2008星火30篇文章贯通考研词汇(1)
Unit 1 The Permit
许可证
因生活困苦，我不得不离开家乡去外国打工。我把大部分钱都寄给了妻子和父母。然而不久，政府要求我们必须有工作许可证才能继续打工。后来，我们就遭遇到种种无理待遇……
I think the building must have been used as a farmer's winter store, for I found piles of forgotten dried chestnuts and grain in rotting barrels. I tried the chestnuts but they tasted sour, Paulo said he would bring me food, but that was three days ago.
Yesterday, I heard a car engine getting closer, and climbed up to hide in the beams of the patched roof. But the men just looked in quickly through the worn-out windows and broken doors before they left. I clung to the dusty wooden beam, feeling it would bend under my weight, and tried to make no noise. My arms and legs grew numb, then began to tremble. I longed to move, but I waited until I heard the policemen drive off.
I know that they will return. When we began the final part of our journey, we were warned that the police patrolled the land around here regularly. They are always searching for us, or others like us; the coast of Morocco (摩洛哥) and the Presidio (要塞) of Ceuta (休达，摩洛哥北部港市) are only ten miles away across the Straits.
That is how I got here: squeezed in with fifteen other men in a shallow boat meant for eight, with the cold waves reaching over the sides and the night deep and black as a tomb. I have never been more scared. I prayed all the way across, and thought about my family. I told myself, over and over, that I was doing it for them. That trip took almost all of my money. All of the money I had saved in Ecuador (厄瓜多尔) . The boatmen left us on a beach in the middle of the night. We lost sight of them but we could still hear their small engine across the waves. Six of us started walking inland but the others waited for the contacts, the friends of the boatmen, as they had been told.
We were lucky: we met Paulo. We found the town and waited until the first bar opened; I went in alone while the others hid in the orchard nearby. When I asked for a cup of coffee, the young barman (侍者) looked at me and nodded. He made the coffee, then disappeared into the back room. Cold and without strength, I wrapped my hands around the warm cup, not caring whether the barman had called the police, not caring about the next moment, just about the present.
But the man had called Paulo, who came and helped us. Paulo was always smiling, always happy. He was from Seville (塞维利亚) , a busy city of many people, and he knew many people. Paulo found work for us. I made good money on the farms. I picked cabbages, beans, cucumbers and peas. I picked great round yellow squashes (南瓜) that smelled of rich perfume when you broke them. The farmers hired us by the day, and were content. The local people would never work for the wages we are paid. But there were many farms, and many crops to be picked. We were welcomed.
I shared a small clean house in the town with seven other workers. We had journeyed from Ecuador, Colombia (哥伦比亚) , Venezuela (委内瑞拉) , even Argentina (阿根廷) . Paulo found the house for us - he knew the landlord and arranged a good price. We lived well, with enough food and sometimes wine. I earned more in a week than I could in three months back home if there had been work to do there. I sent most of the money that was left to my wife and parents, and wrote many letters to them. Then the government changed the rules so that we needed work permits.
I queued with hundreds of other workers, waiting for the application forms. We sat on the stone benches beneath the trees and read the forms. Some of the other workers are from small villages and towns, and cannot read as well as I can, so I explained to them that the government wanted our birth certificates, driving licenses, passports and many other documents. Many of the workers had perhaps one or two of these documents, but most had none. I helped the others complete the forms and we gave them to the clerk. He looked at our documents, stamped the forms many times and told us that they would be sent to Madrid (马德里) , and our permits would be returned in two or three months if the forms were approved.
We had to wait. Even Paulo and his friends could not help us.
The first month was not too bad as most of the farmers continued to use us; their crops were rich, waiting to be picked. Then some men from Madrid visited all of the farms, and maybe half of the farmers stopped using us. The farmers told us that they were sorry, and we understood them.
So the second month was worse: only a few of the farmers would use us, and those that did pay very poor wages. We shared what we had, and ate once a day: rice, porridge(粥), bread, cheap food that would fill our stomachs. We began to stare at each other, and wonder which of us would find work. There were fights in the morning, between different groups of workers, when the farms' supervisors (管理人，监工) came to choose who would work that day. But still we had some hope.
We lost the house in the third month, as we had no money for rent. We were able to get some food from the charity kitchens around the town, and the church, but we found always a long queue and very little food. We took our bags and blankets and slept in the fields. Then the weather became cold and we slept where we could, huddled together, in old forgotten buildings and alleys (小巷). Sometimes I dreamed of my family, and when I awoke, I wished the dream could continue.
The people of the town stared at us from the sides of their eyes as they passed us. They clenched(握紧) their hands and muttered, and some of them spat on the pavement. A few of us were attacked and beaten in the dark, and driven from the parks and streets. All of the time, the Police told us to move on, move on.
It is the end of the third month when it happens.
The farmers hired coaches and send them into the town. From four o'clock in the morning we waited in agitating silence, hands pushed deep into pockets, our hats pulled down tight against the cold and the watching policemen.
By the time the coaches arrived, there are hundreds of workers waiting in the darkness. We pressed forward as the doors opened. The supervisors stood on the bottom steps of the coaches and asked, "Who has the permit?"
The men with permits hold them up and were allowed onto the coaches.
Some of the workers were from the countries in Europe and did not need permits, so they were allowed on when they showed their passports. I went from coach to coach until I saw a group of Chileans (智利人), who I knew have no permits, climbing aboard a waiting coach. The leader of their group spoke first with the foreman and shook his hand, then they were taken on. I stood before the supervisor.
“You have the permit?”he asked me. He was broad, stout (肥胖的)and filled the doorway of the coach. His fat neck spilt from the upturned (向上翻的) collar of his leather jacket. His hair was shaven close to his head. I explain to him that my application was rejected but I would try again.
“Come back when you have a permit,” he told me. He frowned as he inhaled (吸入，吸气) a smoke and looked down the avenue to where the policemen were watching the coaches. I explained to him that I was a hard worker, that I had eaten only once in three days, that I was eager to work and send money to my family.
He looked at the policemen, who had started walking along the pavement beside the coaches, and glared at me and says, “Go to Madrid and tell them.”
The Chileans were laughing and pointing at me through the coach windows.
The supervisor tossed his half-finished cigarette into the gutter(排水沟) by my foot. At the moment I stabbed him in the stomach. He bent down with a small cry.
The policemen looked at us and I began to run away from the coaches, into the dark side streets. I heard loud running steps close behind me, and the roar of car engines.
I slid into the shadows of a shop's back door, behind two tall metal containers that stank (发出臭味) of rotting meat and spoiled foodstuff (食品). I gasped, and each breath burnt. My heart hammered against my chest.
I waited for a long time until the sounds of the cars and people faded. I walked slowly to the end of the alley and looked out, but the streets were empty.
I had run almost to the river; I could hear it rushing in the darkness beneath me.
My right hand felt cold. I looked down in the yellow light of a street lamp, and saw my hand still clenched into a fist. It looked like the hand of another person, not part of me. A short blade, no longer than my thumb, stuck out from the fist. The blade, my fist, and my sleeve were all stained dark red.
Paulo gave me the knife when I picked artichokes on the farms. The short thick blade is very sharp, made for cutting the plants' stalks.
I scrambled down to the banks of the river and threw the knife into the river water. I heard it splashed far away. The river touched my feet. I bowed down and washed my sleeve and hand, although the water was so cold, like ice, that my hand became numb. Then I walked back up to the street.
I found some of the other workers hiding in the deserted warehouse we had found. One of them went to find Paulo, who came and told me about the old farm buildings near to the coast road. I waited until darkness before I followed the road out of the town, throwing myself into the ditch if I heard a car approaching.
The weather has been clear and I have seen the coast of Morocco every day. Across the blue sea, the land is a strip of dark brown and gray, and looks close enough for me to touch. Maybe I could find an old tractor tyre tube around the farm and float across the Straits? Or maybe I could walk along the shore and steal a boat?
I do not want to become a thief. I am an honest man who wants only to work and support his family. But what can I do?
I will wait here for Paulo and listen to him. He will tell me what to do for the best. I know that he will help me.
Unit 2 Timeless Photographs
价值永存的老照片
生活中有很多小事经常为人们忽略，但有时其中蕴含的亲情却会令人回味许久。父亲留下的老照片告诉我，人们并没有什么不同，所有人都想充分享受人生乐趣，体味家的温馨。全家团聚的时刻是珍贵的……
I love to look at old photographs in the album. My father had a big box of pictures in the cabinet and some of the pictures go way back to the 1890's. The women dressed with such dignity and had style back then. My Dad would linger around his precious box of photographs and tell me stories about each photo and very one. It was one of those moments that you could not really appreciate when you were young. It is only after he was long gone that I can look back and say thanks for taking the time to show me a tiny window into the world of people who really did know how to live.
I found a few of my aunts in their fashionable outfits by an old Cadillac(卡迪拉克，汽车名) pretending to drink whisky. Many of the photographs were taken in Coney Island(科尼岛) and Cape Cod(科德角). I especially love the photographs of the bathing beauties and their swimsuits. The suits are quite modest by today's standards but the young women didn't seem to care. They were staying at such places as Newport Beach and Cape Cod having the time of their lives running in and out of the tide. One photograph had a vendor(小贩)selling dogs(热狗)by a coaster(轮船)at Coney Island—a younger picture of my mother with here brown hair and blue eyes eager to go on board with my Dad. He looked a bit frightened in the picture as I could see he was holding on tightly to the bar to the coaster, his black hair flying in the breeze. I smile when I look at that picture because it is hard to imagine anyone's Dad ever being a kid. He looked like he was having a great time probably because he was with my mother. She is smiling in the picture and wearing a white blouse, blue shorts and tennis shoes. She is quite a looker(美女),I can see why my Dad liked her so much.
I dig down to the bottom of the box and see two large photographs. One is dated 1900 and the other one is dated 1997—a recent picture that looks similar to the older one. The older picture looks familiar because it is taken in the same place—the summer home.
I will describe the older photograph as very interesting in the style of dress and exactly(确切地，精确地) where the people are sitting. They are posed outside the cottage by a small tree that is still there today. A woman is sitting in a rocking chair, with here black hair pulled up in a bun(脑后的发髻).She is not smiling but looking away from the camera and wearing a long black dress. Another woman is wearing a white blouse with a necktie(领结)and a long black skirt. Her hair is also long and blonder(金黄色的)but pulled back in a bun. There are two men on either side of a wooden table. Both men appear older and are dressed in hats and suits and ties, trousers and Sunday shoes. Neither is smiling. (I have the distinct feeling that the women are their wives and it is Sunday.) They probably are hungry for their roast beef and potatoes, but that is just my guess. There is a young boy, probably about 13 in the photograph. He is wearing a white blouse, black shorts, long black socks and tan sports shoes. He is petting a black dog that is sitting on top of the round wooden table. The boy is bending down and he isn't smiling either. It must have been hot outside and he probably wants to go for a swim with the dog. The water is just below them and he is probably wondering why he has to take this stupid picture all dressed up on a Sunday.
I notice that the color of my cabin was quite different in 1900 and it was much smaller. The color was green, with white railings(栏杆)around the porch and steps leading down to the patio(院子). That is where the picture of this Smart Family was taken. The family appears rather stiff in the photo but I am sure that they had a good laugh after the Sunday dinner was served.
The second larger photograph is of my own family about 1997. It is also in black and white. We didn't wear any older clothes but used our own clothes. The tree in the background has grown to enormous heights and is still standing. The steps leading down to Mousam Lake have cracked and are in awful need of repair. Believe it or not, we still own the old wooden table and all of the rocking chairs owned by the Smart Family. I did a search of the Smart Family and they were originally from Portsmouth(朴茨茅斯). At least five other families owned my cottage before my father bought it in 1950 for three thousand dollars. The cottage comes with thirteen acres of land that I still own along with my seven brothers and sisters. It was passed on to me when my mother died. We have formed the Camp Fund to pay the taxes and preserve our legacy. It is a beautiful cabin on a prime spot on Mousam Lake. I was not here when this photo was taken and it hangs in the living room of the cabin. Many visitors comment on it and think it is quite amazing to have a house for so long.
The history of the house is interesting to view from photographs. Around the table are my brother Bob just wearing a casual shirt and shorts(smiling), Annie wearing a T-Shirt and shorts. Mike wearing a white shirt and long nylon trousers not smiling, Mary, whom I couldn't tell what she was wearing, my Mom, her white hair and her beautiful blue eyes and smile, was wearing a peach blouse and slacks, my Dad wasn't alive for this photo, he died in 1986. Lastly in the picture is my brother John, wearing a white vest, trousers and suspenders. He slicked(使光滑、顺滑)back his black hair for the photo to appear in the period style. He wasn't smiling either. The only difference is that my cottage is painted brown with a larger porch and some additional buildings. My father loved to build things and he was constantly improving the cabin. He built a deck downstairs, and also a dock for his many boats. He also designed a gliding swing and a picnic table.
All of these photographs remind me that people are not so very different. We all want to enjoy living and be together as a family. The time that families spend together is very valuable. The children will always remember the little things that their parents do for them. For me it was my Dad that showed me these pictures and took the time to tell me the stories behind each of them. I thank him dearly for that.
Unit 3 The Story of My Romance
我的恋爱故事
生活就像车轮一样旋转，从早晨开始，晚上很晚才结束，第二天早上又重新开始。没有停顿，没有休息，没有丝毫改变。生活在其中的你，是否会感到疲惫和乏味？或者，寻找一些浪漫或刺激?
Tanya got out of the bed while the sun was still asleep. “Would I be able to watch sunrise today?” She asked her heart. She knew the answer but was afraid to tell herself. Mike, her husband, was still in bed and so were her four kids. Even their sleep couldn’t prevent her from doing them service. She arranged her work to the microscopic(缩小的)details. From pressing clothes to polishing shoes, finding sports socks to putting school bags in order, fixing up breakfast to preparing snack-boxes, she wanted to make it all happen like magic, She did it all, like a magician(魔术师).
Life ran like a wheel. The circle started every morning and ended up late in the night, and then morning appeared again. There was no pause, no rest, not even a slight change to insert the circle. She condemned herself for not experiencing even a thought of ever getting out of this circle, but she just committed herself to the orbit of life.
Coming out of the bathroom, she turned and looked at her wrinkled face in the mirror and gasped a tired answer to her long asked question, “never, you just keep driving in the sunset.”She shook her head to wing away those vicious butterflies in her mind. She knew she couldn’t join them so she didn’t want them to hang around her either.
She entered the kitchen and heard Mike yelling in his uneasy voice for the absence of his towel in the bathroom. Her youngest daughter Karen started crying that she didn’t want to go to school that day. Nicole, the eldest(最年长的),couldn’t help herself but to blame Daniel for the overnight fragmentation(破坏)of her dollhouse(玩具屋)while Randal registered his protest from his bed that he was not going lo drink milk in breakfast like every day. In the kitchen, sugar had run out. So she was still looking for that magic wand(杖).
She never got to know when morning ran into noon: even the clock failed to tell her that. Mike left for office still screaming and shouting for his towel and the school bus only arrived after the kids had swallowed their breakfast. Their absence couldn’t cease her work for there was too much work to do. She was planning to send dirty clothes to laundry when the doorbell rang. It had been so long nobody coming to their home that she had forgotten what their doorbell sounded like. She tried to guess who could it be but not a single name appeared in her mind. She opened the door with an uncertain(不确定的)hope but only found the postman standing in the door to vanish that uncertainty(不确定).
“Hi David! Since when did you start ringing the doorbell? ”Words flew out of her mouth without her own consent.
“Ever since I was a kid. In my childhood 1 would ring the bell and run away. ”David was a
cheerful(快乐的)postman.
“But you don’t need to run away now. ”
“No。not until you have signed and received your letter. ”
“My letter! Who could send that?”
“I am not sure. It’s someone named L.H.M. Sounds like a postgraduate degree to me. ”
“Never mind, I’11 sign it.”
Tanya received the letter. It was a registered letter from within the town. She wondered who could that L.H.M. be. She opened the envelope and the mystery that was enclosed in it. The handwriting sparked a memory but she felt too overwhelmed to scrape her past. Her heartbeat(G"跳)started flying like butterfly wings.
It wasn’t just a letter with ordinary words written on a piece of paper. She could feel those words blazing over her heart. They were telling her stories of her long lost love.
My flowered wish Tanya!
I once saw my home in the streets of your palm, my destiny in the smiles of your promises, and my shelter in the shadows of your eyes. I treasured all your whispers under my pillow, your fragrance in my breaths, and your name in my ears. Your face still lightens(使发亮)up the sky in the night, your voice still rhymes them rain fall, and your hair still soften the wind.
The sun always rose from the sparkle of your eyes.
And then, time flew you away into someone else's world. That sun vanished and ever since I haven't seen a sunrise.
Life is spending me and I am aging. Days keep climbing the mountain of years. Moon disguises its face in the clouds and the night refuses to bring sleep onto my pillow. I fight your memories and defeat myself. The pain-waves of your absence storm through my stale heart and leave it in a misery.
My face has lived with me for ten cold winters, now l want to feel the warmth of your face. Bring the sunshine of your eyes to me. Meet me while the sun sets this Sunday at the river bridge. My eyes will be measuring the passage until you come.
Larry
The letter ended and left her standing at the door of her time-faded memories. Larry was her classmate in college days. He lived in her heart and she dreamed his eyes. They had planned to get married after graduation as soon as Larry found a good job. It took him a year to find one and this expansion of time let Mike surface. Mike was an elegant and handsome man with already a good job. Larry got a first-rate job the day Tanya got married.
In the next six months, Larry left the country and Tanya moved to Wisconsin(威斯康星州). Mike’s love scattered into his job, kids and Tanya. She did the same to him, except for the job. Her concern was to take care of the kids and the home. “Easier said than done”, she liked this phrase ever since. Her housework imprisoned(关押)her wishes and she couldn’t even wish for her freedom.
And today, after more than ten years, a letter came into her life like a butterfly carrying on its wings, words written in rainbow colors. It was Wednesday and she wished to jump over those three days into the Sunday sunset.
She never got to know when the kids came back from the school and how she spent the rest of the day. The days had started flying with her. In the night she would read that letter to the moon, the stars and the breeze. She would tell them stories of her low; the first time she met Larry, her first words and her first kiss. Every inch of her memory had a bond to a whole new memory. Now she remembered everything; every ray the sun ever endowed on her love. She could feel a powerful freedom that was removing those tedious thoughts from her mind and thrusting life into her veins. Life was wearing hope now.
The time from Sunday morning to evening was hard to spend. Time clock was snailing Out of the day and the sun got hung up in mid air. Wind stopped on the surface of water and the shadows declined to shrink. She wished time was a horse with a tail on the forehead and she would pull it from its tail. She wished time was a dry leaf and she would blow it in the windstorm(风暴)of her heart. She wished time was a boat and she would sail it in the river of her eyes. But today, time had turn into a teaser(戏弄者).She wanted the time to fly and it was crawling. She tried to make her self busy in house chores but her eyes quit supporting her hands as they were still looking at the sun. And the sun also kept glaring at her all the day. Finally the sun lost the battle and started going down. From the rim of the roof, it skidded to the window.
No one in the family felt any change in her. Mike had to go to meet a client and was quite busy looking at himself and the kids were too involved in watching the TV. It was an hour to sunset and she was ready, wearing her best dress and wrapped in her favorite fragrance. She looked several years younger and brought back a charming(迷人的)smile onto her lips.
“Where are you going, dear?” Her preparation couldn't wage enough resistance against Mike’s curiosity.
“Aa, well, actually I thought L would go for some shopping(买东西)”,she hardly uttered.
“Mom! I would go with you.” Nicole yelled as the idea of going out had removed her attention from the TV. The rest were so absorbed that they didn’t even hear the conversation.
“Yeah dear, why don’t you take Nicole with you, she could be helpful.”
Tanya didn’t feel comfortable having a company at that time but she didn’t want to change Mike’s curiosity into suspicion so she said OK.
All the way to the City Center, Nicole kept telling her of all the stuff her friends had and what she wanted to buy in response. Tanya wasn’t listening. She was just nodding her head in approval of whatever Nicole said. She couldn’t possibly have said a word. Her heart was rumbling(发出隆隆声)like a volcano, hitting the rib cage(胸腔)trying to get out to take a look at its long lost love.
The sun was hurrying down now. She was afraid of getting late so she speeded up a little.
“Mom! Aren’t we supposed to go to the City Center?” Nicole asked seeing her turning to a different street.
“Yes dear but I have to take care of something important before we go shopping, all right?” She said.
“All right.” It was OK for Nicole as long as it didn’t alter their shopping plan.
The bridge was getting closer and so was logic. Sanity(理智)had started penetrating her enthusiasm. The question of “how should I do it?” turned into “why should I do it?” The eclipse of her memories had started declining. She could see the bridge now. She stopped the car a hundred yards away from the bridge.
“Honey! You stay in the car, I’11 be back in a few minutes.” She said to Nicole without a slight touch of emotions. She didn’t wait for her answer, stepped out of the car in a mechanical way and started walking towards the bridge.
Larry was standing on the corner of the bridge, with his back to her. He was looking down the bridge into the running water. She walked for a few yards and then stopped. Larry turned his face towards her. Age seemed to have worn him out. He looked tired as if he had traveled a huge span of years. His presence sent no waves of fresh air to clean her heart from the mist of dissatisfaction. He disappointed her again. She hoped to find a ray of hope and he damped down her hope. She looked back towards the car and her daughter. “I have lost too much。I don’t want to lose my ten years.” She decided and turned back. Larry ran after her but she had reached her car. Larry called her with a passionate cry, “Tanya!” She opened the door and sat in. Larry stopped abruptly with shock in his eyes. Tanya turned the ear back.
“You are my wish, Tanya!” Larry murmured. She stepped on the car. Larry saw her going into the sunset.
“Who was he, mommy?”Nicole couldn’t catch any idea out of it.
“He was a nobody, my dear.”
Tanya kept driving into the sunset.
Unit 4 Big Tom
大个子汤姆
我至今怀念与同事大个子汤姆一起的时光，他身体强壮却从不盛气凌人，有时候冒出的奇特想法让人莫名其妙却又无法拒绝。然而，一次随意的决定使他遭受了生命危险……
Of all the males in our company’s dormitory, I felt the most affection for Tom. He was a genius, I thought, but the other guys took him for a nut. He came from far away, and at first had a strong Spanish accent. Now, after a year with the company, he spoke English very well. But his English accent had an exaggerated precision that the other guys didn’t like. In the crude environment of the dormitory, Tom’s accent seemed artificial. But he was a big man, a giant, and strong as an ox, and the others feared him and left him alone.
I on the other hand had a weak constitution. I couldn’t digest any real food and lived on little more than coffee. My arms and legs were as thin as stems. And what work did I do there, you may well ask. I was chief garbage man for the dormitory.
Our company had a big project to build a reinforced concrete reservoir out in a suburb surrounded by hills. At night a portion of the project was closed to us by means of a big square gate made of brass. One cold evening I was depositing the garbage from supper behind our dormitory when I saw a torch and the shape of a man passing through the grass gate. I walked over.
“I knew it was you,” I said to Tom.
“It’s open,” he said. “Shall we go in?”
“Don’t you know we shouldn’t?” I said. “You still haven’t adjusted to the company.”
“Adjust?” he said. “I’d rather quit. Come. What are you afraid of? Don’t you want to investigate this portion?” He knew I did. Already it seemed inevitable that I would to with him. I only feared that the torch would be noticeable on the TV monitor of the chief watchman.
“Turn off the torch,” I said, and we walked through the brass square gate. Tom and I penetrated all the way to the crane, and no watchman had yet pursued us. This giant crane was used for moving and placing the reinforced concrete blocks. In the dark we recognized it by its shape—an immense pillar of zigzag rods. At the top of it, we knew, at the peak, would be the flag. And far over our heads, up in the dark sky, would be the crane’s giant arm. On the arm was the banner that we saw everyday, with the letters ABC, the initial letters of our company’s name. We had ABC written on our shirts, too, and on the chairs and beds with which our dormitory was furnished.
“Let’s go up!” said Tom. I laughed—but Tome had spoken in earnest. Strong as he was, he really had no concept of authority.
“Tom, you are a nut!” I said, wanting to show him that I was reluctant. But in the end he convinced me, and we mounted the ladder to the lift. There were two buttons, a red one and a green one. I pressed the latter, just to see if the lift might be operational. It was. I pressed the red button and stopped it. Tome got in. I pressed the green one again and we rose and rose and finally reached the top. We were at the peak of the pillar, just underneath the flag. Even in the dark we were close enough to see it. Before us the crane’s giant arm led of like a road into the night. Its rods and all zigzag, made me feel that over there would be, I saw, a square gate, some garbage and a dormitory. But no. Off the end of that zigzag road really would be nothing but dark night. The geometry of the crane scared me.
“Let’s walk out to the banner!”
To the banner? Oh, no. This was too much.
“I want to see the ABC!” said Tome. “Come on!” why was his voice so urgent? What did the want that ABC banner for?
“Tom, you are too bold,” I said. “You really have no concept…..” But he had set off. I was very scared, but somehow rose to the challenge and went with him. It became a contest: who would be the first one to touch the long banner? I was halfway along the arm when I heard the water of the reservoir, far underneath us. It was then that I remembered that the chief crane operator, before stopping his work for the day, would always swing the giant arm so that it projected out over the water. Now I was really scared. I held on to a rod. I could feel the coffee I had drunk could and undigested inside me. I did not have Tom’s ox-like constitution.
“Tom!” I said. I did not possess hi boldness, and not his urgency.
“You can’t quit now!” Said Tom. But I could not move. I was trapped.
Tom had reached the banner. He was a dark shape, loosening the knots that held the banner to the rods.
“I possess the ABC!” he said, in that precise English of his. The dark shape on the arm put a thumb up to show me that he had got what he wanted. He put his other hand on what he thought was a rod, but it was the wire that would shock him.
They said later that the nuts on the box that surrounded the wire were loose and had come unscrewed(螺丝钉旋松的). The box had fallen away, and the wire was exposed.
Tome never panicked. He looked at me as if I were far away. But his legs would not hold him up. Wrapped in the banner, he fell, like a baby bird from a nest. It was I who panicked, when I heard him hit and vanish underneath the water of the reservoir. Maybe his fall had not been fatal, but would my beloved Tom now drown? It was possible.
I began to cal for help.
We spent an anxious fortnight in the dormitory. While the others would talk about his vitality(生命力), I stared at jeans and socks of the vanishing nut. The dorm was a different place without his precise English. An X-ray scan had revealed that he would need an operation. And of course the big ox had to recover from the exposure to the cold water. There was a mention in the media of Tom’s shock and fall, and the TV guys were going to come and see what we were doing at the reservoir project, until their investigation was canceled. But the authorities did investigate our company. Their investigation revealed that the square gate had been left open, and the box surrounding the wire had come off.
The company reinforced the square gate with more brass, and put a new box back onto the arm, screwing its nuts tightly. They tightened up the knots of the new banner, and even put anew banner all down the crane’s pillar, this latter one having not only the initials ABC but all the letters of the name of the suburb. And they put a bigger flag on the crane.
The company enhanced the authority of the chief watchman. Now we had to sign in when were came back to the dormitory, and sign out. Even when I took out the garbage in the evening, I had to sign in and out! Besides, they furnish their chief garbage man with a torch in case I should see any shapes of people.
你的资料很不错，就是把帖子分开发了。我给你合并了一下这样也方便大家查看。谢谢你的分享啊！——蝴蝶~
[ 本帖最后由 hope.27 于 2008-5-31 21:38 编辑 ] |
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