英语报刊选读读者文摘原文版INSPIRING STORIES 4.docx

1、英语报刊选读 读者文摘原文版INSPIRING STORIES 4INSPIRING STORIES 3A Sailors SaviorWhen worried mother Marianne Naslund saw her 16-year-old neighbor Andy Livasy was in trouble, she opened up her heart and home to him.The blistering fights that erupted from the house down the street were legendary in Marianne and K

2、evin Naslunds neighborhood. “They echoed off the hillside,” says Marianne. “Everyone got to hear the yelling.” During one particularly nasty fight in February 2008, the neighbors 16-year-old son, Andy Livasy, was hit by his stepfather. Watching police cars swarm the street, Marianne realized that sh

3、e had to help Andy before he ran away or “became an angry person who turned to drugs and alcohol” for comfort.A few days later, she offered Andy a spot on the Naslunds living room couch. Over his parents objections, Andy, who knew Mariannes sons, Nick, then 15, and Jake, then 13, accepted. No one un

4、derstood why Marianne, a dynamo who sat on the Sultan city council and coaches the high school cheerleading squad, would take in a troubled teen like Andy.Then a high school sophomore, Andy scowled at the world from beneath a mess of shaggy blond hair and picked fights with Nick and Jake. At the loc

5、al high school, he either slept through classes or made them a nightmare for teachers.But Marianne saw herself in Andy. She, too, had grown up in an unsettled household, “with a lot of yelling and not a lot of love.” No matter what, she told people, “kids are not disposable.” Surprisingly, her child

6、ren understood. “Sometimes Andy could be a downright bully to me,” says Jake, “but when I thought about the future Andy would face if we turned him away, I just couldnt let myself be a part of that.”It wasnt easy. For Andy, moving in with the Naslunds was like entering a foreign country of chores an

7、d consequences and family dinnersafter years of eating most meals alone. “I was used to getting screamed at if I ever messed up, so I was kind of waiting for that,” says Andy. But the day he was suspended from high school for fighting, the screaming and epithets never materialized. Instead, Marianne

8、 calmly asked why he did it, listened to Andys explanation, and declared computers and TV off-limits for the duration of the suspension.“Marianne did it so that instead of fearing a punishment, I didnt want to let her down,” says Andy. “I didnt get into another fight for the rest of high school.”Wit

9、h his biological family, Andy had yelled himself into regular migraines. With the Naslunds, his headaches disappeared, along with most of his angry meltdowns. After six months, he asked Kevin to cut his hair. Two years later, he volunteered to coach youth soccer. And though few adults expected it fr

10、om the boy with the grade-F mouth, in 2010 he graduated on time from Sultans alternative high school.“If I hadnt moved in with the Naslunds, I probably would have dropped out,” Andy says.After four years, Marianne calls Andy her third son, and “if someone asks about my family, I say that hes one of

11、my brothers,” says Jake. Andy has had no contact with his mom and stepdad since moving out, even though they still live in the neighborhood and say theyre pleased with how their son has turned out. And Andy, who recently joined the Navy, at age 19, knows where hes heading when he comes home on leave

12、.Says Andy, “What were the chances of my living across the street from someone who had a similar childhood, like Marianne, who would take me in and explain, You can change your life around?”How a Rwandan Teen Overcame a Legacy of GenocideFar from home, in a war-torn land, a charity worker met a chil

13、d who had every reason to hateand yet taught volumes about love.He works with the energy and intensity, if not the skill, of a mechanic twice his age. He keeps his head down, focusing on his task, talking to himselfthreading greased pedals onto one of 120 sturdy black bikes were here to build and do

14、nate to a Rwandan charity so people can ride to work, to school, to a well with clean water. He looks to be the same age as my third-grade twins. Weve been working together for an hour in a small auditorium in a walled compound outside Kigali. A choir practices somewhere outside, the ethereal music

15、blending with the clouds that descend down the green ravines of the hills that define Rwanda. Although he speaks no English and I no Kinyarwanda, we use the universal signs of thumbs-ups, head nods, and “no problem.” We work as a team.And we smile. A lot. The kid has a smile like no other Ive seen i

16、n more than six years of working with African relief agencies to build and donate bikes to charitable groups. Ive seen lots of hard workers. Lots of incredible people. But theres something about this one that has a hold, quite unexpectedly, of my heart, more so than the other kids working with volunteers around the compound.Maybe because hes about the same age as my own three children, a world away in an American suburb. Maybe it