“Fish stories” are stories of the greatest fish that a fisherman has almost caught, but for some reason, the fish always get away. Usually, these stories do not have much truth to them. One of the biggest fish stories in history was about a whale.
In 1891, a ship hunting for whales in the South Atlantic Ocean found a very large whale. While the hunters were trying to kill the whale, it sank two small boats. One man drowned, and another man, James Bartley, was lost in the ocean. However, after the hunters finally killed the whale, they cut open the whale’s stomach and found Mr Bartley inside. He was not dead!
Several weeks later, Mr Bartley seemed to have gotten over his terrible experience. The only thing he could remember was that while he was inside the whale, it was very hot. The liquid (液體) from the whale’s stomach had turned all of his skin snow white. Mr Bartley had to live with the effect from the whale for the rest of his life.
Today, many people have heard about the strange experience of Mr Bartley and do not buy it. Not one real fact has been found to prove that the events ever took place described by the sailors. No scientist or newspaper reporter was ever able to talk to Mr Bartley, and all of the stories told in magazines about Mr Bartley’s experience were explained by other sailors on the boat. Mr Bartley was probably not even a real person at all.
In 1928, after the captain (船長) of the whaling ship had died, one man asked the captain’s wife about Mr Bartley’s story. The wife said that no man who had sailed on her husband’s ship was ever swallowed by a whale.
However, this has not stopped James Bartley’s story from being repeated, and many people today still believe that it is true.
小題1:What made Mr Bartley’s skin white?
| A．The ocean water. | B．The whale’s teeth. |
| C．The heat inside the whale. | D．The liquid in the whale’s stomach. |
小題2: Who may have talked to Mr Bartley?
| A．A scientist. | B．The captain’s wife. |
| C．The sailors on the ship. | D．A newspaper reporter. |
小題3:The captain’s wife said that
.
| A．the story was not true | B．her husband told her the story |
| C．the whale was never found | D．Mr Bartley didn’t work for her husband |
小題4:Today, many people have heard about the strange experience of Mr Bartley and do not buy it. Here “buy” means
.
小題5: In paragraph 4 and paragraph 5 we may know that Mr Bartley
.
| A．became a writer later | B．died when he was young |
| C．told his story to a magazine reporter | D．was not even a real person at all |
