Today we take for granted that the mail will be delivered __1__

　　daily at our door. But many years ago it might have been

　　placed in a tree trunk and underneath a rock. In the early __2__

　　days of the mail no one could be sure about where or when it will arrive. __3__

　　At the southern tip of Africa there was once a post office

　　under a rock. At the old days the route from England to __4__

　　India was around the Cape of Good Hope. The journey was

　　stormy and danger. It took six long months. Sailors often __5__

　　wished to send mail home, but they seldom met ships bound

　　back to England. So at the cape the sailors would go on

　　ashore. They headed for a certain large stone. On the __6__

　　stone scratched the words “Look here under for letters.” __7__

　　They would leave their letters there, knowing that the

　　next homeward ship would stop and pick it up. __8__

　　There was another post office like this at the southern

　　tip of South America. During the golden rush days, boats __9__

　　sailed around Cape Horn to California. At Cape Horn was

　　a keg(小桶) nailed to a post. Boats coming from the east

　　coast would send some sailors to this post office. They

　　picked up any letters in the keg. At the same time they

　　mailed letters home that boats sail east could pick up. __10__

　　答案及解析：

　　1.take for granted 改為take it for granted. take it for granted that: 想當然認為…，在該結構中，it為形式賓語，that引導的從句才是真正賓語。如：Don’t take it for granted that you are bond to win. 別想當然地以為你注定會贏。

　　2.and 改為or,根據句意知，此處應是選擇關系，而非并列關系。

　　3.will改為would。根據句中In the early days和could 知此句主句時態為一般過去時，故其賓語從句中的將來時應為過去將來時，用would。

　　4.At改為In。at表時間點，如幾時幾刻：at five o’clock, at 10∶30表一段時間用in, 如：in two years, in a week, in a few days,自然此處the old days 前應用in。

　　5.danger 改為dangerous. 由于本句是系數結構，故應用形容詞；況且從修辭上看既然stormy 有“風暴的”是形容詞，后面and 并列的詞性也應是形容詞。故應將danger 名詞改為其形容詞dangerous。

　　6.go on ashore 改為go ashore 或go on shore, ashore 是副詞，意為“上岸，在岸上”。此處“上岸”可用go ashore或go on shore來表達。

　　7.scratched 改為were scratched或they scratched。若用were scratched，則此句為倒裝句，主語是words,用過去時和被動語態。若用they scratched，則words是賓語，該句缺主語，根據上下文，加上they即可。

　　8.it改為them。句中的pick it up 中“it”指的是主句中的letters。根據單復數一致的原則，應用them指代letters。

　　9.golden改為gold。golden 是形容詞，意為“金色的”，“黃金般的”，gold 作名詞，意為“黃金”，作形容詞，意為“全制的”。故“淘金熱”應為“gold rush”。

　　10.sail 改為sailing。根據boats sail east could pick up 中could為謂動詞，到sail 應變為現在分詞，作定語，修飾boats。若無字數限制，改成boats which sailed east 這樣的定語從句也可以