭的船艙里的一段新區開始工作。

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One man was told to fix up an air-line to provide compressed air for the machines they were using.

有個工人被派去安裝"供氣管"，給他們正在使用的機器提供壓縮空氣。

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It took him some time to connect the long rubber pipe to the air supply pipe that ran round the port, but at last it was done and as a result work was able to progress much faster.

他花了不少時間把長長的橡膠管接到鋪設在碼頭周圍的空氣供應管上，最后他終于把它們連接起來，工作因而進展得更快。

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After three hours, the men stopped for a meal break.

3小時之后，工人們停下來吃飯。

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When work continued, one man lit a cigarette as he was working, but, finding it had a strange taste, he put it out.

隨后他們繼續干活，一個工人在干活時點燃了一支香煙?？墒撬X得有一股怪味，他就把煙滅了。

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Another man lit a cigarette but it burnt strangely and so he too put it out.

另一個工人點燃一支煙，但煙燃得怪怪的，于是他也把煙滅了。

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Half an hour later, another man struck a match for a cigarette and this time the whole of the inside of the ship caught fire.

半小時后，又一個工人擦亮火柴想點支香煙，這下整個船艙都起了火。

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As quickly as they could, the men ran to th steps and up into the open, many of them with their clothes on fire.

工人們盡快朝樓梯跑去，爬上樓梯跑出艙外，其中好多人衣服已經著火了。

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Most of them were able to climb out in time. However four men were not quick enough to escape the flames.

大部分工人能夠及時逃生?？墒怯?個工人來不及逃離火場。

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Their burnt bodies were found later.

后來只找到他們被燒焦的尸體。

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It did not take the firefighters long to put out the fire, and they at once started to look for causes of the fire.

消防隊員沒花多時間就把大火撲滅了，他們馬上開始調查火災發生的原因。

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They were puzzled by several things.

有幾件事情使他們感到迷惑不解。

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There had been fuel on the ship, but this did not appear to have caused the fire, and little smoke was produced.

很顯然，船艙里已經發生了一場烈火，但是船艙內壁卻完好無損。船上存放著汽油，但火災似乎不是它引起的，因為沒有冒出什么煙來。

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The man who had been working on the repairs mentioned the curious way their cigarettes burned and tasted.

一直在干修理工作的人提起了他們的香煙點燃時奇怪的樣子以及怪怪的味道。

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The fire service began to wonder whether a gas might have caused the fire.

消防部門開始懷疑有一種氣體可能會導致火災。

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The question was, which one?

問題是，哪一種氣體導致火災呢？

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It must have been a gas that could burn but that would not explode, a gas that did not smell strong, and a gas that did not kill people.

它一定是一種能夠燃燒而不能爆炸的氣體，一種味道不很強的而且不使人致死的氣體。

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The man who had fixed up the air-line was also questioned.

安裝供氣管的那位工人也被提問。

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He explained that he had tried to fix the air-line to the supply line that ran round the port but could not because the fittings did not match.

他解釋說他想供氣管安裝到鋪設在碼頭周圍的供應管上，但因為接頭不相配而接不上。

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So he had gone to the stores and had obtained a fixture that fitted both the tap on the supply line and the end of the air-line.

所以他就到倉庫找到一個既適合供應管也適合供氣管的接頭。

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Once he had done this, he had been able to turn on the supply.

一旦他接上了接頭，他就能夠打開供氣閥。

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They then knew that they had discovered the cause of the fire.

這時調查人員知道他們找到了發生火災的原因了。

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The man had connected the air-line to a supply line of oxygen, not compressed air.

這個工人把供氣管接到了氧氣供應管上，而不是接到壓縮空氣管上。

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Oxygen is widely used in ship repairs for cutting and joining metal plates or pipes.

在船舶修理過程中，常常使用氧氣切割和焊接金屬板或金屬管。