第一单元
1 Dr.Rob Boll was craving a hot turkey dinner and a slice of apple pie.After a hectic week treating patients with sore throats and ear infections at his family practice, the 52-year-old physician was ready for a night of home cooking and fellowship at his church’s annual fund-raising dinner.2 Stepping inside the crowded gym at St.John’s United Church of Christ, Boll and his family found a long line of people waiting to be seated.He wasn’t surprised.The turkey feast had become a popular event in Mokena, Illinois, attended by hundreds from the surround-the good food and were willing to pay ＄10 to heap their plates and help pay for the church’s new community center.Boll and his wife, Dana, and their son, Kyle, 14, went every year.3 After sitting down, Boll had barely placed his napkin in his lap when he heard a commotion on the other side of the room.”Help!” a woman shouted.“Does anybody know how to do the Heimlich?”
4 Jumping up from the table, the doctor could see a white-haired woman slumped over in her chair.“I’m a doctor.What’s going on?” Boll said to the group gathered around 76-year-old Pat Rohrer.5 “My mother-in-law choked on a piece of turkey,” answered a frantic Colleen Rohrer.“We’ve tried the Heimlich maneuver, but it’s not working.” Boll reached around Pat’s abdomen and pulled sharply upward with his fists.Nothing happened.Moving quickly, he lifted Pat up and onto the floor to get her into a better position.Twice again he tried the Heimlich, but she didn’t respond.6 This can’t be happening, Boll thought.He worried he wouldn’t be able to help her.Looking up, he recognized Steve Hoblin, a nurse from the hospital near his office.“Steve, stick your fingers down her throat and see if you can sweep anything out,” he said.Hoblin reached in and pulled out a small piece of turkey.7 But Pat still wasn’t breathing.In fact, she was rapidly turning blue.Apparently, some food was still lodged in her throat.Boll knew he needed to do something drastic---and fast---to get air into her lungs.His only chance was to perform an emergency tracheotomy.8 “Call 911! And get me a sharp knife!” He shouted.His wife ran to the kitchen, and Hoblin handed over his pocketknife.9 Boll had never done the operation before.He flashed back to the only time he’d seen one performed: during his residency 20 years earlier.That procedure had been done in a sterile, controlled environment by expert surgeons.How was a family doctor supposed to accomplish the same thing at a church dinner with a dull pocketknife? 10 He was relieved to see that his wife had found a clean paring knife.Taking a deep breath, Boll carefully cut a small slit in Pat’s neck.As blood poured from the wound, he broke into a sweat.But Boll knew it was too late to stop.Two or three precious minutes had already paed.She couldn’t survive much longer without oxygen.Boll figured he had about 45 seconds to save her life.11 Oblivious to the crowd breathlely watching him work, Boll steadied his hands and continued.But the knife wouldn’t cut deep enough.Out of nowhere, a man handed Boll a switchblade.It had a tapered point, nice and sharp, with a three-inch blade that locked securely in place.Boll quickly finished the cut.12 Then, as if she were reading his mind, Colleen handed him a tracheotomy tube.Her son, Shaun---Pat’s grandson---has a severe lung condition and needs a tube to keep his airway clear.But he could manage without it for an hour or so.13 Pat was turning bluer by the second.Colleen helped Boll gently push the tube into Pat’s trachea.Seconds ticked by like minutes, but the pair worked calmly, with precision---just like a surgical team, thought the doctor.14 “I’m in,” he said once the tube was finally in place.
15 but the crisis was far from over .Boll needed to resuscitate the unconscious woman.Fortunately, her family never went anywhere without an emergency kit containing a manual resuscitator bag, just in case Shaun had trouble breathing.
16 colleen clicked the bag onto the tube and pumped .within seconds, Pat Rohrer started breathing and the color returned to her cheeks.17 as paramedics rushed in and took over, boll stood up, trembling.He certainly hadn\'t anticipated anything like this when he left his job as a social worker to go to med school.
18 “i \'m not terribly religious, ”Boll says now, “but i know now that God goes to Turkey dinners at churches.To take a doctor who only half knows what he\'s doing and give him the right tools ——i don\'t know how i recalled to do.To me there\'s no explanation but divine intervention. ” 19 Maybe so, but Howard Stephens, aistant chief of the Mokena Fire Protection District, was quick to point out, “without Dr.Boll, this lady wouldn\'t have made it.”
20 now that her grateful mother -in -law is back at home, with no signs of infection from the switchblade surgery.Colleen says, “we are so thankful that in this age of lawsuits, dr.boll was willing to put himself on the line.he just stepped up and did what had to be done.”
21 later that November night, after returning from the hospital, Rob boll found another job that needed to be finished.he strolled into the church kitchen and rolled up his sleeves.“Divine intervention doesn\'t usually come into play, ”he says, “when it\'s time to do the dishes.”
第二单元
The forest was full of shadows as a little girl hurried through it one summer evening in June.It was already eight o’clock and Sylvia wondered if her grandmother would be angry with her for being so late
Every evening Sylvia left her grandmother’s house at five thirty to bring their cow home .It was Sylvia’s job to bring the animal home to the milked.When the cow heard Sylvia’s voice calling her.She would hide among the bushes This evening it had taken Sylvia longer than usual to find her cow.The child hurried the cow though the dark forest .toward her grandmother’s home As the cow stopped at a small stream to drink .Sylvia put her bare feet in cold ,fresh water of the stream
She had never before been alone in the forest as late as this.Sylvia felt as if she were a part of the gray shadows and the silver leaves that moved in the evening breeze.It was only a year ago that she came to her grandmother’s farm.before that she had lived with her mother and father in a dirty crowded factory town One day , Sylvia’s grandmother had visited them and had chosen Sylvia form all her brothers and sister to comer help her on her farm in Vermont The cow finish drinking and as the nine-year-old child hurried through the forest the air was suddenly cut by a sharp whistle not far away Sylvia knew it wasn’t a friendly bird’s whistle she forgot the cow and hid in some bushes but she was too late
Hello little girl a young man called out cheerfully How far is it to the main road Sylvia was trembling as she whispered two miles She came out of the bushes and looked up into the face of a tall young man carrying a gun The stranger began walking with Sylvia as she followed her cow through the forest I’ve been hunting for birds he explained but I’ve lost my way Do you think I spend the night at your home Sylvia didn’t answer She was glad she could see her grandmother standing near the door of the farm house
When they reached her the stranger explained his problem to Sylvia’s smiling grandmother
Of course you can stay with us she said we don’t have much but you’re welcome to share what we have Now Sylvia get a plate for the gentleman
After eating,they all sat outside.The young man explained he was a bird collector.\"Do you put them ina cage?\"Sylvia asked.\"No,\"he answered slowly,\"I shoot them and stuff them with put them with special chemicals to preserve them.I have over one hundred different kinds of birds from all over the United States.\"
\"Sylvia knows a lot about birds,too,\"her grandmother said proudly.\"She knows the forest so well,the wild animals come and eat bread right out of her hands.\"
\"Maybe she can help me then,\"the young man said.\"I saw a white heron two days ago.I\'ve been looking for it ever since.It\'s a very rare bird.Have you seen it,too?\"He asked Sylvia.But Sylvia.But Sylvia was silent.\"You would know it if you saw it,\"he said.\"It\'s a tall,strange bird with soft white feathers and long thin legs.It probably has its nest at the top of a tall tree.\"
Sylvia\'s heart began to beat fast.She had seen that strange white bird on the other side of the forest.The young man was staring at Sylvia.\"I would give ten dollars to the person who showed me where it is.\"
That night Sylvia\'s dreams were full of all the wonderful things she and her grandmother could buy for ten dollars.
Sylvia spent the next day in the forest with the young man.He told her a lot about the birds they saw.Sylvia could not understand why he killed the birds he seemed to like so much.She felt her heart tremble every time he shot an unsuspecting bird as it was singsing in the trees.
Sylvia would have liked him vastly better without his gun;but as the day waned,Sylvia still watched the asleep inchild,was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love.They stopped to listen to a bird\'s song;they preed forward again eagerly--speaking to each other rarely and in whispers;Sylvia followed the young man,fascinated,a few steps behind,with her gray eyes dark fascinated,a few steps behind,with her gray eyes dark with excitement.
Long after the moom came out and the young man had fallen asleep,Sylvia was still awake.She had a plan that would get the ten dollars for her grandmother and make the young man happy.When it was near sunrise,she quietly left her house and hurried through the forest.She finally reached a huge pine tree.She could see the whole forest from there.She was sure she would be able to see where the white heron had hidden its nest.
Sylvia\'s bare feet and tiny fingers grabbed the tree\'s rough trunk.Sharp dry branches scratched at her like cat\'s claws as she climbed higher and higher.
When Sylvia had at last reached the tree\'shighest branch,the golden sun\'s rays hit the green forest.Two hawks flew together in slow-moving circles far below Sylvia.Sylvia felt as if she could go flying among the clouds.too.
Suddenly Sylvia caught a flash of white that grew larger and larger.A bird with broad white wings and a long slender neck flew past Sylvia and landed on a pine branch below her.The white heron smoothed its feathers and called to its mate,sitting on their nest in a nearby tree.Then it flew away.
Sylvia gave a long sigh.She knew the wild bird\'s secret now.Slowly she began her dangerous trip down the ancient pine tree.She did not dare to look down and tried to rorget that her fingers hurt and her feet were bleeding.All she wanted to think about was what the stranger would say to her when she told him where to find the heron\'s nest.
About an hour later Sylvia came back home.Both her grandmother and the young man stood up as she came into the kitchen.The splendid moment to speak about her secret had come,but Sylvia was silent.She remembered how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sun rise together from the top of the world.Sylvia could not speak.She could not tell the heron\'s secret and give its life away.
The young man went away disappointed later that day.He never returned.Many a night Sylvia heard the echo of his whistle haunting the forest.She forgot even her sorrow at the sharp report of his gun and the sight of thrushes and sparrows dropping silent to the ground ,their songs hushed and their pretty feathers stained and wet with blood.
Were the birds better friends than their hunter might have been?Who can know?
第三单元
Ryan Halligan was taunted for months.Clamates spread rumors via instant meaging that the 13-year-old boy was gay.A popular female clamate pretended to like him and chatted with him online,only to copy thier personal exchanges and share them with her friends.Unable to cope,the teenager from Verment in the US,killed himself.
Gail Jones,a 15-year-old from the UK,took her life after receiving,at one point,20 silent calls on her cell phone every 30 minutes.Her father,Glyn,suspects a final call in the middle of the night pushed her over the edge.
These are extreme but far from unipue examples of the devastation caused by cyber-bullying.Since Halligan died in 2003 and Jones in 2000,more and more and children are logging on to the Internet,so it\'s likely that online bullying,including sending threatening meages,displaying private meages,and posting embarraing videos and photos online,is also increasing.
A study last month by the Pew Internet & Amrican Life Project,based in Washington,found that one third of US teenage Internet users have been targets of cyber-bullying.And as online communication evolves from instant meaging and chatrooms to social networking sites and YouTube,the venues where bullying occurs are becoming both more central to young people\'s lives,and more public.
Research into the causes and effects of cyber-bullying is still in its infancy.But it is becoming clear that aspects of online communicantion encourage people to act aggreively,prompting them to do things they wouldn\'t dare to try in real life.
What\'s more,the ability to reach more people,and the always-on culture the internet,mean that cyber-bullying can have an even more detrimental effect on the victim than conventional playground bullying.\"It\'s school-yard bullying taken to next level,\'\' says Justin Patchin,a criminologist at the University of Wisconsion.A study by UK-based Internet market research firm YouGov in 2006 found that for one in eight young people cyber-bullying is even worse than physical bullying.
one reason for this is thesheer number of people who can view something that is posted online.\"it would be bad enough to be cyber-bulied by one kid and nibody else knew about ut,but a video seen by hunders or thousands ofyour peer could be devastang,\"says Roin Kowalski,a phychologist at Clemson University in South Caolina and co-author of the book Cyber Bullying;Bullying in the Digital Age,which will be published in October.
Ghylain Raza,also known as the\"Star Wars Kid\",learned thisthe hard way.In 2002,the somewhat overweigh and silghtly awkward Canadian adolescent made a video of himself playing with a pretend light sabre andleft it lying around at school.when his clamates found the video in 2003,they posted it online as a joke Raza was so upset he finished the school year from a psy chiatric ward Unfortunately for him,it was just his friends who found the video amusing.Acrodding to UK marketing firm the viral factory it became the Internet`s most downloaded video of 2006.
Another reson cyber-bullying is so harmful is its relentlene ,says John Carr,chair of the children`s Charities`Colaition for Internet Safety in London .\"when I was a kid ,playground bullying stoped when the bell rang and you went back inside or when you went home at the end of the day .\"he says .\"with cyber-bullying it is 24/7,365 days a year .\" there is no escape While an adult could simple turn off the computer ,that`s not reallyy an option for today`s teens ,who are dependent on the Internet for communicatng whit their peers.\"This is the awlways-on genertion,\"say kowalski.\"This is how they communicate.\"A 2007 Pew study found that 93precent of US teens use the Internet and 61 percent go online daily.
The Internet does`t just amplify the effect of bulying,however The many options to remain anonymous when online ,by using pseudonyms,say for instant meaging ,mean people can write things they would not daer to if their identity was known.
Anonymity was at the heart of a 2001 incident when a student at an elite high school in New York City set uo a Web page that let students vote anonymously on who they felt was their most promiscuous peer.\"Just enter the name of the person in the interschool who u think is the biggest ho(be them FEMALE or MALE)and write the number of their grade next to their name(maybe even their school),\"read the site.\"Since it\'s anonymous,u can write about whomever u please!\"More than 13,000 votes were cast,and about 150 names,mostly girls,appeared before it was shut down.
Anonymity can also amplify bullying\'s negative effect on the victim.\"The psychological ramifications of not knowing who\'s attacking you can be maddening,\" says Kowalski.\"The bully could be your best friend,a sibling, or half the school.\"In a recent,as yet unpublished survey she carried out,nearly half of the children she interviewed didn\'t know who their cyberbully was.
The lack of face-to-face contact might tempt bullies to new levels of cruelty.\"On the playground,seeing the stre and pain of the victim face-to-face can act as an inhibitor to some degree,\"explains Carr.\"In cyberspace,where there is no visual contac,you get more extreme behaviour .\"Kowalski says the effect unique to computer-mediated communication.\"There is a distancing of the self and immediacy in response that we don\'t have in any other form of communication.\"she says.\"On the computer ,it\'s like it\'s not really you.\"
So what can be done? Led by Ruth Aylett of Heriot-watt university in Edinburgh,Scotland，a consortium of European researchers recently developed roly-playing software called FearNot!, which gets children to empathize with wictims of bullying, After watching a short animation of a child being bullied either in the playground or online， the viewer is asked to help the victim by typing advice into the computer.The software will be tested in school in the UK and Germany later this year.Meanwhile,some governments have taken legislative action.In January 2006，the US congre paed a law making it a federal crime to “annoy,abuse,threaten，or hara”another person over the internet，Approximately 36 states have enacted similar legislation.And in South Korea, the “internet real-name system”,introduced last month ,forces online portals and news websites to record the identities of people who post content and to disclose their contact details if someone wants to sue them for libel or infringement of privacy.However, it can be difficult to persuade people to take these laws seriously, and in the US they only apply to over-18s.“many jurisdictions don’t want to investigate or prosecute these cases,”says Al Kush of WiredSafety.org, an Internet safety advocacy group based in Seattle, Washington, “they are short-staffed and busy pursuing what they call ‘real crime’.
John Halligan, the father of the boy who killed himself after being haraed online，continues to lobby for cyber-bullying legislation that specifically targets children.He also talks to school groups and runs a website recounting the events that led to his son’s death.“it won’t bring Ryanback,” he says.“But it is helping a lot of Ryans out there are still alive and don’t know where to turn.”
第四单元
The valley known as Sleepy hides from the world in the high hills of New York state.There are many stories told about the quiet valley.But the story that people believe most is about the apparition of a headle horseman .The story says the man died many years ago during the American Revolutionary War and he had his head shot off.He is ever seen hurrying along in the qloom of night , looking for his lost head.Near Sleepy Hollow is a village calldd Tarry Town.The village had a small school teacher was named Ichabod Crane .Ichabod Crane was a good name for him, because he was tall and thin, just like a crane .His shoulders were small ,joined to long arms .His head was small, too, and flat on top .He had big ears ,large glay green eyes ,and a long nose.Ichabod did not make much money as a teacher .And although he was tall and thin, he ate like a fat man.To help him pay for his food he earned extra money teaching young people to sing.Among the ladies Ichabod taught was one Katrina Van Tael.She was the only daughter of Arich Dutch farmer.She was a blooming la of fresh eighteen ;plump as a partridge ; ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as one of her father’s perches.Ichabod had a soft and foolish heart for ladies, and soon found himself interested in Mi Van Tael.But there were many hurdle blocking the road to Katrina’s heart.One was a strong young man named Brom Van Brunt, a hero to all the young ladies.He was broad-shouldered and double-jointed, with short curly black hair, and a bluff but not unpleasant countenance.He always won the horse races in Tarry Town and earned many prizes.Brom was never seen without a horse.Such was the enemy Ichabod had to defeat for Katrina’s heart.
Stronger and wiser men would not have tried.But Ichabod had a plan.He could not fight his enemy in the open.So he did it silently and secretly.He made many visits to Katrina’s farm and made her think he was helping her to sing better.Time paed, and the town people thought Ichabod was winning.Brom’s horse was never seen at Katrina’s house on Sunday nights any more.
One day in autumn Ichabod was asked to come to a big party at the Van Tael home.He dreed in his best clothes.A farmer loaned him an old horse for the long trip to the party.Brom Van Brunt rode to the party on his fastest horse,called Daredevil .All the young ladies smiled happily when they saw him.Ichabod was happy dancing with Katrina ,the lady of his heart, while Brom, sorely smitten with love and jealousy, sat brooding by himself in one corner.When the music stopped, the young people sat together to tell stories about the Revolutionnary War.Soon stories about Sleepy Hollow were told .The most feared story was about the rider looking for his lost head.One farmer told how he raced the headle horseman suddenly stopped.Gone were his clothes and his skin.All that was left was a man with white bones shining in the moonlight.The stories ended and time came to leave the party.Ichabod seemed very happy until he said goodnight to Katrina.Was she ending their romance? He left feeling very sad.Had Katrina been seeing Ichabod just to make Brom Van Brunt jealous so he would marry her? Well, Ichabod began his long ride home.He thought he saw something white move in the tree.But no, it was only the moonlight shining and moving on the tree.Then he heard a noise.His body shook.He kicked his horse faster.The horse ran fast and then suddenly stopped, almost throwing Ichabod forward to the ground.There, in the dark woods on the side of the river where the bushes grew low, stood an ugly thing.Big and black.It did not move, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveler.Ichabod’s hair stood straight up.What was to be done? To turn and fly was nom too late.Summoning up, therefore, a show of courage, he demanded in stammering accents, Who are you ? He received no reply.Ichabod’s old horse began to move forward.The black thing began to move alone the side of Ichabod’s horse in the dark.Ichabod made his horse run faster.The black thing moved with then.Side by side they moved, slowly at first.Ichabod felt his heart sink.For a moment the moon shone down and to Ichabod’s horror,he saw it was a horse.And it had a rider.But the rider’s head was not on his body.It was in front of the rider, resting on the horse.He rained a shower movement to give his companion the slip.But the spectre started full jump with him.Away, them, they dashed though thick and thin; stones flying and sparks flashing at every bound.Up ahead was the old church bridge where the headle horseman stops and returns to his burial place.If only I can get there first, I am safe ,” though Ichabod.Ichabod looked back to see if the headle man had stopped.He saw the man pick up his head and throw it with a powerful force.The head hit Ichabod in the face and knocked him off his horse to the dirt below.They found Ichabod’s horse the next day peacefully eating gra.They could not find Ichabod.They walked all acro the valley.They saw the foot marks of Ichabod’s horse as it had raced through the valley.They even found Ichabod’s old hat in the dust near the bridge.But they did not find Ichabod.The only other thing they found was lying near Ichabod’s hat.It was the broken pieces of a round orange pumpkin.The town people talked about Ichabod of many weeks, and finally they came to believe that the headle horseman had carried Ichabod away.Much later an old farmer returned from a visit to New York City.He said he was sure he had seen Ichabod there.He thought Ichabod silently left Sleepy Hollow because he had lost Katrina.As for Katrina, her mother and father gave her a big wedding when she married Brom Van Brunt.Many people who went to the wedding saw that Brom smiled whenever Ichabod’s name was spoken.And they wondered why he laughed out loud when anyone talked about the broken orange pumpkin found lying near Ichabod’s old dusty hat.
第五单元 Big bang 1The big bang model of the universe’s birth is the most widely accepted model that has ever been conceived for the scientific origin of everything .no other model can predict as much with as high a degree of accuracy as the big bang model can..A common question that people ask is what happened before the big bang ?the phrase in the beginning is used here to refer to the birth of our universe with the big bang .in the creation of the universe, everything was compreed into an infinitesimally small point in which all physical laws that we know of do not apply.No information from any previous stuff could have remained intact.Therefore, for all intents and purposes, the big bang is considered the beginning of everything, for we can never know if there was anything before it.The big bang model had its beginnings with Edwin Hubble discovery in 1929 that,on large scales ,everything in the universe is moving away from everything else .The only explanation for this was that the universe was expanding in every direction ,and it was taking galaxies along with it .This is known as Hubble Law.The next step towards the Big Bang model was to take this proce in reverse—that is ,to go back in time .If the universe is blowing up like a balloon as time progrees ,then what would happen if you were to run the timeline backwards ?What was the universe like in the past? If the universe is currently growing ,then the universe was smaller in the past.There must have been some point in time when the universe was half its current size .Then there must have been a time when it was half that size .If you continue to run time backwards, there must have been a time when the universe was an infinitesimally small point. This is the basic idea behind the Big Bang.All matter and energy existed in an infinitely small point of infinite density a long time ago, and has since been expanding as our universe .One important note here is that the Big Bang was not an explosion in the universe ,but rather it is an explosion of the universe .Therefore, there is no \"center\" of the universe form where the Big Bang started.Main Evidence. The Big Bang is the leading theory that almost all astrophysicists believe explains the origin of the universe.This is because all observations so far made support the Big Bang theory ;there are four main lines of evidence that are most often used. the first was discued above :he expansion of the universe .The universe is expanding now ,so in the past it must have been smaller .If it were smaller in the past ,then there probably was a time when it was infinitesimally small .One could ask why we just don\'t think that it might be expanding now but it could have been shrinking before and we
just don\'t know about it .The answer is that there is simply no known mechanism that could accomplish this transition on a universal scale.
The second line of evidence is the cosmic (CMB) which was discovered in 1965 by (APARWFBL).they were working with a microwave receiver used to communicate with telstar satellite, but were getting noise from every diection they pointed the receiver.it was coming from all over the sky at what seemed to be exactly the same frequency this was first evidence for the CMB and they later shared a NPFTD The CMB is an echo left over from when the universe was approximately 300.000 years old as predicted by the big bang model as something becomes hot the actual heat comes from particles movements the faster they move the more energetic they are and so the more heat we see the are and so hot before it was 300.000 years old that atoms could not form .because of this photos particles of light could not move around for they kept reacting with electrons the negatively charged part of atoms
Therefore during this period the universe was effectively opaque once the universe had reached 300.000 year old atoms could form and electrons were now bound to a nucleus once this happened photons could move about freely this first light is the CMB and its existence is a very strong indication that the big bang occurred
The third major pillar of the big bang theory lies in the abundance of the different elements of the universe the theory predicts that certain amounts of hydrogen helium and other elements should be made observations have shown almost exactly the amounts that are predicted
The fourth piece is that the big bang theory is the only one that comprehensively lays down a framework for the eventual evolution of the universe as we observe iy today.
第六单元
Good morning, fellow Americans.Welcome to the One-Day War.CNN will be your eyes and ears for today, bringing you live coverage of a momentous day in our history.As part of bicentennial com-memoration of the Civil War we are proud to participate in Profeor Brainard\'s project, the One-Dey War.
I\'m sure there isn\'t an American out there who hasn\'t heard of the project.It has been the most talked-about subject in our country for many months.Now the great day, April 9, 2065, is here, and we are all part of it.
The weather is perfect and visbility is excellent.There isn\'t a cloud overhead; the sky is blue and clear.From our place here on the grandstand, we have a perfect vantage point.while we are waiting, we\'ve arranged an exclusive interview with Profeor Brainard, father of One-Day War.
\"Profeor, I know how busy you are supervising this enormous undertaking, and we appreci-ate your giving us an interview.To begin with, could you give us some background information about the project?\"
\"I am very pleased to speak with you.At this point, the project is rolling along according to schedule, and I am here to advise on any problems that may arise.You asked for some background infomation.Well, as you may know, I\'m considered an expert on the Civil War, like any other war, was how expensive and inefficient it was.Using our modern-day technology, we are able to reconstruct one battle that is the equivalent of all the battles fought during the entire war!\"
\"The major expenses in any war involve the movement of troops and machinery, medical equipment and peronnel, and burial expenses.Doing all this during wartime is difficult, expensive, and inefficient.Given our cultural and scientific development during these past tow hundred years, there was no reason why we couldn\'t produce the same effect at a fraction of the cost.The most brilliant part of the plan is the most obvious-why not bury the soldiers right on the battlefield and eliminate a lot of cost and trouble? The battlefield becomes the cemetery! Once we settled on this idea, the other details fell into place. \"An aenbly line procedure was adopted.The computer chose the soldiers and we hired digging any war crews,masons,gardeners,and florists.We saved a tremendous amount of money by not needing any war machinery except for one revolver per soldier.Naturally,there was no need for medical teams and supplies.The families of the soldiers knew well well in advance,so they could plan accordngly and put their personal affairs in order.\"
\"Did you encounter any difficulties with the plan?\"
\"A little,at first .Some members of the Congre thought the plan was \'inhumane\'.I explained to them that the net result was the same as waging the war for four years at a greater expense and inconvenience to the general population .Moreover,there would be no involvement with civilians whatsoever--no attacks,no burning of houses,no families killed by marauding soldiers.They agreed unanimously that my plan was safer,more efficient,and more humane than the Civil War.\"
\"We did encounter a strong objection from the Western Union lobby in Washington.They would be losing revenue from the telegrams usually sent to the families of the soldiers.We worked out an agreement allowing the company to manufacture the small American flags that will be given to each family.\"
\"And now,Profeor Brainard,after months of planning,your project is about to become a reality.Thank you,Profeor.I know I speak for the entire nation when I salute you as a remarkable man and a true patriot.\"
It\'s 8:30,and we are almost ready for the project to get under way.Before us on this immense battlefield ,stretched out for miles ,are the two opposing armies .The soldiers stand at attention in neat rows--an army of blue facing an army of gray .They stand very still like marble statues .On our left ,we can see the digging machines and their crews waiting silently.Behind them are the masons and gardeners .On our right we can see the florists.
Here in the grandstand are all the dignitaries :the President ,Vice President, Speaker of the House ,Senate majority leader ,members of the Cabinet, the Supreme Court Justices, and representatives of the Armed Forces.
We all rise for our National Anthem .The President approaches the podium .When he gives the signal, the band will play taps ,and on the last note of taps, watch the soldiers.
With military precision ,each man withdraws his pistol ,and places it to his temple, and in unison 204000 shots ring out .The noise is deafening like a huge explosion.Gun smoke fills the air.The sky is now gray as if a storm has suddenly belown in .The field is very quiet.The rows of gray and blue fallen bodies are now irregular .I gue it\'s hard to plan a perfect fall even with intensive training and devotion to one\'s country .The soldiers have done their part .Now it\'s time for the rest of the team to go to work.
The grandstand viewers file out of their seats and into the hand as the last officials leave the digging machines and their crews move onto the field they work from left to right digging each trench burying each body and leveling the ground the stone masons follow they place a stone at each soldier grave every stone has already been engraved with the soldier name and date of birth and death the crew work efficiently row after row the landscapers follow the masons they place strips of sod over the
newly dug earth now the florists unload their trucks and put fresh floral bouquets on each grave
We are watching the final phase of the one day war the digging crews have left the field the masons have gone the florists are leaving and the buses of widows and orphans are arriving all the families of the soldiers will be here at the same time they have all been transported here at the government expense they file into the field the ushers and hostees dreed in tuxedos and long gowns direct each family to its particular gravesite .Each family replaying When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again .We all stand at attention as a gentle breeze blows over the field.
It is truly amazing what American ingenuity can accomplish.This morning what was an ordinary field has been transformed into a military cemetery .It has been a beautiful day !I\'ve been honored to help bring this momentous project into your homes .Yes ,it\'s been a perfect day .Goodnight ,Americans .Sleep well.
