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w关键词：telephone/电话，information/信息，friend/朋友 |
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w目录：Touching/感动 |
w话题：感动，爱心 |
w类型：记叙文 |
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w难度级别：中级 |
w词汇要求：1000 |
w文章词数：540 |
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[ 生 词 可 拖 选 或 双 击 ] |
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After that, I
called Information Please for everything. |
Information please (II)
询问处(下)
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作者：Unknown [美国] |
来源：www.englishfree.com.cn
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日期：2008-4-6 |
责编：Emma |
All this took place in a small
town in the Pacific Northwest. Then, when I was nine years old,
we moved across the country to Boston and I missed my mentor
acutely. Information Please belonged in that old wooden box back
home, and I somehow never thought of trying the tall, skinny new
phone that sat on a small table in the hall.
Yet, as I grew into my teens, the
memories of those childhood conversations never really left me;
often in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the
serene sense of security I had when I knew that I could call
Information Please and get the right answer. I appreciated now
how very patient, understanding and kind she was to have wasted
her time on a little boy.
A few years later, on my way west
to college, my plane put down in Seattle. I had about half an
hour between plane connections, and I spent 15 minutes or so on
the phone with my sister, who lived there now, happily matured
by marriage and motherhood. Then really without thinking what I
was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said, "Information
Please."
Miraculously, I heard again the
small, clear voice I knew so well: "Information."
I hadn't planned this, but I heard myself saying, "Could you
tell me, please, how to spell the word 'fix'?"
There was a long pause. Then came
the softly spoken answer. "I guess," said Information Please,
"that your finger must have healed by now."
I laughed. "So it's really still
you" I said. "I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant
to me during all that time ..."
"I wonder," she replied, "if you
know how much you meant to me? I never had any children, and I
used to look forward to your calls. Silly, wasn't it?"
It didn't seem silly, but I
didn't say so. Instead, I told her how often I had thought of
her over the years, and I asked if I could call her again when I
came back to visit my sister after the first semester was over.
"Please do. Just ask for Sally."
"Good-by, Sally." It sounded
strange for Information Please to have a name. "If I run into
any chipmunks, I'll tell them to eat fruit and nuts."
"Do that," she said. "Well, take
good care, good-by."
Just three months later I was
back again at the Seattle airport. A different voice answered,
"Information," and I asked for Sally.
"Are you a friend?"
"Yes," I said. "An old friend."
"Then I'm sorry to have to tell
you. Sally had only been working part-time in the last few years
because she was ill. She died five weeks ago."
"But before I could hang up, she
said, "Wait a minute. Did you say your name was Villiard?"
"Yes."
"Well, Sally left a message for
you. She wrote it down."
"What was it?" I asked, almost
knowing in advance what it would be.
"Here it is, I'll read it -- Tell
him I still say there are other worlds to sing in. He'll know
what I mean."
I thanked her and hung up. I did
know what Sally meant.
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