大学英语 2 Unit 5

大学英语2 Unit 5 TRUE HEIGHT' His palms were sweating. He needed a towel to dry his grip. The sun was as hot as the competition he faced today at the National Junior Olympics. The pole was set at 17 feet. That was three inches higher than his personal best. Michael Stone confronted the most challenging day of his pole-vaulting career. 2 The stands were still filled with about 20,000 people, even though the final race had ended an hour earlier. The pole vault is truly the highlight of any track and field competition. It combines the grace of a gymnast with the strength of a body builder. It also has the element of flying, and the thought of flying as high as a two-story building is a mere fantasy to anyone watching such an event. 3 As long as Michael could remember he had always dreamed of flying. Michael's mother read him numerous stories about flying when he was growing up. Her stories were always ones that described the land from a bird's-eye view2. Her excitement and passion for details made Michael's dreams full of color and beauty. Michael had this one recurring dream. He would be running down a country road. As he raced between golden wheat fields, he would always outrun the locomotives passing by. It was at the exact moment he took a deep breath that he began to lift off the ground. He would begin soaring like an eagle. 4 Where he flew would always coincide with his mother's stories.' Wherever he flew was with a keen eye for detail and the free spirit of his mother's love. His dad, on the other hand, was not a dreamer. Bert Stone was a hardcore realist. He believed in hard work and sweat. His motto: If you want something, work for it! 5 From the age of 14, Michael did just that. He began a very careful training program. He worked out every other day with weightlifting, with some kind of running work on alternate days. The program was carefully monitored by Michael's coach, trainer and father. Michael's dedication, determination and discipline was a coach's dream. Besides being an honor student and only child, Michael Stone continued to help his parents with their farm chores. Mildred Stone, Michael's mother, wished he could relax a bit more and be that "free dreaming" little boy. On one occasion she attempted to talk to him and his father about this, but his dad quickly interrupted, smiled and said, "You want something, work for it!" 6 All of Michael's vaults today seemed to be the reward for his hard work. If Michael Stone was surprised, excited or vain about clearing the bar at 1 7 feet, you couldn't tell. As soon as he landed on the inflated landing mat, and with the crowd on its feet2, Michael immediately began preparing for his next attempt at flight. He seemed unaware of the fact that he had just beaten his personal best by three inches and that he was one of the final two competitors in the pole-vaulting event at the National Junior Olympics. 7 When Michael cleared the bar at 17 feet 2 inches and 17 feet 4 inches, again he showed no emotion. As he lay on his back and heard the crowd groan, he knew the other vaulter had missed his final jump. He knew it was time for his final jump. Since the other vaulter had fewer misses, Michael needed to clear this vault to win. A miss would get him second place. Nothing to be ashamed of, but Michael would not allow himself the thought of not winning firstplace. 8 He rolled over and did his routine of three finger-tipped push-ups. He found his pole, stood and stepped on the runway that led to the most challenging event of his 17-year-old life. 9 The runway felt different this time. It startled him for a brief moment. Then it all hit him like a wet bale of hay1. The bar was set at nine inches higher than his personal best. That's only one inch off the National record, he thought. The intensity of the moment filled his mind with anxiety. He began shaking the tension. It wasn't working. He became more tense. Why was this happening to him now, he thought. He began to get nervous. Afraid would be a more accurate description. What was he going to do? He had never experienced these feelings. Then out of nowhere, and from the deepest depths of his soul, he pictured his mother. Why now? What was his mother doing in his thoughts at a time like this? It was simple. His mother always used to tell him when you felt tense, anxious or even scared, take deep breaths. 10 So he did. Along with shaking the tension from his legs, he gently laid his pole at his feet. He began to stretch out his arms and upper body. The light breeze that was once there was now gone. He carefully picked up his pole. He felt his heart pounding. He was sure the crowd did, too. The silence was deafening. When he heard the singing of some distant birds in flight, he knew it was his time to fly. 11 As he began sprinting down the runway, something felt wonderfully different, yet familiar. The surface below him felt like the country road he used to dream about. Visions of the golden wheat fields seemed to fill his thoughts. When he took a deep breath, it happened. He began to fly. His take-off was effortless. Michael Stone was now flying, just like in his childhood dreams. Only1 this time he knew he wasn't dreaming. This was real. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The air around him was the purest and freshest he had ever sensed. Michael was soaring like an eagle. 12 It was either the eruption of the people in the stands or the thump of his landing that brought Michael back to earth. On his back with that wonderful hot sun on his face, he knew he could only see in his mind's eye the smile on his mother's face. He knew his dad was probably smiling too, even laughing. What he didn't know was that his dad was hugging his wife and crying. That's right: Bert "If You Want It, Work For It" Stone was crying like a baby in his wife's arms. He was crying harder than Mildred had ever seen before. She also knew he was crying the greatest tears of all: tears of pride. Michael was immediately surrounded by people hugging and con-gratulating him on the greatest accomplishment of his life. He later went on that day to clear 17 feet 6V2 inches: a National and International Junior Olympics record. 13 With all the media attention and sponsorship possibilities, Michael's life would never be the same again. It wasn't just because he won the National Junior Olympics and set a new world record. And it wasn't because he had just increased his personal best by 9Vz inches. It was simply because Michael Stone is blind. FOURTEEN STEPS1 They say a cat has nine lives2, and I am inclined to think that possible since I am now living my third life and I'm not even a cat. 2 My first life began on a clear, cold day in November, 1904, when I arrived as the sixth of eight children of a farming family. My father died when I was 15, and we had a hard struggle to make a living. I had to wait until the early years of my marriage before I really began to enjoy my first life. But then I was very happy, in excellent health, and quite a good athlete. My wife and I became the parents of two lovely girls. I had a good job in San Jose and a beautiful home in San Carlos. 3 Life was a pleasant dream. 4 Then the dream ended and became one of those horrible nightmares that cause you to wake in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. I began to suffer from a slowly progressive disease of the motor nerves, affecting first my right arm and leg, and then my other side. 5 Thus began my second life.... 6 In spite of my disease I still drove to and from work each day, with the aid of special equipment installed in my car. And I managed to keep healthy and optimistic, to a degree, because of 14 steps. 7 Crazy? Not at all. 8 Our home was a split-level affair1with 14 steps leading up from the garage to the kitchen door. Those steps were my yardstick, my challenge to continue living. (1)1 felt that if the day arrived when I was unable to lift one foot up one step and then drag the other painfully after it—repeating the process 14 times until, utterly spent2.1 would be through — I could then admit defeat and lie down and die. 9 Sol kept on working, kept on climbing those steps. And time passed. The girls went to college and were happily married, and my wife and I were alone in our beautiful home with the 14 steps. 10 You might think that here walked a man of courage and strength. Not so. Here hobbled a bitterly disillusioned cripple, a man who held on to his sanity and his wife and his home and his job because of 14 miserable steps leading up to the back door from his garage. 11 As I became older, I became more disillusioned and frustrated. I'm sure that my wife and friends had some unhappy times when I chose to talk about my philosophy of life. (2) I believed that in this whole world I alone . had been chosen to suffer. Ihad carried my cross3now for nine years and probably would bear it for as long as I could climb those 14 steps. 12 Then on a dark night in August, 1971,1 began my third life. It was raining when I started home that night, beating down hard on the car as I drove slowly down one of the less-traveled roads. Suddenly the steering 4 wheel jumped in my hands as one of the tires burst with a bang. I fought the car to a stop and sat there as the terrible nature of the situation swept over me. It was impossible for me to change that tire! Utterly impossible! 13 A thought that a passing motorist might stop was dismissed at once. Why should anyone? I knew I wouldn't! Then I remembered that a short distance up a little side road was a house. I started the engine and drove slowly along until I came to the house. Lighted windows welcomed me as I pulled into the driveway and honked the horn. 14 The door opened and a little girl stood there, peering at me. I rolled down the window and called out that I had a flat and needed someone to change it for me because I had a crutch and couldn't do it myself. 15 She went into the house and a moment later came out bundled in raincoat and hat, followed by a man who called a cheerful greeting. 16 I sat there comfortable and dry, and felt a bit sorry for the man and the little girl working so hard in the storm. Well, I would pay them for it. The rain seemed to be easing a bit now, and I rolled down the window to watch. It seemed to me that they were awfully slow and I was beginning to become impatient. I heard the little girl's voice from the back of the car. "Here's the jack-handle, Grandpa." She was answered by the murmur of the man's lower voice and the slow tilting of the car as it was jacked up. 17 There followed a long interval of noises and low conversation from the back of the car, but finally it was done. I felt the car bump as the jack was removed, and I heard the slam of the trunk lid, and then they were standing at my car window. 18 He was an old man, bent and slightly built. The little girl was about eight or ten, I judged, with a merry face and a wide smile as she looked up at me. 19 He said, 'This is a bad night for car trouble, but you're all set now." 20 "Thanks," I said, "thanks. How much do I owe you?" 21 He shook his head. "Nothing. Cynthia told me you were on crutches. Glad to be of help. I know you'd do the same for me. There's no charge, Mend." 22 I held out a five-dollar bill. "No! I like to pay my way." 23 He made no effort to take it and the little girl stepped closer to the window and said quietly, "Grandpa can't see it." 24 (3) In the next few frozen seconds the shame and horror of that moment penetrated, and I was sick with an intensity I had never felt before. A blind man and a child! Feeling with cold, wet fingers for bolts and tools in the dark— a darkness that for him would probably never end until death. 2 5 They changed a tire for me—changed it in the rain and wind, with me i sitting in comfort in the car with my crutch. I don't remember how long I sat there after they said good night and left me, but it was long enough for me to search deep within myself and find some disturbing traits. 26 (4) I realized that I was filled to overflowing with self-pity, selfishness, and indifference to the needs of others. ? 27 I sat there and said a prayer. I prayed for strength, for a greater understanding, for keener awareness of my shortcomings. 28 I prayed for blessings upon the blind man and his granddaughter. Finally I drove away, shaken in mind, humbled in spirit. 29 I am trying now not only to climb 14 steps each day, but in my small % way to help others. Someday, perhaps, I'll have the chance to help a blind man in equal difficulties—someone as blind as I had been.