温馨夜读 PART2 06 He Made Me An Angel 他让我成为天使

 

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[00:01.08]He Made Me An Angel¹ 他让我成为天使

[00:08.84]When I was in seventh grade, 

[00:10.88]I was a candy striper at a local hospital in my town.

[00:15.30]I volunteered about thirty to forty hours a week during the summer.

[00:19.79]Most of the time I spent there was with Mr. Gillespie.

[00:23.84]He never had any visitors, 

[00:26.35]and nobody seemed to care about his condition.

[00:29.09]I spent many days there holding his hand and talking to him, 

[00:33.79]helping with anything that needed to be done.

[00:35.98]He became a close friend of mine, 

[00:38.92]even though he responded² with only an occasional³ squeeze⁴ of my hand.

[00:42.76]Mr. Gillespie was in a coma⁵.

[00:45.82]I left for a week to vacation with my parents, 

[00:50.15]and when I came back, Mr. Gillespie was gone.

[00:52.83]I didn’t have the nerve⁶ to ask any of the nurses where he was, 

[00:58.01]for fear they might tell me he had died.

[01:00.59]So with many questions unanswered, 

[01:04.57]I continued to volunteer there through my eighth-grade year.

[01:08.15]Several years later, when I was a junior in high school, 

[01:12.32]I was at the gas station when I noticed a familiar face.

[01:15.47]When I realized who it was, my eyes filled with tears.

[01:19.74]He was alive! 

[01:21.51]I got up the nerve to ask him if his name was Mr. Gillespie,

[01:24.99]and if he had been in a coma about five years ago.

[01:27.84]With an uncertain look on his face, he replied yes.

[01:32.21]I explained how I knew him, 

[01:35.04]and that I had spent many hours talking with him in the hospital.

[01:38.56]His eyes welled up with tears, 

[01:41.55]and he gave me the warmest hug I had ever received.

[01:44.14]He began to tell me how, as he lay there comatose⁷,

[01:48.74]he could hear me talking to him 

[01:50.78]and could feel me holding his hand the whole time.

[01:53.44]He thought it was an angel, not a person, who was there with him.

[01:57.70]Mr. Gillespie firmly believed 

[02:00.40]that it was my voice and touch that had kept him alive.

[02:03.28]Then he told me about his life 

[02:06.31]and what happened to him to put him in the coma.

[02:08.31]We both cried for a while and exchanged a hug, 

[02:12.10]said our good-byes and went our separate⁸ ways.

[02:15.10]Although I haven't seen him since, he fills my heart with joy every day.

[02:20.35]I know that I made a difference between his life and his death.

[02:24.40]More important, he has made a tremendous⁹ difference in my life.

[02:28.23]I will never forget him and what he did for me: he made me an angel.

1 angel   

n.天使，守护神，可爱的人

参考例句：

• The angel of death's in the house!死神在屋里呢！
• I can say without exaggeration that she is an angel.我可以毫不夸张地说她是个天使。

2 responded   

回答，回报，响应( respond的过去式和过去分词 )； 有反应； 有效果； 有影响

参考例句：

• Most of the staff who responded to the questionnaire were supportive. 回答了问卷的职员大多数表示支持。
• She responded to the news by bursting into tears. 她听到那个消息后眼泪夺眶而出。

3 occasional   

adj.偶尔的；偶然的；不经常的

参考例句：

• That sort of thing is quite occasional and not regular.那种事十分偶然，没有规律。
• We must figure in occasional expenses in the budget.我们必须在预算中把临时费用算计在内。

4 squeeze   

vt.硬塞，硬挤；挤压；n.榨；经济困难；拮据

参考例句：

• This machine helps you to squeeze more juice out.这台机器能挤出更多的果汁。
• It was a tight squeeze in the crowded bus.公共汽车上载客太多，挤得很。

5 coma   

n.昏迷，昏迷状态

参考例句：

• The patient rallied from the coma.病人从昏迷中苏醒过来。
• She went into a coma after swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills.她吃了一整瓶安眠药后就昏迷过去了。

6 nerve   

n.神经；勇气，胆量，沉着，果断

参考例句：

• Did he have the nerve to say that?他竟有脸说这话吗？
• He never got up enough nerve to meet me.他从没有足够的胆量来见我。

7 comatose   

adj.昏睡的，昏迷不醒的

参考例句：

• Those in extreme fear can be put into a comatose type state.那些极端恐惧的人可能会被安放进一种昏迷状态。
• The doctors revived the comatose man.这个医生使这个昏睡的苏醒了。

8 separate   

n.分开，抽印本；adj.分开的，各自的，单独的；v.分开，隔开，分居

参考例句：

• Are they joined together or separate?它们是合在一起还是分开的？
• Separate the white clothes from the dark clothes before laundering.洗衣前应当把浅色衣服和深色衣服分开。

9 tremendous   

adj.巨大的，极大的；很好的，非常好的

参考例句：

• This book was the outcome of a tremendous amount of scientific work.这本书是大量科学研究工作的成果。
• There is a tremendous difference between them.他们之间有着极大的差别。