The Boy with the Billion-Dollar Secret 怀有亿万美元秘密的男孩

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[00:02.36]The Boy with the Billion-Dollar Secret 怀有亿万美元秘密的男孩

[00:06.60]One day in 1965, when I was a librarian

[00:11.21]at View Ridge¹ School in Seattle a fourth-grade teacher approached me.

[00:16.24]She had a student who finished his work before all the others

[00:19.51]and needed a challenge. “Could he help in the library?” she asked.

[00:23.47]I said, “Send him along.”

[00:25.74]Soon a slight, sandy-haired boy in jeans and a T-shirt appeared.

[00:29.46]“Do you have a job for me?” he asked.

[00:32.18]I told him about the Dewey Decimal System for shelving books.

[00:35.27]He picked up the idea immediately.

[00:37.46]Then I showed him a stack of cards for long-overdue books

[00:40.96]that I was beginning to think had actually been returned

[00:43.60]but were miss-shelved with the wrong cards in them.

[00:47.42]He said, “Is it kind of a detective job?”

[00:50.80]I answered “yes”. And he became an unrelenting sleuth.

[00:54.75]He had found three books with wrong cards

[00:57.48]by the time his teacher opened the door and announced,

[00:59.98]“Time for recess²!” He argued for finishing the job;

[01:03.61]she made the case for fresh air. She won.

[01:06.66]The next morning, he arrived early.

[01:08.42]“I wanted to finish finding those books,” he said.

[01:11.13]At the end of the day, when he asked to be a librarian on a regular basis,

[01:15.73]it was easy to say yes. He worked untiringly.

[01:19.47]After a few weeks I found a note on my desk,

[01:22.29]inviting me to dinner at the boy’s home.

[01:24.72]At the end of a pleasant evening, his mother announced

[01:27.99]that the family would be moving to the adjoining school district.

[01:31.15]Her son’s first concern, she said, was leaving the View Ridge library.

[01:35.95]“Who will find the lost books?” he asked.

[01:38.59]When the time came, I said a reluctant good-bye.

[01:41.53]Though initially³ he had seemed an ordinary kid, his zeal⁴ had set him apart.

[01:46.25]I missed him, but not for long.

[01:48.77]A few days later he popped in the door and joyfully⁵ announced,

[01:52.36]“The librarian over there doesn’t let boys work in the library.

[01:56.10]My mother got me transferred back to View Ridge.

[01:58.83]My dad will drop me off on his way to work.

[02:01.22]And if he can’t I’ll walk.”

[02:02.98]I should have had an inkling such focused determination

[02:06.68]would take that young man wherever he wanted to go.

[02:09.43]What I could not have guessed, however,

[02:11.83]was that he would become a wizard of the Information Age:

[02:15.24]Bill Gates, tycoon⁶ of Microsoft and America’s richest man.

1 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

2 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

3 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

4 zeal   

n.热心，热情，热忱

参考例句：

• Revolutionary zeal caught them up,and they joined the army.革命热情激励他们，于是他们从军了。
• They worked with great zeal to finish the project.他们热情高涨地工作，以期完成这个项目。

5 joyfully   

adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地

参考例句：

• She tripped along joyfully as if treading on air. 她高兴地走着，脚底下轻飘飘的。
• During these first weeks she slaved joyfully. 在最初的几周里，她干得很高兴。

6 tycoon   

n.有钱有势的企业家，大亨

参考例句：

• The tycoon is on the verge of bankruptcy.那名大亨濒临破产的边缘。
• The tycoon has many servants to minister to his needs.那位大亨有很多人服侍他。