美文欣赏

【美文欣赏】

与陌生人交往是人生的必修课，是我们融入社会的桥梁。与陌生人谈话是口语交际中的一大难关，处理得好，可以一见如故，相见恨晚；处理得不好，又会导致尴尬难受。

On June 23, 1970, I had just been mustered out of the Army after completing my one-year tour of duty in Vietnam. I was a 23-year-old Army veteran on a plane from Oakland, California, returning home to Dallas, Texas.

I had been warned about the hostility many of our fellow countrymen felt toward returning ‘Nam vets at that time. There were no hometown parades for us when we came home from that unpopular war. Like tens of thousands of others, I was just trying to get home without incident.

I sat, in uniform, in a window seat, chain-smoking and avoiding eye contact with my fellow passengers. No one was sitting in the seat next to me, which added to my isolation. A young girl, not more than 10 years old, suddenly appeared in the aisle. She smiled and, without a word, timidly handed me a magazine. I accepted her offering, her quiet “welcome home.” All I could say was, “Thank you.” I do not know where she sat down or who she was with because right after accepting the magazine from her, I turned to the window and wept. Her small gesture of compassion was the first I had experienced in a long time.

I believe in the connection between strangers when they reach out to one another.

That young girl undoubtedly has no memory of what happened years ago. I like to think of her as having grown up, continuing to touch others and teaching her children to do the same. I know she might have been told to give me the “gift” by her mother. Her father might still have been in Vietnam at that point or maybe he had not survived the war. It doesn’t matter why she gave me the magazine. The important thing is she did.

Since then, I have followed her example and tried, in different ways for different people, to do the same for them. Like me on that long ago plane ride, they will never know why a stranger took the time to extend a hand. But I know that my attempts since then are all because of that little girl. Her offer of a magazine to a tired, scared and lonely soldier has echoed throughout my life. I have to believe that my small gestures have the same effect on others. And to that little girl, now a woman, I would like to take this opportunity to say again, thank you.

Miles Goodwin is a real estate attorney in Milwaukee. During the Vietnam War, he was a clerk for the U.S. Army headquarters outside Saigon. Goodwin says it took about 10 years after his discharge before he told people about his service there. He enjoys his family, investing and riding motorcycles.

短语释义

【短语释义】

1.muster out vt. 使退伍

如：muster outof service.
退役

2.chain-smoking v. 连续不断地抽香烟

如：Yet even as she honed her reputation as a chain-smoking, party-loving night crawler, Margaret also proved herself a loving mother to her two children with Armstrong-Jones.
虽然她在公众眼里显然是个烟不离口、热衷于社交聚会的夜猫子，但对她与阿姆斯特朗-琼斯的两个孩子而言，玛格丽特是个慈爱的母亲。

3.reach out 伸出，伸展

如：A cadre must reach out to and be one with the masses.
一个干部必须联系群众，同群众打成一片。

Reached out an arm.
伸出一只手臂

4.real estate n. 地产，不动产

如：The branch of legal practice dealing with the conveyance of property or real estate.
让渡书处理财产或不动产产权转让的法律业务分支

She is advised to invest in real estate.
有人建议他投资于房地产。