Vote for Our Hero of the Year
Every month, Reader's Digest spotlights ordinary citizens who risk something big—their reputation, their money, sometimes even their livesto help someone else. Here we profile seven of the most extraordinary Americans we know. Whose story inspired you the most? Cast your vote at www. rd. com/everyday heroes. We'll update you on our winner in the April issue.
The Good Doctor
The tiny village of Bayou La Batre, Ala., had been without a doctor for several years when Regian Benjamin turned a shuttered pharmacy into a community clinic. And in they came—patients with problems you didn't often see in a medical school; shrimp poisoning from the seafood plants, fishhooks in eyebrows, shark bites.
In 1998 Hurricane Georges roared through, smashing everything in its path. The clinic was destroyed. For two years, Benjamin made house calls in her battered pickup, working weekends as an ER physician and running up her credit cards while rebuilding her clinic.
In June 2002, Benjamin, at 45, became the first woman and the first African American to be named president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. But her passion remains her patients. Every once in a while a headhunter calls with a job offer. For Benjamin the answer is easy: "Not interested."
The Shadow
Driving up a residential street in the quiet suburb of Clarkston, Wash., Kim Heimgartner noticed a man pulling a girl of 11 or so into a white sedan. The girl struggled, but the man yanked her by the backpack, shoved her into the backseat and sped off. "Maybe it was her dad," Heimgarmer wondered. Possibly. But...
With her own sixyearold daughter in her jeep. Heimgartner turned around and followed the sedan out of town. She dialed 911. I've witnessed a possible abduction, she explained, describing their remote location near a landfill.
Heimgartne's hunch (直觉) was right. After a threehour standoff with police, the kidnapper surrendered. In his car were a gun, knives, cameras, duct tape and 90 rounds of ammunition. He is now serving a 13year, 8month prison terms. And Heimgartner knows to trust her gut instinct.
The Brave Boy
"I went into the ditch and fiipped(翻转) over twice," recalls Tammy Hill of the accident on Thanksgiving, 2002. "Luckily, the kids were all in car seats. I went through the driver's side window." Hill's sevenyearold son, Titus Adams, suddenly became the head of the family. He wrapped blankets around his two younger sisters, crawled through the broken window and wearing only his pajamas and socks, walked toward the lights of a dairy farm a third of a mile away. Weather reports showed it was below freezing, and Titus was scared of the dark. Colorado State Trooper J. R. Peters was the first officer to arrive at the accident scene.' This kid was unbelievable, he said. Tammy's injuries were severing, but thanks to her son, she's going to be okay.
The Track Star
All Brad McCorkle intended that afternoon was meet his cousin, Kim, for lunch. But when be got to Valley Bank in Davenport, Iowa, where Kim worked as a teller, a man leapt over the gate by the teller's window and rushed past. Kim pointed at the man and mouthed to McCorkle, a former track star (田径明星), "Go get him!"
Across the street, through a supermarket parking lot, over a barbedwire fence, McCorkle chased the man, cornering him in somebody's backyard. When police arrived, they found $12,940 in the man's pocket. Coincidentally, the pursuit lasted a quarter of a mile—McCorkle's best distance. The robber was sentenced to ten years.
The Mountain Climber
At 13,000 feet, about to summit Colorado's Quandary Peak, Andy Kass and Matt Wisniewski felt like they were on top of the world. But in a flash, the snow beneath their feet cracked
A. Y
B. N
C. NG
听力原文: There was once a man in South America who had a parrot, a pet bird that could imitate human speech. The parrot was unique. There was no bird like him in the whole world. He could learn to say any word except one. He could not my the name of his native town, Ketunnel. The man did everything be could to teach the parrot to say Ketunnel, but be never succeeded. At first he was very gentle with the bird. But gradually, he lost his temper. "You stupid bird. Why can't you learn to say that one word? Say Ketunnel or I will kill you." But the parrot would not say it. Many times the man screamed, "Say Ketunnel, or I'll kill you." But the bird would never repeat the name. Finally, the man gave up. He picked up the parrot and threw him into the chicken house. "You are even more stupid than the chickens." In the chicken house, there were four old chickens, waiting to be killed for Sunday's dinner. The next morning, when he went out of the chicken house, the man opened the door. He was shocked by what he saw. He could not believe his eyes and ears. On the floor lay three dead chickens. The parrot was screaming at the fourth, "Say Ketunnel, or I'll kill you."
(26)
A. Because the bird couldn't repeat his master's name.
Because the bird screamed all day long.
C. Because the bird uttered the wrong word.
D. Because the bird failed to say the name of the town.