第七单元
突发事件
课文A
初看上去像是一个旧盒子或破衣裳。可紧接着他们就明白过来到底是什么了。
“铁轨上有孩子!”
左克·墨菲
1989年5月1日，星期一，新泽西州的拉姆齐上午天气宜人。凯特·普里查德俯身站在车尾行李箱前，费力地收拾着刚买回家的一袋袋食品杂货。她听到远处火车的鸣笛声。联合铁路公司的火车经过的地方离普里查德家不到三百英尺，可在后院与铁轨之间没有栅栏，只有一排长得密密的树木。然而，她的两个儿子，三岁半的托德和十八个月的斯科特，就在近旁私家车道上玩耍。
“就呆在这儿，”凯特说。“妈妈去把食品放好，然后我们进屋吃午饭，好吗?”
“好!”托德一面说，一面竖起大拇指，做着他以前看他父亲做的这个手势。
“好!”斯科特随声应和，试着模仿他哥哥的样子。
他们望着母亲提着几个袋袋走进屋子。
凯特关好冰箱门匆匆走出屋来。还好。两个孩子正在原地玩耍。
当她从车后行李箱里又提出几个袋袋时，凯特听见有一列火车疾驶而过——是特快客车，她根据车速判断。她又将几个袋袋拿进屋去。
火车的声音显然把两个孩子的注意吸引到铁轨上。两人穿过那排树木，爬上笔陡的路基，跪在地上玩了起来。
往西几千英尺处，一辆货车缓缓地朝两个孩子驶宋。头顶上的灯向司机里奇·坎普纳发出信号，指示前面那辆客车已经开走，他们可以每小时40英里的正常速度继续运行。司机调整了加速器，转身面对列车员安东尼·法尔佐。安东尼中等身材，长得结结实实，现年35岁，已经为联合铁路公司干了差不多十六、七年。
“你周末都干点啥，安东尼?”
“唉，不干什么。大多是瞎混——看点儿电视，然后睡觉。还能干什么?”
坎普纳笑了。“嘿，你最好悠着点，安东尼——你都快成派对狂了。”
两人哈哈大笑。就在他们大笑的时候，正以21英里的时速运行的机车开始加速。
里奇和安东尼在同——瞬间发现火车前方有什么东西。
“那前面是什么?”司机问道。安东尼没回答。他日不转睛盯着前方看，试图辨识前方铁
轨上那怪形怪状的东西。是盒子?还是旧衣裳?
猛然间，两个人都明白过来那是什么东西。里奇用尽全力猛地紧急刹车，并拉响了汽笛。
汽笛嘶鸣，与此同时安东尼大声嚷道：“铁轨上有孩子!”
安东尼冲出驾驶室，跳到车轮上方六英尺处一条狭窄人行踏板上，接着跑到摇摆的火车头前。他疾速攀下铁梯，停在梯子最后一级上，离他脚下飞速掠过的铁路路基有两英尺。
现在，他可以清楚地看到两个孩子，他们正坐在铁轨旁边。安东尼拼命挥手示意，并大声喊叫：“走开!走开!”
他心里计算着火车的减速速度，痛苦地哼了一声。我们绝对不可能及时停车的。
托德和斯科特正玩得起劲，没听到火车的声音。最后，当火车轰隆隆驶近时，斯科特抬头—看，惊呆了。
尽管火车在减速，安东尼知道车速仍比他奔跑的速度快。所以，他强迫自己等待，等到离孩子足够近的时候，他再一跃而下一把将他们抓住。在孩子与火车头前的犁雪机锋利的雪铲只有约十英尺的时候，安东尼从梯子上纵身向前一跃。他落在铁轨旁拳头大小的散石上，使尽力气才保持住平衡。他跨出两大步，几乎就要够着两个孩子了。两个孩子吓坏了，目瞪口呆地望着他。安东尼纵身跃起，朝他们扑去。
火车汽笛不停地嘶鸣，凯特·普里查德听着就像是被铁锤猛击了一下。“孩子!”她一声惊叫，冲出屋门。两个孩子不见了!
铁道，她心想。我得去铁道那儿!
安东尼身子砸下地时，他一边护着托德，一边伸出一只手臂去抓斯科特，好把他拉离铁轨。但火车压了过来。安东尼只见雪铲的黑色钢刃击中幼孩的下巴，将他的头往后一推，铲子从他脸上括过。顿时，鲜血从孩子额头溅出。
车身猛撞安东尼工作服的后背，把尼龙布都撕破了。但安东尼还是把斯科特完全拉到了自己身下。
他死了，安东尼心想。他毛骨悚然，一阵恶心。他的脸紧贴在石子上，使尽力气将两个孩子往下压，火车就从他们上面驶过，离他们只有几英寸。
凯特奔到停下的火车前，首先看到的便是托德。她的大儿子失去控制，在那儿乱蹦乱跳，大声哭喊。但凯特看出他没受伤。她抓过他紧紧抱住。随后她看见第三节车厢下一动不动躺着一个人。只见这人身子下面斯科特的脑袋上黑糊糊一片血污。凯特冲过去。“斯科特!”她尖声叫道。
安东尼扭转身子面对着她。“女士，”他对她说，声音很镇静。“回家去。叫警察和救护车来。”凯特没听进他的话，伸着手要抱孩子。安东尼又开口了，口气严厉了许多，“夫人，听着!回家打电话叫警察——叫救护车，快!”
凯特飞奔回家，打了电话，又通过寻呼机找到她丈夫加里。
第一辆警车到达时，安东尼仍然紧抱着年幼的斯科特。列车员从孩子的哭声知道他还活着，但斯科特可能有内伤，稍一动弹就有可能加重伤势。因此安东尼坚持让急救人员先对孩子进行检查，然后才放手。真是奇迹，斯科特伤势不重，只需缝十三针。
雪铲与地面之间只有十四英寸。记者后来问安东尼他在冒生命危险救孩子之前有否犹豫。“没有，”他回答道。“我当时所想到的就是那两个孩子前头还有整个人生，如果我不采取行动，他们必死无疑。我决不能让这样的悲剧发生。”
事故发生后不久，安东尼去普里查德家探望。他还记得他用双臂抱住托德和斯科特并将两人举起的情景。“这让我想起当时在火车底下我护着他们的情景。再一次抱住他们的感觉是奇特的——也是美妙的。”
普里查德夫妇说，自从第一次来探望之后，安东尼几乎成了他们家庭的一员。他们还说，现在有道栅栏把他们的街坊与铁轨隔开了。
第七单元
突发事件
课文B
中国常常遭受洪水之害。但是中国并不是惟一的洪水受害国。其它国家的人也 不得不学会接受洪水为害的可能性：他们家门口那条平静的大河也许有一天会漫溢出来，把他们卷走，并彻底改变他们的生活。
夜晚，河水漫溢
威廉·亨德利克斯
丹·迪克斯特勒站在十一岁的女儿詹妮弗身旁，长长的手臂挽住她的肩膀，两人从瓜达卢佩河畔的小木屋里望着大雨如注的茫茫夜色。
(1)雨已经下了差不多一整天乐，南得克萨斯河的河水猛涨，溢出了堤岸。不过看来不用担心。小木屋搭建在高出这一洪水泛滥地几英尺的柱子上。
“看来最糟糕的情况已经过去了，詹，”晚上十点钟光景，迪克斯特勒说。“咱们睡觉吧。”然而詹睡不着。她信赖爸爸，可还是忍不住回想起那些洪水肆虐的电视画面，人们紧抓着树顶，又冷又湿。辗转不眠几个小时之后，她去卫生间。她踩在地毯上，发现地毯湿了。
她停了下来，聚精会神地听着。那是什么声音?奇怪——像是湍流的声音。
正是湍流!而且就在屋子正下面奔涌。她冲到父亲的床边。“爸爸，爸爸，”她一面大声叫喊，一面拼命摇晃他。“醒醒。家里进水了!”
迪克斯特勒光着脚，只穿着短衣裤，走到门口，打开了门。眼前的景象顿时使他睡意全消。他们那条叫达奇斯的狗就站在门外，四条腿浸在六英寸深的水里。(2)这意味着河水已溢出河岸，泛滥到四百英尺之外，淹没了大路——他们脱逃的惟一途径。
他们被困住了。
冰凉的河水拍打他的脚髁。迪克斯特勒急忙把狗拉进木屋，使劲关上门。随后他抓过两 件救生衣。“穿上这个，宝贝，”他对詹妮弗说。
迪克斯特勒朝四周打量了一下。浑浊的河水顺着四壁护墙板一点点上升。“咱们怎么办?”詹问道，她声音在颤抖。
“咱们不会有事的，”迪克斯特勒回答说，尽力掩饰住自己的焦虑。“咱们到楼上去。”
他们攀上梯子般的楼梯，爬到起居间上面的阁楼。在上面，他们听见洪水在往下面的房间涌涨，并慢慢接近他们。窗子在水的压力之下爆裂。电视机被冲着撞上了墙壁。
突然，整个屋子像遇上地震似地摇晃着。接着木屋先是猛地朝上一掀，然后又摔下去几英尺。我的天哪，迪克斯特勒心想。咱们是在水里漂了。
从窗子望出去，他们看到自己在移动，屋子正被河水冲着走。(3)迪克斯特勒害怕木屋下沉会把他们一起拉到水底，于是决定离开木屋。他双臂紧紧搂着女儿，纵身跳进冰冷的水中。
木屋就在两人身后，在黑夜中紧追不舍。迪克斯特勒还没来得及避开，就被冲到—棵被淹没的树上。刹那间，木屋在河水巨大冲力的推动下，把他死死挤压在树上。他肋骨被压断。左腿喀嚓一声折了。他失声惨叫。
紧接着他的脑子失去了控制。迪克斯特勒只觉得自己是在远处遥望着自己。他看到自己和詹沉到了河底。他对自己的平静感到惊讶。“对不起，宝贝，”他说。“真对不起。”接着他就什么也不知道了。
他失去知觉时，屋子移动了一下，松开了他，打着旋漂离了他们。詹妮弗发觉自己顺水漂流而下，身边是不省人事的父亲。“不要死，爸爸!”她叫道。“千万别死!”
或许是小女儿的声音唤回了迪克斯特勒的意识。他轻轻捏了捏詹的手，她的心猛地——跳。
惨淡的月光下，迪克斯特勒——此刻清醒了些——看到缠在树顶上的一些垃圾形成的孤岛。他忍着伤痛，挣扎着逆流而上游了过去。詹爬到那一小堆木头上，把父亲从湍急的水流中拉起。他疼得倒了下去，浑身哆嗦，透不过气来。
他们还远远谈不上安全，詹对此很清楚。那堆垃圾随时可能漂散开来，把他们重新抛入水中。她真想蜷伏在父亲的怀里，可这只会增加他的伤痛。她明白，此刻，得靠她来救爸爸了。
就在这时，她惊讶地发现不知从哪儿现出一个身影。“达奇斯!”她高声喊道，他们的狗浑身湿透，这时爬了上来与他们呆在一起。有狗在，詹感到宽慰了不少。
夜里，每过几分钟詹就要查看一下父亲。“想一些会使人暖和的东西，”她对父亲说，“比如咖啡、火炉。”她为他唱歌，还为他祷告。
清晨来临，但仍无救援人员的踪影。他们痛苦地捱过一小时又一小时。上午十时左右有架飞机几乎就从头顶上飞过，却没有减速。一两个小时之后又有一架飞机飞过。后来，傍晚时分又有第三架飞机飞过。(4)每次詹都跳起来挥舞手臂并大声呼喊，而每次飞机都从地平线上消失，令她沮丧不已。
日光渐渐消退，詹意识到他们有可能要在这个孤岛上冉捱—个漫长而寒冷的夜晚。父亲会顶不住的。要是没有父亲，她知道自己也恐怕活不成。她—想到这儿，就觉得没了希望。“他们不来找我们了，”她绝望地哭出声宋。“我们要死了。”
就在这时，—个声音划破黑暗从远处山坡上传了过来。“嗨!那儿有人吗?”
詹跳了起来。她大声回应道：“喂!喂!”
“我们去叫人，”那声音说道。“顶住。”
詹跪在父亲身边，揉着他的背，好让他暖和些。“咱俩一起顶住，”她对父亲说。
半夜，一条小船终于在夜色中慢慢划到了他俩跟前。在小木屋被洪水从地基拔起卷走后十八个小时，詹、她父亲以及他们的狗达奇斯被从孤岛救至安全处。他们的小木屋再也未见踪影。
Unit 7
Content Questions
Pair Work
1. He thinks animals will probably do their best thinking when it serves their own purposes, not
when scientists ask them to.
2. Because he believes they may encounter animal intelligence in their daily life.
3. He regards them as a new window on animal intelligence.
4. She wanted to get more pineapple.
5. He expanded the money supply by breading chips in two.
6. It shows he is clever and sly. He ate up the fruit leaving nothing but stems to share with
Miles.
7. They say that animals cooperate when they learn it is in their interest to do so.
8. The author thinks that what behaviorists say is right, but he doesn’t think their explanation is
satisfactory enough.
9. Because Orky was the most intelligent animal she had worked with.
10. Corky is a female whale because she is Orky’s mate and delivered a baby whale.
11. Because she thought the orange must have rolled off somewhere inaccessible.
12. Towan hid his orange underneath his foot. The act reveals some animals are intelligent
enough to know how to deceive.
Text Organization
1. Eugene Linden wants to tell the reader that animals do have, at least, some limited
intelligence, and the personal experiences of those who are in close contact with animals are
more convincing evidence than that any experiments can provide.
2. Let’s Make a Deal: Some animals are intelligent enough to know how to bargain with people.
Tale of a Whale: Animals like whales can assess a situation and act accordingly.
Primate Shell Game: Animals can attempt to deceive.
Language Sense Enhancement
1. (1) controversy (2) consciousness (3) explore (4) serves their own purposes
(5) encounter (6) lack of it (7) convinced (8) mental feats (9) captivity (10) humans
Language Focus
I. Vocabulary
1. 1) go (very) far 2) has expanded 3) in the interest(s) of 4) only to
5) encountered 6) has cooperated 7) assessed 8) (had) switched
9) horizons 10) gaze 11) disaster 12) wiped out
2. 1) … a long/long running controversy over whether the book should be published or not
2) … felt relieved after her first meeting with Tom had gone smoothly
3) ... suddenly went wrong with my computer when I was in the middle of writing the essay
4) … is obvious that our company is still maintaining its composition as market leader in
software.
5) … give in until they give her a pay rise
3. 1) have undertaken, original, to explore
2) evidence convinced, underneath, extending to
3) to negotiate, encounter, to figure out, explore
II. Confusable Words
1. firstly 2. first, first 3. At first 4. First/Firstly
5. first 6. First 7. at first 8. first
III. Usage
1. animal intelligence whose
2. zoo keeper where
3. eye contact through what
4. money supply of what
5. killer whale what kind
6. baby whale how old
7. family member of what
8. sea turtle what kind/where
Comprehensive Exercises
I. Cloze
1. (1) emergency (2) evidence (3) original (4) sizing up
(5) negotiates (6) reveal (7) make a deal (8) dominant
(9) in their interest(s) (10) deceiving (11) controversy
(12) judgment (13) explore
2. (1) protect (2) However (3) type (4) situation (5) sights
(6) together (7) rang (8) associate (9) without (10) environment
II. Translation
1. 1) A local business undertook the project but went bankrupt before it was completed.
2) Let’s make a deal—you wash my car, and I’ll let you use it tonight.
3) We got to the village which we thought must have been wiped out in the severe
earthquake, only to find it slightly damaged.
4) My garden is dry and shady—few plants thrive in that condition
5) Mystery still surrounds the exact truth behind the film star’s death/exact circumstance of
the film star’s death.
2. When I was young I used to visit the zoo in my hometown. There what attracted me most was
a couple of tigers, especially the male. They were dept in a huge iron cage at first, but later
were released from it and moved to a place called Tiger Hill. Twenty years later I revisited the
zoo and was relieved to find Tiger Hill was still there, but greatly extended. Moving around
now were six tigers, old and young, instead of two!
Pair work
1. She was amazed at the author’s ability to do mental calculation.
2. Children can’t spell correctly; their knowledge of word history and geography is non-existent
3. He didn’t want to compete with the hard-working Asians at U.C.L.A. He preferred a less
intellectually challenging life.
4. A modern industrial state cannot function with an idle, ignorant labor force.
5. To use the media to dramatize and drive home the message to today’s teenagers.
6. He is fed up with the book he is forced to red.
7. They can’t read or write. They place their hopes on their children.
8. He works as a cleaner in a factory owned by the Japanese.
9. Because he has no education, no useful skill, and no discipline.
10. Americans stop demanding good education foe children. Machines do all the complex work
and there is little manual work to be done.
countries.
11. Hard work education, saving and discipline help a nation rise from the ashes.
12. He finally comes to realize the importance of study.
Work on your own
1.
Part one paras.1-10
Teenagers’ idleness and ignorance will produce serious effects on all concerned and society as
a whole.
Part two paras.11-24
Kevin 1990 comes to realize in his dream how greatly lack of education costs his forebears,
himself, his children and the society they live in, and how important it is to study hard.
2.
Part one
Teenagers’ intellectual laziness and ignorance
Part two
Kevin 1990, his forebears(with the exception of his intellectual father),and his children lead a
poor, miserable life.
There is no law and order in the country.
Businesses in
Language sense enhancement
Indifference (1)
Summed up (2)
Preferred (3)
Financial （4）
Accumulated （5）
Intellectual （6）
Affect （7）
Industrial （8）
Idle （9）
Break down （10）
Vocabulary
I
1.
1. industrial
2. idle
3. is functioning
4. intellectual
5. scared
6. handful
7. luxury
8. private
9. work up
10. slice
11. miracle
12. was jammed
2.
1. to be seriously affected by the rise in gas prices。
2. is a matter of total indifference to me.
3. drove home the point that they needed extra people
4. was found after they searched for it for a long time
5. had run out of water by the time they got to the camp
3.
1. manual and complex its financial
2. was very upset make a living by swore was/became much better off
3. handful ignorant of paintings/ works summed up
II
1. The young man made $5 an hour in his summer job.
2. What made you change your mind?
3. I’m sure Jason will make a good lawyer.
4. The vet put something down the dog’s throat to make it vomit.
5. The story makes interesting reading.
6. Five and five make ten.
7. On foot they can only make about 20 miles a day.
8. I don’t think she’ll ever really make it to the top
III
1
(1) developing
(2) develop
(3) development
(4) develop
(5) developing developed
2
(1) amazed
(2) amazes
(3) amazingly
(4) amazing
(5) amazement
Comprehensive exercise
I. CLOZE
1. TEXT-RELATED
(1) complex
(2) idle
(3) make a living by
(4) accumulated
(5) affect
(6) function
(7) faculties
(8) ignorant
(9) wake up
2. THEME-RELATED
(1) dormitory
(2) passing
(3) leaping
(4) department
(5) burned
(6) destroyed
(7) seriously
(8) marriages
(9) report
(10) perspective
II TRANSLATION
1) Without his personal file, an applicant can hardly expect to get/ be employed as a teacher.
2) With enough ice, we would be able to chill the drinks.
3) In my humble opinion, reading us the most pleasant way to spend one’s leisure.
4) Some people said it was simply a miracle that the American athlete Michael Phelps won
eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
5) The washing machine has broken down, so we have to wash our clothes by hand.
This morning I heard an interesting piece of news over my portable radio: a man of 36 and his
son of 10 attend the same class competing with each other for high marks. The story goes/ It’s
like this:
The man, Li Wei by name, was too idle to learn anything when young. With little education, with
no useful skills, he could hardly earn an adequate living wage. His life experiences drove home to
him the point that he had to acquire knowledge before he was able to accumulate wealth. So Li
Wei swore that he would go to school with his son, determined to learn.
