unit7A课文KIDSONTHETRACK..doc

“KIDS ON THE TRACK! Jack Murphy ???????Monday, May 1,1989 was a pleasant morning in Ramsey, N.J. Kate Pritchard bent over her car trunk and struggled with the bags of groceries she d just brought home. She heard the distant cry of a locomotive horn. The trains of Conrail passed less than 300 feet from the Pritchards house. No fence separated their backyard from the track—only a thick row of trees. But, her sons, 3 ? -year-old Todd and 18-month-old Scott, were nearby, playing on the driveway. ???????“Stay right there, Kate said, “while Mommy puts the groceries away. Then well go inside and have lunch, okay? ???????“Okay! said Todd, giving ??a?thumbs-up gesture he d seen his father make. ???????Kay! echoed Scott, trying to copy his older brother. ???????They watched their mother enter the house with several bags. ???????Kate shut the refrigerator and hurried outside. Good. The boys were playing right where she d left them. ???????As she lifted more bags from the trunk, Kate heard a train race past—a passenger express, she judged from its speed. She carried more bags into the house. ???????The sounds of the train apparently drew the boys attention to the track. After making their way through the trees, they climbed to the top of the steep roadbed, knelt down along the railroad and began to play. ???????A few thousand feet west, a freight train rolled slowly toward the children. Overhead lights signaled to engineer Rich Campana that the passenger train ahead was out of the way, and they could resume their normal speed of 40 miles per hour. The engineer adjusted the accelerator, then turned to conductor Anthony Falzo, a man, medium in height and strongly built, who had worked for Conrail for almost half of his 35 years. ???????“So what d you do over the weekend, Anthony?” ???????“Oh, not much. Mostly messing around—a little TV, then bed. What else?” ???????Campana smiled. “Hey,you d better cool down, Anthony—you re getting to be a real party animal!” ???????