大一考试必看(全)新编大学英语1课文内容

The Gift of Life

1.The bombs landed in the small village. Nobody knows what these bombs were supposed 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 several 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 nurse. 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 Vietnamese, and the nurse 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 these 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 these frightened children would agree to give it. After several long moments, a little hand slowly went up, dropped back down, and a moment later went up again.

[7] "Oh, thank you," the nurse 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 inserted 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, 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 because the needle should not have been hurting their tiny patient. Something was obviously very wrong. At this point, a Vietnamese nurse arrived to help, and seeing the little one's tears, spoke rapidly in Vietnamese, 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 Vietnamese nurse. When she nodded, a look of great relief spread over his face.

[16] Looking up, the Vietnamese nurse 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 nurse.

[18] The Vietnamese nurse repeated the question to the little boy, who answered simply, "She's my friend."

[19] Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend. (595 words)

Love Thy Neighbor

by Andy Rooney

[1] It seems 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 because we want it to.

[3] Fewer than half the people in the United States live in the same house they lived in five years ago, so there's no reason to love the people who live next door to you just because they happened to buy a house next door to yours. The only thing neighbors have in common to begin with is being close, 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 see 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 ourselves.

[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.

－One big, beautiful home with a family so rich that they really aren't part of the neighborhood.

－A bad child who steals or sets 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 …… 此处隐藏：40622字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……