小故事

The Library of Congress
国会图书馆
The Library of Congress is America's national library. It has millions of books and other objects. It has newspapers, popular publications and letters of historical interest. It also has maps, photographs, art prints, movies, sound recordings and musical instruments. All together, it has more than 100 million objects.
国会图书馆是美国的国家图书馆。馆藏数百万册书籍和其他物品，包括报纸、通俗出版物和有历史趣味的信件，还有地图、照片、艺术图片、电影、唱片和乐器。总共有一亿多件物品。
The Library of Congress is open to the public Monday through Saturday, except for government holidays. Anyone may go there and read anything in the collection. But no one is permitted to take books out of the building.
国会图书馆除了政府假期之外，周一至周六都对公众开放。任何人都可以去那儿，阅读其中任何一种读物。但是没有人可以将书带出图书馆。

The Library of Congress was established in 1800. It started with eleven boxes of books in one room of the Capitol Building. By 1814, the collection had increased to about 3,000 books. They were all destroyed that year when the Capitol was burned during America's war with Britain.
国会图书馆始建于1800年。刚开始时它仅在国会大厦内的一个房间里，拥有11箱书。到1814年，藏书增至3000册左右。也就是那一年，在美英战争期间，国会大厦被焚，全部藏书也都付之一炬了。
To help re-build the library, Congress bought the books of President Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson's collection included 7,000 books in seven languages.
为了帮助重建图书馆，国会购买了托马斯·杰弗逊总统的藏书。杰弗逊先生的藏书中包括七种不同语言的7000多册书。

重点讲解

重点讲解：
1. all together
一起；总计；
eg. You should pay six dollars all together.
你一共该付六美元。
eg. All together plunging the united states into the worst economic slump since the 1930s.
所有这一切都使美国陷入自20世纪30年代以来最严重的经济衰退之中。
2. except for
除了；除…之外；唯有；
eg. The composition was well written except for a few spelling mistakes.
作文写得不错，就是有几处拼写错误。
eg. Except for her illnesses, she had had a particularly happy childhood.
除了体弱多病外，她的童年特别幸福。
3. permit to do sth.
允许；准许；
eg. If they appear to be under 12, then the doorman is not allowed to permit them entry to the film.
如果他们看起来不到12岁，门卫不得允许其进入观看该影片。
eg. Employees are permitted to use the golf course during their free hours.
准许雇员在业余时间使用高尔夫球场。