Lesson SixPre-class WorkRead the text a third time. Learn the new words and expressions listed below.Glossaryacknowledgev. to recognize; to admitadmirableadj. worthy of admirationaestheticadj. concerning beauty, esp. beauty in artanonymityn. the state of not having one's name or identity known to othersbaldingadj. becoming baldbehavev. to do things in a particular waybehaviorn. the way someone behavesblastn. an unexpected quick strong movement of wind or airbudgetn. a plan of how a government will spend the money that is available in a particular period of time 预算capacityn. ability to do sth.casualtyn. sb. who is hurt or killed in an accidentchallengev. to defy 藐视；在……面前毫无畏惧，以挑战姿态面对……chaoticadj. in a state of complete disorder and confusionchunkn. (infml) a fairly large amount ofclashn. a loud sound made by two metal objects being hit togetherclassicadj. important and specialcollisionn. an accident in which two or more people or vehicles hit each other while moving in different directions; in ～ : in conflictcommitmentn. a responsibility; a determination to do what one considers to be his dutyconclusionn. the end; the closing partcongressionaladj. related to a congress, the elected law-making body of certain countries 国会的dipv. to put into liquid （液体） for a moment and then take outdistinctionn. differencedozev. sleep lightlyemotionaladj. making people have strong feelingsemployeen. a person who is employedessentialadj. being central or most importantFloridan. 佛罗里达州（U. S.）flotationn. ～ ring: 救生圈freezev. to cause water to harden into ice as a result of great coldgaspv. to breathe quickly with difficulty, making a sudden noisegropev. to try to find sth. that you cannot see by feeling with your handsgulln. a large common black and white sea bird that lives near the seaharshadj. unpleasant or cruel (words)helicoptern. 直升飞机immovableadj. impossible to move, change, or persuadeimpactn. the force of one object striking or hitting anotherinjuredadj. having an injury; having been physically damaged or hurtjetn. an airplane driven by a jet enginelikewiseadv. in the same waymonumentn. a building or sth. that preserves the memory of a person or eventpossibilityn. sth. that is possiblePotomacn. 波托马克河 （U. S.）presidentialadj. concerning a presidentproofn. sth. that proves that sth. is trueremarkn. a spoken or written opinionslapn. a quick blow with the flat part of the hand, used figuratively herestandoffn. a situation in which neither side in a fight can gain an advantagestewardessn. a woman who serves passengers on a planestunningadj. shocking; very impressivesurvivorn. a person who has continued to live, esp. in spite of having been nearly destroyed or killedthusadv. in this way; so, thereforetotallyadv. completelytragedyn. a terrible, unfortunate eventuniqueadj. being the only one of its typeWashingtonn. 华盛顿 (capital of U.S.)Proper NamesDonald Usher

唐纳德·厄舍Eugene Windsor尤金·温莎Skutnik斯库尼克Text AThe Man in the WaterRoger RosenblattRead the text once for the main idea. Do not refer to the notes, dictionaries or the glossary yet.As disasters go, this one was terrible, but not unique, certainly not among the worst U. S. air crashes on record. There was the unusual element of the bridge, of course and the fact that the plane hit it at a moment of high traffic. Then, too, there was the location of the event. Washington, the city of form and rules, turned chaotic by a blast of real winter and a single slap of metal on metal. The jets from Washington National Airport that normally fly around the presidential monuments like hungry gulls are, for the moment, represented by the one that fell. And there was the aesthetic clash as well — blue-and-green Air Florida, the name of a flying garden, sunk down among gray chunks of ice in a black river. All that was worth noticing, to be sure. Still, there was nothing very special in any of it, except death, which, while always special, does not necessarily bring millions to tears or to attention. Why, then, the shock here?Perhaps because the nation saw in this disaster something more than a mechanical failure. Perhaps because people saw in it no failure at all, but rather something successful about themselves. Here, after all, were two forms of nature in collision: the elements and human character. Last Wednesday, the elements, indifferent as ever, brought down Flight 90. And on that same afternoon, human nature — groping and struggling — rose to the occasion.Of the four acknowledged heroes of the event, three are able to account for their behavior. Donald Usher and Eugene Windsor, a park police helicopter team, risked their lives every time they dipped into the water to pick up survivors. On television, side by side, they described their courage as all in the line of duty. Lenny Skutnik, a 28-year-old employee of the Congressional Budget Office, said: "It's something I never thought I would do" — referring to his jumping into the water to drag an injured woman to shore. Skutnik added that "somebody had to go in the water

had gone under. His selflessness was one reason the story held national attention; his anonymity another. The fact that he went unidentified gave him a universal character. For a while he was Everyman, and thus proof (as if one needed it) that no man is ordinary.Still, he could never have imagined such a capacity in himself. Only minutes before his character was tested, he was sitting in the ordinary plane among the ordinary passengers, listening to the stewardess telling him to fasten his seat belt and saying something about the "no smoking" sign. So our man relaxed with the others, some of whom would owe their lives to him. Perhaps he started to read, or to doze, or to regret some harsh remark made in the office that morning. Then suddenly he knew that the trip would not be ordinary. Like every other person on that flight, he was desperate to live, which makes his final act so stunning.For at some moment in the water he must have realized that he would not live if he continued to hand over the rope and ring to others. He had to know it, no matter how slow the effect of the cold. He felt he had no choice. When the helicopter took off with what was to be the last survivor, he watched everything in the world move away from him, and he let it happen.Yet there was something else about our man that kept our thoughts on him, and which keeps our thoughts on him still. He was there, in the essential, classic circumstance. Man in nature. The man in the water. For its part, nature cared nothing about the five passengers. Our man, on the other hand, cared totally. So the age-old battle began again in the Potomac. For as long as that man could last, they went at each other, nature and man; the one making no distinctions of good and evil, acting on no principles, offering no lifelines; the other acting wholly on distinctions, principles and, perhaps, on faith.Since it was he who lost the fight, we ought to come again to the conclusion that people are powerless in the world. In reality, we believe the opposite, and it takes the act of the man in the water to remind us of our true feelings in this matter. It is not to say that everyone would have acted as he did, or as Usher, Windsor and Skutnik. Yet whatever moved these men to challenge death on behalf of their fellows is not peculiar to them. Everyone feels the possibility in himself. That is the enduring wonder of the story. That is why we would not let go of it. If the man in the water gave a lifeline to the people gasping for survival, he was likewise giving a lifeline to those who watched him.The odd thing is that we do not even really believe that the man in the water lost his fight. "Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature," said Emerson. Exactly. The man in the water had his own natural powers. He could not make ice storms, or freeze the water until it froze the blood. But he could hand life over to a stranger, and that is a power of nature too. The man in the water set himself against

an immovable, impersonal enemy; he fought it with kindness; and he held it to a standoff. He was the best we can do. [NoPage下载本文