一个真实的故事
（1－2－16）
闲着没事的时候，自己收拾了一下堆在角落的?几本书。忽然发现了一本初级英语读物。想起来大约也有二十年了吧。这本书讲的都是真实的小故事。是一个名字叫Sandra Heyer的作者编辑起来的。作者从报纸和杂志上收集到了一些真实的故事后，然后再编集起来；给那些初学的学生们作为学习的材料。书中的故事短小精悍且具有趣味性，所以会使读者们受到启发和鼓舞。另外还会促使初学者从中学到一些词汇，帮助阅读和理解；进而提高学生们的阅读能力。
自己把这本书的小故事又读了一下。发现在最初读这本书的时候，有些字词在当时是不认识的。时光似箭，一晃二十年过去了。自己当时在书上作生词记号的词，现在已经不再是生词了。但是自己的英文语言水平还是差得太远。尽管自己在社区大学半耕半读的学习了六年多，所选修的课程也超过了100分。可是语言的方面却依然很差。因为自己所选修的课程很多都是有关医学方面的基础课等等。比如：放射线学，人体解剖学，生物学，微生物学，化学，组织学，数学等等。
后来在学习的过程中，自己发现语言的好坏对学习是起着非常关健的作用的。这也是美国高中生SAT的成绩成为能否进入一个好大学一个很重要的参考项目。如果谁想要申请有关医学方面的专业：比如：护士，牙齿保健师，药物工作人员，或者申请医学院等等。这些科目的录取对学生语言能力方面的要求是很高的。自己在读书期间深深的体会到了语言的重要性。
到了今天，自己还是感到非常的愧疚，因为来美已有二十多年了，可是语言方面提高的速度甚缓。因为没有在语言学习方面狠下功夫。所以如果想要提高语言方面的能力，那就要多读，多听和多写等等。
下面就是曾经读过有趣的英语小故事之一。
“On January 24,1988. Joel Gonzalez kissed his wife goodbye. Joel is a fisherman, and he was going on a short fishing trip. 'I'll see you in a week.' he said. But Joel
did not see his wife again for a long long time.
Joel left his house and went to the harbor in Puntarenas. Costa Rica. He got on a fishing boat. Four other fishermen were on the boat, too. The boat left the harbor, and the men began to fish.
The first few hours on the ocean were not unusual. Then there was a terrible
storm. The storm continued for 22 days .When the storm finally stopped, the men checked their boat. Their fishing nets were gone. The engine and the radio
didn't work. There was no food, and there was no fresh water.
Without their nets, the men couldn't fish. But they could reach out of the boat and catch big turtles. The men didn't want to eat raw turtle meat, so they needed a fire for cooking. They tore down the boat's wood cabin and made a fire with pieces of the cabin.
They needed protection from the sun and rain, so they built a simple roof. The roof held rainwater, too. The men could drink rainwater from roof.
For the next five months the men ate turtles--when they caught them. They drank rainwater--when it rained. Often there was no food and no water, and the men were hungry and thirsty. Sometimes they thought, 'We are going to die soon.'
Joel wrote a letter to his wife. 'My dear Edith,' Joel wrote, 'if I die, I hope someone will send you this letter. Then you will know how I died. I had the
best in life--a great woman and beautiful children. I love you , Edith. I love you .'
In June it didn't rain for a long time, and the men ran out of water. They were thin and weak, and they thought, 'We are going to die now.' They put on their best clothes, lay down, and closed their eyes. After a while it began to rain. The men stood up and licked the water from the roof. Then all five men began to cry.
Then days later, on June 15, a Japanese fishing boat found the men. They were 4,000 miles from Costa Rica.
Nobody sent Joel's letter to his wife. He showed it to his wife himself. Joel will always keep the letter. The letter, he says, helps him remember. 'On the ocean I realized that I love my wife and children very, very much. My family is everything to me. I don't want to forget that."
（故事来自:［More true stories]
--A beginning reader
By Sandra Heyer
其中两个图片也是来自书中。
