【课文】

Insurance companies are normally willing to insure anything. Insuring public

or private property is a standard practice in most countries in the world. If,

however, you were holding an open air garden party or a fete it would be equally

possible to insure yourself in the event of bad weather. Needless to say, the

bigger the risk an insurance company takes, the higher the premium you will have

to pay. It is not uncommon to hear that a ship ping company has made a claim for

the cost of salvaging a sunken ship. But the claim made by a local authority to

recover the cost of salvaging a sunken pie dish must surely be unique.

Admittedly it was an unusual pie dish, for it was eighteen feet long and six

feet wide. It had been purchased by a local authority so that an enormous pie

could be baked for an annual fair. The pie committee decided that the best way

to transport the dish would be by