阅读理解

邵泽海

Words: 476Suggested time: 8 minutes

When plastic surgeon Geoff Williams saves a face, he also saves a life. Training with Taiwanese experts on a medical mission in Vietnam, he was astonished by the crowd that greeted them in one village: 200 mothers waiting with their children, all with cleft lips or palates(唇裂和腭裂). The women surrounded him, asking for help, as he entered the local hospital. “It was as if they were in a sinking ship,” Williams recalls, “and we were a lifeboat passing by.”

The surgeons could operate on only 25 to 30 children during their three-day stay. The rest had to be turned away. “It was devastating,” Williams says quietly. When his plane left Vietnam, he promised to go back.

Williams never planned to become a volunteer surgeon touring in the world. “I thought Id help these children for a couple of years and get it out of my system.” But that was five years ago. Williams, 53, now works full-time correcting facial deformities(畸形) in 12 countries, including Mexico, Tanzania, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, and Taiwan. He has performed almost 1,000 operations, most of them since he started his International Childrens Surgical Foundation—and he has no plans to stop.

His work is literally life-changing. Peruvian-born Danit Olivera, for instance, was diagnosed as an infant with a rare deformity. Danit underwent painful treatment that was ineffective. Depressed by the stares and insults(侮辱), she stopped attending school and holed up at home, convinced, she now says, that shed never awake from “a nightmare that had lasted my entire life.” Williams told the 19-year-old he could help. Now 20, Danit is thrilled to face the world.

Williams could be earning more than $1 million a year doing tummy tucks, face-lifts, and breast enlargements in the United States. A friend told him he was “throwing away my career, that I cant change the world.”

But hes never been motivated by money. When he earned $200,000 a year as a professor at a teaching hospital in Galveston, Texas, Williams lived in an apartment that cost $250 a month. He saved most of his paycheck and now lives off his savings. Because he travels most of the time and is single, he stays with his parents in Boise, Idaho, between missions (and insists on paying them $10 a day). “Im just not a guy who needs a new wardrobe every year,” he explains.

Williams is multiplying his impact by teaching other doctors the nuances of his skill. “The Vietnamese mothers drilled something into me: that their children really suffer. Their suffering can be alleviated—but not just by me. My real legacy is that I help to empower doctors and they empower other doctors, so this work has mushroomed into something larger than what any one person can do alone.”

1. Geoff Williams promised to go back when his plane left Vietnam because he _______.

A. started to like the country

B. had been welcomed warmly

C. felt he was badly needed there

D. expected to save more peoples lives

2. “His work is literally life-changing” means _____.

A. his work can save ones life

B. his work can change ones life

C. he encourages his patients to start a new life

D. his work is to change peoples life styles

3. The underlined word alleviate in the last paragraph probably means_____.

A. make sth. less painful B. clear sth. off

C. make sth. stronger D. smooth sth. away

4. It can be inferred from the passage that ______.

A. many people have started a new life with Williams help

B. Geoff Williams has being correcting facial deformities since he started work

C. facial deformities cant influence peoples life

D. people suffering from facial deformities tend to committ suicide

5. The passage mainly talks about _____.

A. the great sufferings resulting from facial deformities

B. the influence of Doctor Geoff Williams

C. Doctor Geoff Williams and his International Childrens Surgical Foundation

D. Doctor Geoff Williams and his hard work

答案及简析

1. C。 细节题。根据第一段后半部分和第二段开始可以看出当地人非常需要这样的医生。

2. C。 细节理解题。这句话是第四段的主题句。本段讲述了一个有这种畸形的青年人治疗前后的故事。

3. A。词义猜测题。由该词前所在句的语境提示可知,是“减轻”痛苦。

4. B。由第三段的最后可知。

5. D。主旨大意题。本文中心就是介绍Geoff Williams和他的事迹。