“铁轨上有孩子！”

——杰克·墨菲

   1989年5月1日，星期一，新泽西州的拉姆齐上午天气宜人。凯特·普里查德俯身站在车尾行李箱前，费力地收拾着刚买回家的一袋袋食品杂货。她听到远处火车的鸣笛声。联合铁路公司的火车经过的地方离普里查德家不到三百英尺，可在后院与铁轨之间没有栅栏，只有一排长得密密的树木。然而，她的两个儿子，三岁半的托德和十八个月的斯科特，就在近旁私家车道上玩耍。

    “就呆在这儿，”凯特说，“妈妈去把食品放好，然后我们进屋吃午饭，好吗？”

    “好！”托德一面说，一面竖起大拇指，做着他以前看他父亲做的这个手势。

    “好！”斯科特随声应和，试着模仿他哥哥的样子。

   他们望着母亲提着几个袋袋走进屋子。

    凯特关好冰箱门匆匆走出屋来。还好。两个孩子正在原地玩耍。

    当她从车后行李箱里又提出几个袋袋时，凯特听见有一列火车疾驶而过——是特快客车，她根据车速判断。她又将几个袋袋拿进屋去。

    火车的声音显然把两个孩子的注意吸引到铁轨上。两人穿过那排树木，爬上笔陡的路基，跪在地上玩了起来。

    往西几千英尺处，一辆货车缓缓地朝两个孩子驶来。头顶上的灯向司机里奇·坎普纳发出信号，指示前面那辆客车已经开走，他们可以每小时40英里的正常速度继续运行。司机调整了加速器，转身面对列车员安东尼·法尔佐。安东尼中等身材，长得结结实实，现年35岁，已经为联合铁路公司干了差不多十六、七年。

  “你周末都干点啥，安东尼？”

   “唉，不干什么。大多是瞎混——看点儿电视，然后睡觉。还能干什么？”

   坎普纳笑了。“嘿，你最好悠着点，安东尼——你都快成派对狂了。”

    两人哈哈大笑。就在他们大笑的时候，正以21英里的时速运行的机车开始加速。

    里奇和安东尼在同一瞬间发现火车前方有什么东西。

    “那前面是什么？”司机问道。安东尼没回答。他目不转睛盯着前方看，试图辨识前方铁轨上那怪形怪状的东西。是盒子？还是旧衣裳？

  猛然间，两个人都明白过来那是什么东西。里奇用尽全力猛地紧急刹车，并拉响了汽笛。

    汽笛嘶鸣，与此同时安东尼大声嚷道：“铁轨上有孩子！”

   安东尼冲出驾驶室，跳到车轮上方六英尺处一条狭窄人行踏板上，接着跑到摇摆的火车头前。他疾速攀下铁梯，停在梯子最后一级上，离他脚下飞速掠过的铁路路基有两英尺。

    现在，他可以清楚地看到两个孩子，他们正坐在铁轨旁边。安东尼拼命挥手示意，并大声喊叫：“走开！走开！”

    他心里计算着火车的减速速度，痛苦地哼了一声。我们绝对不可能及时停车的。

    托德和斯科特正玩得起劲，没听到火车的声音。最后，当火车轰隆隆驶近时，斯科特抬头一看，惊呆了。

    尽管火车在减速，安东尼知道车速仍比他奔跑的速度快。所以，他强迫自己等待，等到离孩子足够近的时候，他再一跃而下一把将他们抓住。在孩子与火车头前的犁雪机锋利的雪铲只有约十英尺的时候，安东尼从梯子上纵身向前一跃。他落在铁轨旁拳头大小的散石上，使尽力气才保持住平衡。他跨出两大步，几乎就要够着两个孩子了。两个孩子吓坏了，目瞪口呆地望着他。安东尼纵身跃起，朝他们扑去。

    火车汽笛不停地嘶鸣，凯特·普里查德听着就像是被铁锤猛击了一下。“孩子！”她一声惊叫，冲出屋门。两个孩子不见了！

    铁道，她心想。我得去铁道那儿！

    安东尼身子砸下地时，他一边护着托德，一边伸出一只手臂去抓斯科特，好把他拉离铁轨。但火车压了过来。安东尼只见雪铲的黑色钢刃击中幼孩的下巴，将他的头往后一推，铲子从他脸上括过。顿时，鲜血从孩子额头溅出。

    车身猛撞安东尼工作服的后背，把尼龙布都撕破了。但安东尼还是把斯科特完全拉到了自己身下。

    凯特奔到停下的火车前，首先看到的便是托德。她的大儿子失去控制，在那儿乱蹦乱跳，大声哭喊。但凯特看出他没受伤。她抓过他紧紧抱住。随后她看见第三节车厢下一动不动躺着一个人。只见这人身子下面斯科特的脑袋上黑糊糊一片血污。凯特冲过去。“斯科特！”她尖声叫道。

    安东尼扭转身子面对着她。“女士，”他对她说，声音很镇静，“回家去。叫警察和救护车来。”凯特没听进他的话，伸着手要抱孩子。安东尼又开口了，口气严厉了许多，“夫人，听着！回家打电话叫警察——叫救护车，快！”

   凯特飞奔回家，打了电话，又通过寻呼机找到她丈夫加里。

    第一辆警车到达时，安东尼仍然紧抱着年幼的斯科特。列车员从孩子的哭声知道他还活着，但斯科特可能有内伤，稍一动弹就有可能加重伤势。因此安东尼坚持让急救人员先对孩子进行检查，然后才放手。真是奇迹，斯科特伤势不重，只需缝十三针。

   雪铲与地面之间只有十四英寸。记者后来问安东尼他在冒生命危险救孩子之前有否犹豫。

    “没有，”他回答道，“我当时所想到的就是那两个孩子前头还有整个人生，如果我不采取行动，他们必死无疑。我决不能让这样的悲剧发生。”

    事故发生后不久，安东尼去普里查德家探望。他还记得他用双臂抱住托德和斯科特并将两人举起的情景。“这让我想起当时在火车底下我护着他们的情景。再一次抱住他们的感觉是奇特的——也是美妙的。”

    普里查德夫妇说，自从第一次来探望之后，安东尼几乎成了他们家庭的一员。他们还说，现在有道栅栏把他们的街坊与铁轨隔开了。

Content Questions

Pair Work

1. He thinks animals will probably do their best thinking when it serves their own purposes, not when scientists ask them to.

2. Because he believes they may encounter animal intelligence in their daily life.

3. He regards them as a new window on animal intelligence.

4. She wanted to get more pineapple.

5. He expanded the money supply by breading chips in two.

6. It shows he is clever and sly. He ate up the fruit leaving nothing but stems to share with Miles.

7. They say that animals cooperate when they learn it is in their interest to do so.

8. The author thinks that what behaviorists say is right, but he doesn’t think their explanation is satisfactory enough.

9. Because Orky was the most intelligent animal she had worked with.

10. Corky is a female whale because she is Orky’s mate and delivered a baby whale.

11. Because she thought the orange must have rolled off somewhere inaccessible.

12. Towan hid his orange underneath his foot. The act reveals some animals are intelligent enough to know how to deceive.

Text Organization

1. Eugene Linden wants to tell the reader that animals do have, at least, some limited intelligence, and the personal experiences of those who are in close contact with animals are more convincing evidence than that any experiments can provide.

2. Let’s Make a Deal: Some animals are intelligent enough to know how to bargain with people.

Tale of a Whale: Animals like whales can assess a situation and act accordingly.

Primate Shell Game: Animals can attempt to deceive.

Language Sense Enhancement

1. (1) controversy  (2) consciousness  (3) explore  (4) serves their own purposes

(5) encounter  (6) lack of it  (7) convinced  (8) mental feats  (9) captivity  (10) humans

Language Focus

I. Vocabulary

1. 1) go (very) far  2) has expanded  3)  in the interest(s) of  4) only to

5) encountered  6) has cooperated  7) assessed  8) (had) switched

9) horizons  10) gaze  11) disaster  12) wiped out

2. 1) … a long/long running controversy over whether the book should be published or not

2) … felt relieved after her first meeting with Tom had gone smoothly

3) ... suddenly went wrong with my computer when I was in the middle of writing the essay

4) … is obvious that our company is still maintaining its composition as market leader in software.

5) … give in until they give her a pay rise

3. 1) have undertaken, original, to explore

2) evidence convinced, underneath, extending to

3) to negotiate, encounter, to figure out, explore

II. Confusable Words

1. firstly  2. first, first  3. At first  4. First/Firstly

5. first  6. First  7. at first  8. first

III. Usage

1. animal intelligence     whose

2. zoo keeper            where

3. eye contact           through what

4. money supply         of what

5. killer whale          what kind

6. baby whale           how old

7. family member        of what

8. sea turtle             what kind/where

Comprehensive Exercises

I. Cloze

1. (1) emergency  (2) evidence  (3) original  (4) sizing up

(5) negotiates  (6) reveal  (7) make a deal  (8) dominant

(9) in their interest(s)  (10) deceiving  (11) controversy  

(12) judgment   (13) explore

2. (1) protect  (2) However  (3) type  (4) situation  (5) sights

(6) together  (7) rang  (8) associate  (9) without  (10) environment

II. Translation

1.

1) A local business undertook the project but went bankrupt before it was completed.

2) Let’s make a deal—you wash my car, and I’ll let you use it tonight.

3) We got to the village which we thought must have been wiped out in the severe earthquake, only to find it slightly damaged.

4) My garden is dry and shady—few plants thrive in that condition

5) Mystery still surrounds the exact truth behind the film star’s death/exact circumstance of the film star’s death.

2. 

When I was young I used to visit the zoo in my hometown. There what attracted me most was a couple of tigers, especially the male. They were dept in a huge iron cage at first, but later were released from it and moved to a place called Tiger Hill. Twenty years later I revisited the zoo and was relieved to find Tiger Hill was still there, but greatly extended. Moving around now were six tigers, old and young, instead of two!