新视野大学英语 读写教程第四册 unit3-c

　　A Hard Job to Come By
You could feel sorry for Alberto Torres (阿尔伯图·多里斯), who is blind. The last thing he remembers seeing was his daughter being born 13 years ago. Then the world went blank; he can only imagine what his only child looks like now, as a teenaged honor student.
Total darkness came as a result of a swelling¹ of the nerve leading to his eye — a condition that was unrelated to the eye disease that had limited his vision since birth. "I went to sleep and woke up with nothing," he said.
Bad luck is no stranger to this warm and thoughtful 37-year-old man. His mother died of cancer when he was 4, and Mr. Torres's father, who was often ill, had to give him up to the care of the state when he was 11. He later worked for 19 years in a workshop assembling brooms and other household goods, deathly boring work.
Earlier this month, Alberto Torres's wife, who had just been laid off from her job, had to have a breast removed due to cancer and now faces a year of radiation treatments. Things seemed always to go from almost incredibly bad to worse. Even Mr. Torres's good luck has a dark side: Five years ago, his beloved guide dog pulled him out of the path of a truck. Mr. Torres was not hurt. The dog was killed.
But know this and know it well: Mr. Torres does not feel sorry for himself. "These are just little bumps you have to go over in your life," he said.
At 5 A.M. on a recent morning, we caught up with Mr. Torres at a subway stop in Brooklyn, New York, near where he lives in a third-floor apartment (without an elevator). He had been up since 3 A.M., feeding his new dog, making coffee, getting ready. "When you're blind, it takes a little longer to do things," he said.
Mr. Torres was beginning the complicated two-hour trip to his job developing film in the X-ray department of the emergency room of the Bronx Municipal (市立的) Hospital Center. He would take the G train to Queens Plaza² (广场) station where he would walk up a set of stairs and down another to the R train, heading towards Manhattan. He would then ride the R train to 59th Street where he would walk upstairs to switch to the Number 6 train.
At one point along the journey, he might chat with a stranger. At another, someone would pat his dog, calling him by name. People offered assistance, even seats.
At 125th Street, Mr. Torres would transfer to the Number 4 train by crossing the platform. At 149th Street, he would descend³ to the Number 2. He would take that to East 180th Street where he nearly always has a long wait for his final train, to Pelham Parkway (帕尔汉大道). Then he and his dog would walk 20 minutes to the hospital.
"They shouldn't make any special provisions for me," Mr. Torres said. "It's a job, and I should be on time."
It was a hard job to come by. Before he got the job, Mr. Torres was determined⁴ to escape the workshop run by the Lighthouse (灯塔), an organization dedicated⁵ to help people who can't see, and to try to make it on his own. He wanted a job developing X-ray film, something that everyone must do in the dark. The Lighthouse called many hospitals, with no result, even though they offered to pay his first three months' salary and provide training.
The Lighthouse people would have much preferred for him to find a job closer to his home. But they believed he could handle the long trip, as well as the work. "Our philosophy here is that blind people can do just about anything except drive buses," said a Lighthouse staff member who tries to help place blind people in jobs.
And that, as it turned out, was also the thinking about disabled (残疾的) people at the Bronx hospital. "We find what a person can do rather than what he can't do," said the hospital's associate executive director.
"The point is that it works," said the hospital's executive director.
One day a while ago marked the first anniversary of Mr. Torres's hiring. He developed 150 or so X-rays, his usual output, to celebrate. The cards with names and other data were folded on the upper right-hand corner so he can photograph them right-side-up. That is the only concession⁶ to his blindness.
Mr. Torres works by himself in a small, dark room that smells of chemicals. He cannot wear gloves, because he needs to feel. It is exacting⁷ work, and, since this is an emergency room, lives can be at stake. His immediate⁸ supervisor⁹ says he trusts him 100 percent.
Mr. Torres makes $20,000 a year. He could be pocketing more than $12,000 from pension payments. But his motivation goes beyond money. "If I start feeling like a victim, that makes me bitter," he said. And why be bitter? That makes you go into a hole and stay there."
"I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary," insisted Mr. Torres as he quickly completed the task.
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1 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

2 plaza   

n.广场，市场

参考例句：

• They designated the new shopping centre York Plaza.他们给这个新购物中心定名为约克购物中心。
• The plaza is teeming with undercover policemen.这个广场上布满了便衣警察。

3 descend   

vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降

参考例句：

• I hope the grace of God would descend on me.我期望上帝的恩惠。
• We're not going to descend to such methods.我们不会沦落到使用这种手段。

4 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

5 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

6 concession   

n.让步，妥协；特许(权)

参考例句：

• We can not make heavy concession to the matter.我们在这个问题上不能过于让步。
• That is a great concession.这是很大的让步。

7 exacting   

adj.苛求的，要求严格的

参考例句：

• He must remember the letters and symbols with exacting precision.他必须以严格的精度记住每个字母和符号。
• The public has been more exacting in its demands as time has passed.随着时间的推移，公众的要求更趋严格。

8 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

9 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。