1．Pinhurst is only five miles from Silbury, but Mr. Scott cannot get a telephone for his new garage, so he has just bought twelve　pigeons.  

這句話由3個部分組成。but引導的句子與前面的句子為并列關系，so引導的句子表示結果。

from 在這里表示距離上相隔，譯為“離”、“從”等：The school is a mile from my house.

She has been away from home for 5 days now.

2．Yesterday, a pigeon carried the first message from Pinhurst to Silbury. 

from…to…表示從一個地方到另一個地方。如下文中的from one garage to the other。這個短語中順序比較重要，不能搞錯方向：He flew from Beijing to Moscow.

He looked at the girl from head to foot.

The news spread from house to house.

message在這里的意思是“信息”、“信”：an oral/ written message

Hers is a message for you from your sister.

John has gone to his office. Would you like to leave him a message?

與message相關的另一個詞是 messenger，意為“送信人”、“信使”等。

3．Up to now, Mr. Scott has sent a great many requests for spare parts and other urgent messages from one garage to the other.  

這句話看起來很長，但卻是個簡單句。sent有兩個賓語，一是requests，二是messages。from one garage to the other是整個句子的狀語。

up to now相當于until／till now，意思是“迄今”、“到目前為止”，一般與現在完成時連用：Up to now, he has not been very hard-working.

Up to now, he has collected a good number of stamps.

request作名詞“要求”、“請求”講時，往往需要補充說明其內容，如課文中 requests for spare parts。She sent a request for help to Gary.

He granted my request for more time.

a great many在這句話中為形容詞短語。many單獨使用時前面不加a，但加了great/ good等形容詞后，前面要加 a：A great many trees were destroyed in the storm.

a great many還可以作代詞短語用：He has read a great many of the books in this room.

4．In this way, he has begun his own private 'telephone' service.   

service作為不可數名詞時通常用于表示旅館、餐館以及商店等對旅客、顧客等的侍候、接待或服務；它作為可數名詞時可以表示為幫助他人所采取的行動或所做的工作：

The service in that hotel is quite good.

You have done me a great service.

在課文中，service的意思是“業務”、“公用事業”等。這類用法一般有： the mail service； the telephone service；a travel service；a news service等。可以看出，service既可以指公用事業的業務，也可以指辦這些業務的機構。因此，課文中的“'telephone' service”實際上是個大詞，有一種幽默感。

1．一般過去時與現在完成時

在表示過去某個特定時間發生的事情或動作時，要用一般過去時：Yesterday, a pigeon carried the first message from Pinhurst to Silbury.

在表示剛剛或者已經完成一個動作并且對現在有影響時，則要用現在完成時，時間狀語可以是不特指的now, just，或者是for引導的一段時間，或者不加任何時間狀語：He has written a book.

…now he has just bought another garage in Pinhurst.

在一段文章中可以同時出現一般現在時、一般過去時和現在完成時。因此，要根據具體情況靈活運用這些時態，體會它們之間的區別：I have a brother, Tom. He is an engineer. He has been abroad for three years now. Several days ago, I received a letter from him.

2．帶way的一些短語名詞way的用法很靈活，能組成不同的搭配：

in the/ one's way, You are in my way.

Don't stand in the way. I can't see the blackboard.

in the way, You can make the cake in the way I have told you.

on the/ one's way, I met Mary on my way to school.

by the way, By the way, have you met Bill before?

in a way, In a way you are right.