Lesson24 A Swimming Test
Once upon a time, there was a boy named Stephen. Stephen had read a lot of

books about ships and their voyages and he was fascinated by them. When he

was sixteen, he decided that he wanted to become a navy officer, so he went

to navy school.
One day the teachers informed the students that they are going to have

swimming and diving lessons. Stephen arrived at the pool the next morning

with the other students. He was looking forward to learning to swim.
The teacher commanded those who could not swim to go into one group, those

who could swim but not dive properly to go into a second group, and those

who could both swim and dive well to go into a third one. Stephen went into

the second group.
The teacher then told the students in the second group to go down into the

swimming pool and swim to the other end. Stephen climbed down the steps, but

as soon as he began to swim, he sank. When he did not come up again, the

alarmed teacher jumped in and dragged him out of the water. Then the teacher

said to Stephen, 'Why ever didn't you join the group that can't swim?'
'Because I'd never even bathed in a pool before,' Stephen answered, 'so I

didn't know whether I could swim or not.'

navy 海军
command 向……发布命令

游泳测试
从前，有个男孩叫斯蒂芬。他看了很多关于船只和航海的书，对这些很着迷。
十六岁时，他决心成为一名海军军官，因此上了海军学校。
一天，老师告知学生他们将要学习游泳和潜水。斯蒂芬第二天早晨和其他同学到了游泳

池。他心中很盼望学习游泳。
老师命令不会游泳的学生组成第一组，会游泳但不大会潜水的到第二组，游泳和潜水都

好的到第三组。斯蒂芬加入到了第二组。
然后老师让第二组的学生进泳池从一头游到另一头。斯蒂芬顺阶而下，但刚开始游泳，

就沉了下去。眼看他不再浮出水面，惊慌的老师跳下去把他从水中拉了上来。接着老师

问他：“你为什么不加入到不会游泳的那一组呢？”
“因为之前我从未进过泳池，”斯蒂芬答道，“所以我也不知道自己会不会游泳。