Mr.James Scott has a garage in Silbury and now he has just bought another garage in Pinhurst. 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. Yesterday, a pigeon carried the first message from Pinhurst to Silbury. The bird covered the distance in three minutes. Up to now, Mr.Scott has sent a great many requests for spare parts and other urgent messages from one garage to the other. In this way, he has begun his own private 'telephone' service.
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. 平赫斯特离锡尔伯里只有5英里，但詹姆斯·斯科特先生未能为他新的汽车修理部搞到一部电话机，所以他买了12只鸽子。
（1）这句话由3个部分组成。but引导的句子与前面的句子为并列关系，so引导的句子表示结果。
（2）from 在这里表示距离上相隔，译为“离”、“从”等：
The school is a mile (away) from my house.
学校离我家有一英里。
She has been away from home for 5 days now.
她离家已有5天了。
2．Yesterday, a pigeon carried the first message from Pinhurst to Silbury. 昨天，一只鸽子把第一封信从平赫斯特带到锡尔伯里。
（1）from…to…表示从一个地方到另一个地方。如下文中的from one garage to the other。这个短语中顺序比较重要，不能搞错方向：
He flew from Beijing to Moscow.
他从北京坐飞机去莫斯科。
He looked at the girl from head to foot.
他把这姑娘从头到脚打量了一下。
The news spread from house to house.
家家户户都得知了这条消息。
（2）message在这里的意思是“（口头或书面的）信息”、“信”：
an oral/ written message 口信／便条
Hers is a message for you from your sister.
这是你姐姐／妹妹给你留的便条。
John has gone to his office. Would you like to leave him a message?
约翰去办公室了。你愿意给他留个口信吗？
与message相关的另一个词是 messenger，意为“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.
到目前为止，斯科特先生从一个汽车修理部向另一个发送了大量索取备件的信件和其他紧急函件。
（1）这句话看起来很长，但却是个简单句。sent有两个宾语，一是requests，二是messages。from one garage to the other是整个句子的状语。
（2）up to now相当于until／till now，意思是“迄今”、“到目前为止”，一般与现在完成时连用：
Up to now, he has not been very hard-working.
到目前为止，他一直不是很用功。
Up to now, he has collected a good number of stamps.
到目前为止，他已收集了许多邮票。
（3）request作名词“要求”、“请求”讲时，往往需要补充说明其内容，如课文中 requests for spare parts（索取备件的信件）。
She sent a request for help to Gary.
她向加里请求帮助。
He granted my request for more time.
他同意了我延长时间的请求。
（4）a great many在这句话中为形容词短语。many单独使用时前面不加a，但加了great/ good等形容词后，前面要加 a，动词用复数形式：
A great many trees were destroyed in the storm.
好多树在这场暴风雨中被毁坏了。
a great many还可以作代词短语用：
He has read a great many of the books in this room.
这房间的书他好多都读过了。
4．In this way, he has begun his own private‘telephone’ service.
（2）在课文中，service的意思是“业务”、“公用事业”等。这类用法一般有： the mail service（邮政业务）； the telephone service（电话业务）；a travel service（旅行社）；a news service（通讯社）等。可以看出，service既可以指公用事业的业务，也可以指办这些业务的机构。因此，课文中的“‘ telephone’service”实际上是个大词，有一种幽默感。
很不錯~支持
Thank you !
