大學英語綜合教程第一冊 Unit 7a
[00:00.00] At first it seemed as if it might just be an old box or rags ahead of the train.
[00:06.79]But then they realized just what it was.
[00:10.92]"KIDS ON THE TRACK!" by Jack Murphu
[00:15.86]Monday,May1,1989 was a pleasant morning in Ramsey
[00:23.69]N.L Kate Pritchard bent over her car trunk
[00:27.40]and struggled with the bags of groceries she'd just brought home
[00:32.44]She heard the distant cry of a locomotive horn.
[00:36.70]The trans of Conrail passed less than 300 feet from the Pritchards' house
[00:44.09]No fence separated their backyard from the track only a thick row of trees
[00:50.94]But,her sons,31/2-year-old Todd and 18-month-old Scott,
[00:57.68]were nearby,playing on the driveway.
[01:02.12]"Stay right there,"Kate said,"while Mommy puts the groceries away.
[01:07.89]Then we'll go inside and have lunch,okay?"
[01:12.65]"Okay!"said Todd,giving a thumbs-up gesture he'd seen his father make.
[01:19.70]"kay!"echoed Scott,trying to copy his older brother.
[01:25.66]They watched their mother enter the house with several bags.
[01:30.10]Kate shut the refrigerator and hurried outside.
[01:34.30]Good.The boys were plaing right where she'd left them.
[01:39.74]As she lifted more bags from the trunk,
[01:43.58]Kate heard a train race past a passenger express,she judged from its speed
[01:50.63]She carried more bags into the house.
[01:54.23]The sounds of the train apparently drew the boys' attention to the track.
[02:00.24]After making their way through the trees
[02:04.79]they climbed to the top of the steep roadbed,
[02:09.15]knelt down along the railroad and began to play.
[02:14.11]A few thousand feet west,a freight train rolled slowly toward the children
[02:22.05]Overhead lights signaled to enginaeer Rich Campana
[02:27.20]that the passenger train ahead was out of the way.
[02:32.16]and they could resume their normal speed of 40 miles per hour.
[02:38.54]The engineer adjusted the accelerator
[02:43.08]then turned to conductor Anthony Falzo
[02:47.84]a man medium in height and strongly built,
[02:52.80]who had worked for Conrail for almost half of his 35 years.
[02:58.86]"So what'd you do over the weekend,Anthony?"
[03:04.22]"Oh,not much.Mostly messing around a little TV,then bed. What else?"
[03:13.88]Campana smiled.
[03:16.44]Hey,you'd better cool down,Anthony you're getting to be a real party animal
[03:23.52]The two men laughed.
[03:25.98]They were still laughing as the train began gathering speed,
[03:31.54]moving at 21 miles per hour.
[03:35.69]Rich and Anthony spotted something ahead at the same instant.
[03:42.15]"What's that up there?"asked the engineer.Anthony didn't answer.
[03:48.91]Staring intently,he was trying to identify the curious shape on the track ahead
[03:56.36]A box ? Old rags ?
[04:01.03]Suddenly both men realized what it was
[04:05.97]Rich threw on the emergency brake
[04:09.52]and pulled on the air-horn handle with all his strength.
[04:14.20]The horn's blast and Anthony's words exploded at the same time:
[04:20.44]"Kids'on the Track!"
[04:22.90]Anthony sprang through the cab door onto a narrow running board
[04:28.25]six feet above the wheels and raced
[04:33.01]to the front of the swaying train.
[04:36.45]Climbing quickly down a steel ladder,he paused at the bottom
[04:41.73]two feet above the roadbed flashing by.
[04:46.46]Now he could clearly see the two little children.
[04:51.11]They were sitting alongside the raih
[04:54.95]Anthony waved wildly and shouted,"Get away! Get away!"
[05:01.30]He mentally calculated the train's deceleration rate and groaned.
[05:07.07]We'1l never stop in time.
[05:10.62]Absorbed in play,Todd and Scott did not hear the train.
[05:16.55]Finally,as the sound became thunderous,Scott looked up and froze.
[05:23.60]Though the train was slowing,
[05:26.56]Anthony knew it was still going faster than he could run
[05:31.31]So he forced himself to wait
[05:34.76]until he would be close enough to leap off and grab the boys
[05:40.79]With perhaps ten feet left between them
[05:45.03]and the sharp-edged snowplow blade at the front of the train
[05:50.77]Anthony sprang forward frogm the ladder.
[05:54.43]Landing on the loose,fist-size stones along side the track
[06:00.49]he had to struggle to keep his balance.
[06:03.81]In two giant steps he almost reached the children
[06:09.66]They stared up at him in wide-eyed shock.
[06:13.32]Anthony,throwing his body into space,flew toward them.
[06:19.59]The unending blast of the train horn struck Kate Pritchard like a hammer blow
[06:26.01]"The boys!"she cried,and raced out the door.They were gone!
[06:31.86]The track, she thought. I must get to the track!
[06:37.71]As his body crashed downward
[06:41.66]Anthony covered Todd while reaching out with one arm to grab Scott
[06:47.12]and pull him clear of the track
[06:50.67]But the train had caught up to them.
[06:54.01]Anthony saw the black steel edge of the snow plow blad
[06:59.76]hit the young child under the chin,
[07:02.87]driving his head back and scraping over his face
[07:08.33]Instantly, blood flashed across the boy's forehead.
[07:13.68]Part of the train then punched into the back of Anthony's work jacket,
[07:19.04]tearing the nylon fabric.Still
[07:23.69]Anthony managed to pull Scott completely under him.
[07:29.62]He's dead,Anthony thought.
[07:32.78]He felt sick with horror.Burying his face in the stones
[07:38.71]he pushed downward on the two boys with all his strength
[07:43.54]as the train passed inches above them.
[07:48.30]The first person Kate saw when she reached the halted train was Tod
[07:54.46]Her older boy was jumping up and down and crying uncontrollably.
[08:00.81]But Kate could see he wasn't injured
[08:05.46]She grabbed and hugged him.
[08:08.02]Then she saw the still figure of a man lying under the third car
[08:14.24]Sott's head,a mask of darkening blood,was visible under him.
[08:21.05]Kate ran to them. "Scott!" she screamed.
[08:26.12]Anthony twisted to face her.
[08:29.44]"Lady,"he said, his voice calm,"go to your house.
[08:36.10]Call the police and ambulance.
[08:39.97]Kate,only half hearing him,extended her arms to take her baby.
[08:45.30]Anthony spoke again
[08:48.46]more sharply,"Ma'am, listen!
[08:52.40]Go to your house and call the police-call an ambulance. Go!"
[09:00.34]Kate tore back to the house,
[09:03.11]made the calls,then reached her husband, Gary,via his beeper.
[09:09.07]When the first police car arrived,Anthony was still holding little Scott.
[09:15.60]The conductor knew from the child's cries
[09:19.83]that he was alive,
[09:22.16]but Scott might have intermal injuries that any movement could worsen
[09:28.82]So Anthony insisted the emergency personnel
[09:34.17]check the boy before he would release his grip
[09:38.93]Miraculously,Scott's injuries were not serious,requiring just 13 stitches.
[09:48.17]There had only been 14 inches between the plow blade and the ground
[09:55.83]Reporters later asked Anthony if he had hesitated before risking his life.
[10:02.98]"No,"he replied.
[10:05.41]"All I could think was that those two little kids
[10:10.06]have their whole lives still ahead of them
[10:13.69]and if I do nothing,they're dead.
[10:17.51]There was no way I could let that happen."
[10:21.77]Soon after the incident,Anthony visited the Pritchards'home
[10:27.02]He recalls putting his arms around Todd and Scott and lifting them.
[10:33.03]"It made me remember the moment
[10:36.37]when I first sheltered them under the train.
[10:40.31]It was a strange feeling,holding them again and wonderful too."
[10:47.26]Since that first visit,
[10:49.90]the Pritchards say that Anthony has almost become a member of the family
[10:55.18]They also report
[10:57.92]that a fence now separates their neighborhood from the railroad track.
[11:04.76]trunk\ struggle with\ grocery\ locomotive
[11:12.71]horn\ nearby\ thumbs-up\ gesture
[11:18.58]echo\ draw sb's attention to\ steep\ kneel
[11:25.53]freight\ overhead\ signal\ out of the way
[11:31.59]resume\ per\ accelerator\ conductor
[11:37.76]medium\ mess\ mess around\ hey
[11:43.01]cool down\ spot\ instant\ intently
[11:48.96]rag\ brake\ pull out\ with all one's strength
[11:54.92]blast\ explode\ sway\ flash
[12:00.82]calculate\ deceleration\ groan\ thunderous
[12:07.77]leap\ grab\ blade\ loose
[12:13.34]hammer\ crash\ reach out\ clear of
[12:19.11]scrape\ instantly\ forehead\ punch
[12:24.75]nylon\ fabric\ horror\ up and down
[12:30.71]injure\ hug\ mask\ visible
[12:36.45]twist\ ambulance\ ma'am\ via
[12:42.49]beeper\ internal\ miraculously\ stitch
[12:48.42]risk no way incident\ shelter
