A rescue of kindness一次善意的救助

丁彩虹

就在一位患有痴呆症的老奶奶困在一栋着火的房子里的危急时刻，查克·里斯勇敢地救下了她。

主题语境：好人好事 篇幅：306词 建议用时：6分钟

1 They had just finished lunch at a café—Chuck Rees， his wife， Laurie， and hermother， Ann Marie Effert. Then Rees， 51， spotted smoke rising from a hill a few blocksaway.“Let’s get up there！”he cried.

2 Keeping the dark smoke in sight， the three drove through unfamiliar streets and eventuallycame to a white twostoreyhouse. Rees pulled his car alongside a couple standing infront of the house.“Anybody in there？”he asked them.“I knocked， but nobody answered，”the man said.“We’ve called 911.”

3 Rees parked his car.“Chuck， don’t，”Laurie said， although she knew he wouldn’t listen.He’d once dropped the phone in the middle of a conversation with her to chase a pursesnatcher （抢劫者）. He pointed to the flames.“Laurie， I’ve got to，”he said， and jumped outof the car.

4 Rees ran up the driveway along the right side of the house， hoping to find the sourceof the fire. A locked gate blocked his way into the backyard. He climbed over it. Soon hespotted an elderly woman through the back window. Barefoot and dressed in jeans， shelooked confused， as if he had awakened her. She opened the door for him. The fire raged（肆虐） in the kitchen and dining area to their left. He quickly guided the woman backthrough a doorway and took the woman to safety. Moments later， flames swallowed thehouse.

5 Exhausted and covered in soot （煤烟）， Rees climbed back into his car and drove his wife and motherinlawhome before anyone got his name. That night， the local news re⁃ported that an anonymous man had rescued an elderly woman with dementia （痴呆）from her burning house. Effert proudly called the media to identify her soninlawas thehero.

6 But he didn’t do it for fame. Rees said，“It was something that needed to be done.”

Reading Check

Detail

1. How did Rees and his family find the burning house？

A. They followed the smoke.

B. They checked door by door.

C. They used a city map.

D. They asked a couple.

Inference

2. Where was the elderly woman when Rees found her？

A. In the house. B. In the pool.

C. In the backyard. D. In the garage.

Vocabulary

3. Which word could possibly replace the underlined word“anonymous”

in paragraph 5？

A. Ambitious. B. Unknown.

C. Irresponsible. D. Elderly.

Inference

4. What can we infer about Rees from this text？

A. Rees got famous after the incident.

B. Rees told the press his name.

C. Rees had helped other people before.

D. Rees was the first one to get to the house.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Text⁃centered chunks

spot 看见；发现

in sight 看得见；被看到

unfamiliar 不熟悉的；陌生的

jump out of 跳出

climb over 爬過

source 来源；根源

identify 确认；认出

Ⅱ. Difficult sentences in the text

1. Barefoot and dressed in jeans， she looked confused， as if he had awakened her. 她赤着脚，穿着牛仔裤，看上去很困惑，好像他吵醒了她一般。

【点石成金】此句中，Barefoot and dressed in jeans为形容词和过去分词短语作定语；as if引导的状语从句使用了虚拟语气，对过去的情况进行了相反的假设，运用了过去完成时。

2. That night， the local news reported that an anonymous man had rescued an elderlywoman with dementia from her burning house. 那天晚上，当地的新闻报道说，一个匿名男子从燃烧的房子里救出了一位患有痴呆症的老妇人。

【点石成金】此句中，that引导宾语从句，从句作reported的宾语；with dementia为介词短语作定语，修饰an elderly woman。