The Gift of Life
1.The bombs landed in the small village. Nobody knows what the bombs were suppod to hit during the terrible Vietnam War, but they landed in a small orphanage run by a missionary group.
[2]The missionaries and one or two children were killed, and veral children were wounded, including one young girl, about 8 years old, who suffered wounds to her legs.
[3]A couple of hours later, medical help arrived. The medical help was a young American Navy doctor and an equally young Navy nur. They quickly found one young girl to be very badly injured, and it was clear that without immediate action, she would die from loss of blood and shock.
[4]They saw that she had to have blood, but their limited supplies did not include plasma, so a matching blood type was required. A quick blood typing showed that neither American had the correct blood type. Several of the uninjured orphans did.
[5] The doctor spoke a little Vietname, and the nur spoke a little high-school French. The children spoke no English but some French. Using what little common language they could find, together with a lot of sign language, they tried to explain to the frightened children that unless they could give some
blood to their little friend she would certainly die. Then they asked if anyone would be willing to give blood to help.
[6] Their request was met with wide-eyed silence. Their little patient's life hung in the balance. Yet they could only get the blood if one of the frightened children would agree to give it. After veral long moments, a little hand slowly went up, dropped back down, and a moment later went up again.
long time no e什么意思[7] "Oh, thank you," the nur said in French. "What is your name?"
[8] "Heng," came the reply.
[9] Heng was quickly laid on a bed, his arm cleaned with alcohol, and the needle inrted into his arm. Through all of this Heng lay stiff and silent.
[10] After a moment, he let out a long sob, quickly covering his face with his free hand.
[11] "Is it hurting, Heng?" the doctor asked.
[12] Heng shook his head silently, but after a few moments another sob escaped,loans
and again he tried to cover up his crying. Again the doctor asked him if the needle in his arm was hurting, and again Heng shook his head.
[13] But now his occasional sob turned to a steady, silent crying, his eyes held tightly shut, his fist in his mouth trying to stop his sobs.
[14] The medical team now was very worried becau the needle should not have been hurting their tiny patient. Something was obviously very wrong. At this point, a Vietname nur arrived to help, and eing the little one's tears, spoke rapidly in Vietname, listened to his reply, and quickly answered him again. Moving over to pat his head as she talked, her voice was gentle and kind.
[15] After a moment, the little boy stopped crying, opened his eyes, and looked questioningly at the Vietname nur. When she nodded, a look of great relief spread over his face.
[16] Looking up, the Vietname nur said quietly to the Americans, "He thought he was dying. He misunderstood you. He thought you had asked him to give all his blood so the little girl could live."
[17] "But why would he be willing to do that?" asked the Navy nur.
[18] The Vietname nur repeated the question to the little boy, who answered simply, "She's my fr
iend."
[19] Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend. (595 words)
Love Thy Neighbor
preoccupyby Andy Rooney
[1] It ems to me that neighbors are going out of style in America. The friend next door from whom you borrowed four eggs or a ladder has moved, and the people in there now are strangers.
[2] Some of the old ideas about neighbors are probably silly, and it may be just as wellthat our relations with our neighbors are changing. The religious teaching to "Love Thy Neighbor" was probably a poor translation of what must have originally been "Respect Thy Neighbor".Love doesn't exist just becau we want it to.
[3] Fewer than half the people in the United States live in the same hou they lived in five years ago, so there's no reason to love the people who live next door to you just becau they happened to buy a hou next door to yours. The only thing neighbors have in common to begin with is being clo, and unless something more develops, thatisn’t reason enoughto be best friends. It sometimes
happens, but the chancesare very small that your neighbors will be your choice as friends. Or that you will be theirs, either.
[4] The best relationship with neighbors is one of friendly distance. You say hello, you sometimes talk if you e them in the yard, you discuss problems and you help each other when help is needed. The bushes or the fence between you is not a cold shoulder, but a clear boundary. We all like clearly defined boundaries for ourlves.
[5] If neighbors have changed, neighborhoods have not. They still have the same parts. If you live in a real neighborhood you can be sure most of the following people will be found there:
－One family with more children than they can take care of.
－A dogthat gets into garbage cans.hipster
－One big, beautiful home with a family so rich that they really aren't part of the neighborhood.
社交礼仪知识－A bad child who steals or ts fire to things, although no one has ever been able to prove it.
－People who leave their Christmas lights up until March.
－Someone who doesn't cut their grass more than twice a summer.
－Someone who cuts their grass twice a week and one of the times always ems to be Sunday morning at 7:30.
－A family that never ems to turn off any lights in the hou.
－A teenager who plays the radio too loud in the summer with the windows open.
－Someone who leaves their barking dog out until 11:30 most nights.
－One mystery couple. They come and go but hardly anyone ever es them and no one knows what they do.
－A couple that has loud parties all the time with guests that take an hour to leave once they get outside and start shouting good-bye to each other.mtbf
－Someone who doesn't pull the shades.
[6] It is easier to have a longing about a past neighborhood than about a past community, but a com
munity is probably a better unit. A neighborhood is just a group of people who live clo together, but a community is a group of people who put aside their own concerns to get some important things done for a larger group. (529 words)
We All Need Friends
by Melinda Marshall
[1] Having good old friends is a good thing, but making new ones can be even better. No matter what age we are, all of us appreciate the support and help which friends give us. The help may be for only a small thing, or it may be for something that could save our life. The size of the help or support is not really the most important thing, but the fact of having friends is very important.
[2] I've just made a new friend, Joan. She's not just another person I can talk with or wave to as we pass one another on the street, but a good friend. She is someone who will go out with me for lunch, or drop by my home for a cup of tea. She is someone who will listen and make me feel understood the next time I may feel sad or worried for no apparent reason.
[3] This is no small matter for me. I barely have enough time or energy to keep up with my old friend
s, let alonemake new ones. But, as I grow older -- and I am now 35 years old -- it is important to me to have a safety net of friends. Holes keep opening up in the net as old friends move away. I've got to spend the energy now to include new friends.
[4] Making friends is a lot like dating after a terrible breakup. You hesitate and drag your feet becau you can't believe you have to start over again. But when you do, it's not half as hard as you thought it would be, and it's twice as rewarding as you might have hoped.
accelerate[5] For example, I almost didn't meet Joan who is now one of my best friends. We
were at the city swimming pool, waiting for our 5-year-old sons to finish their swimming lessons. Joan was reading a book that I had read for my book club, and I wanted to say something, but didn't. It was almost as if I'd lost the ability to say hello.
[6] In the locker room we were together again as our sons got dresd and ready to go home. I said, mostly to her back, "What do you think of Amy Tan's writing?" She turned around, and like a teenager, I blushed. "Oh," she said, "I'm really enjoying The Bonetter's Daughter. I read Joy Luck Club, and she's been my favoritewriter since then."
[7] We talked after the next two lessons, compared our reading lists, and chad our sons out of the dressing room again. By the fifth swimming lesson, we arranged to spend a day together shopping in the city. That's pretty wild, don't you think for a person of my age?
初二语文复习资料
[8] I didn't always choo my friends. For years, I let fate choo them for me.situation
语言学习规律A new job, a new city, an expensive apartment made me be friends with people I'd never have said hello to otherwi. But, as I grew older I grew impatient with some of my friends, and I decided that accidental relationships don't always survive changes in life. Tho types of friends don't often help you during life's difficult times when you really need help.
[9] We can be ourlves with our friends, and that is a wonderful thing; too precious
a gift to deny other friends. It really doesn't take that much time, or that much effort to share the gift of making friends. (573 words)
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Special Delivery
[1] Arriving at the airport, I discovered that my brother's flight had been delayed for an hour. Usually when I wait around the airport to meet a flight, I pass the time by watching planes land and take off, but that evening I had a bad headache.
I thought the noi of jet engines might make it wor, so I decided to walk around inside the airport for a while.
[2] As I was walking by the shops, I happened to e a display of flight bags, which reminded me of my briefca. I realized that I was not carrying it now. Quickly I tried to remember where I might have left it. Knowing that I had not stopped anywhere since I left the airline ticket counter, I concluded I must have put it
