2006年NPR美国国家公共电台一月-Keeping Time Across the Ages

Each Friday we hear moments from StoryCorp. That's the oral history project that gives families and friends a chance to interview each other about their lives. Today's story from North Dakota, Virginia Fairbrother grew up in Towner, North Dakota during the Depression, she is 81 now, her father Homer Hill owned a drugstore in town, and here she tells her daughter Laurel Kaae, the story of a stranger who asked her father for a favor.

This old car drove up in front of the house, and a man got out and called dad by name, and he said, "my family is hungry, someone in town told me that you might feed my family. " He was a young fellow who had just graduated from the University of Minnesota. And if he could get to Ft. Pick by the next day, he would have a job. Dad told him to go down to the store. He said I'll be down in a few minutes. Dad walked down there, gave this fellow some food that wasn't perishable¹ and five dollars, and he had a friend of his fueled the car with gas and they put a new spare tyre in the car, and this young man had insisted on giving dad a watch that he had gotten from his father for graduation. 25 years later, my brother who was a pharmacist also, was in the drugstore, and he called and said, "somebody had just come in there and asked to talk to Mr. Hill, so he sent him up to our house. I opened the door, and had two tall young men with him, and he said to dad, "you don't know me, do you, Mr. Hill? Ur~ I'm the fellow that had to get to Ft. Pick and dad looked at my mother, and he said "Florence, the watch. " and . . hum. . my mother went and got it, and he gave it back to this fellow, and he said , "you were supposed to use this. " and dad said, " I did , every Sunday I want it. " This young man never expected to see it again, but he wanted his kids to see this man, and that was my dad.

Virginia Fairbrother with her daughter Laurel Kaae at a mobile² StoryCorp booth³ in Bismarck, North Dakota. To participate in StoryCorps and become part of an archive at the Library of Congress⁴ is at NPR. ORG. StoryCorps is made possible by a grant⁵ from Saturn⁶ .

NEW WORDS:

North Dakota 美国北达科他州
Bismarck the capital city of the US state of North Dakota

1 perishable   

adj.（尤指食物）易腐的，易坏的

参考例句：

• Many fresh foods are highly perishable.许多新鲜食物都极易腐败。
• Fruits are perishable in transit.水果在运送时容易腐烂。

2 mobile   

adj.可移动的，易变的，机动的；n.运动物体

参考例句：

• The old lady sits on a mobile chair every morning.那位老妇人每天上午坐在一把可携带使用的椅子上。
• She's much more mobile now that she's bought a car.自从她买了汽车后，活动量就大多了。

3 booth   

n.小房间，公用电话亭，岗亭；货摊

参考例句：

• Where can I find a telephone booth?我在哪儿可以找到电话亭？
• Let's walk around to each booth.我们到每个摊子转一转吧！

4 Congress   

n.(代表)大会；(C-:美国等国的)国会，议会

参考例句：

• There were some days to wait before the Congress.大会的召开还有几天时间。
• After 18 years in Congress,he intented to return to private life.在国会供职18年后，他打算告老还乡。

5 grant   

vt.同意给予，授予，承认；n.拨款；补助款

参考例句：

• If you grant my request, you will earn my thanks.如果你答应我的要求，就会得到我的感谢。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

6 Saturn   

n.农神，土星

参考例句：

• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings.天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。
• These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们，土星由较轻的物质构成。