美国故事 SENEWS-2007-0203-Feature

Now the VOA Special English program American Stories. Our story today is called "Mr. Black". It was written by American reporter Charles Kuralt. It is from his book "A life on the road". For many years, Charles Kuralt travelled across the United States telling interesting stories about Americans. His stories were broadcasted on the CBS television network. Later, some were published in books. Here is Shep O'Neal with Mr. Kuralt's story called "Mr. Black".

George Black was a brickmaker. He mixed dirt and water, poured the mixture into forms and heated the forms until the mixture was hard. During his life, many structures were built with his hand-made bricks². George Black became a pretty good diplomat³ for the American State Department too. But that part of his story comes later.

George Black's father died in 1889. George was eleven years old. His brother was fourteen. "We will not be able to go to school," his brother said, "we are going to have to work for a living. If we work hard and make men out of ourselves, even if we do not know the difference between A and B, people will call us Mr. Black someday." George repeated his brother's words proudly more than 80 years later. By then he was a very old man, everybody called him Mr. Black.

The two little boys, George and his brother, set out on their own in 1889. They walked 40 miles from their village in North Carolina to the nearest big city Winston-Salem. They worked for a brickmaker for a while. After they learned⁴ how to make bricks, they started their own business. By the time I met George Black, he had been making bricks for a very long time. He still used the same method. He tied a mule⁵ to what he called a "mud-mill⁶". The mule walked slowly in a circle turning the mill. The mill mixed dirt and water creating the wet mud from which bricks are made. Mr. Black gathered up the mud in his big hands and put just the right amount in each form. It was then ready to be heated in a hot fire. Each form made six bricks.

"How many bricks do you think you have made in your life?" I asked him.

"Oh," he said, "I do not know, I would be afraid to know. I made a million bricks one year. Mr. Arge Renals wanted to build a tobacco factory. He asked me if I thought I could make a million bricks. I studied and said 'Yes I could.' I did too. You can go see them if you want to. That building is still there. They are all my bricks, yes sir." I found myself filled with great respect for this man. He was standing⁷ in a hole in the ground covered in mud. He had made a life of earth and water and fire. He had made the building blocks of a city. The next day, Mr. Black put on his best clothes and we walked around Winston-Salem.

"These bricks we are walking on," he said, "I made these only about 40 years ago." He pointed⁸ with his walking stick. "I made the bricks for that church over there. I made the bricks for that wall." Wherever we walked he pointed out the work of his own hands. When we reached the huge tobacco factory he spoke⁹ again.

"I believe I told you wrong about this job. It was not a million bricks, it was a million and a half. Made them six at a time for a dollar and half a day. I was a good payee in those days. Yes sir, made all these bricks six at a time and I am going to make some more yet."

I told the story of George Black on television. The day after, I found myself talking about him again. An official with the United States Agency¹⁰ for international development was interested.

"I hear you had a story about a brickmaker last night," the official Harvey Widroal said.

"Yup." I answered.

"Oh gosh," he said, "I have been looking all over this country for a brickmaker who still does the job by hand. I did not think there were any left. You see, the government of Guyana has a plan to rebuild the country. It does not want a big brick¹ factory. It wants somebody to go from village to village to teach the people how to make bricks for themselves."

"Well," I said, "I know the right man for the job. But remember that he is 92 years old."

"I do not care how old he is," Harvey Widroal said, "he must be the last person in America to make bricks by hand. Give me his address and telephone number. Mr. Kuralt, you have made my day!"

I called Mr. Black to warn him what was going to happen. He said he had already received the call from Washington. "Where is Guyana?" he asked.

"It is in South America." I said. "My my!" he said.

The very next day, Harvey Widroal flew from Washington to Winston-Salem. He and Mr. Black liked each other immediately and quickly reached an agreement. Mr. Black would go to Guyana for ten days. He would take his granddaughter, she also knew how to make bricks. A young boy would go to help them. Mr. Black would be paid 100 dollars a day. Harvey Widroal said, "This is a wonderful thing you are going to do, Mr. Black. We, in Washington, thank you very much." Mr. Black said simply, "I believe you have chosen the best man to do the job for the USA."

Harvey Widroal knew what had to be done. He prepared a detailed¹¹ proposal¹². He developed a plan and an emergency plan. He organized every hour of Mr. Black's trip – every visit to every village, every meal. He completed all the necessary documents. He was unbelievably excited. His big project was moving along smoothly¹³. Mr. Black was excited, too. He had never been far from home. Now he was about to travel to a foreign land as an official representative of the United States of America. I was excited myself. I had visited Guyana as a reporter a number of times in the past. I would now be going back again to report on Mr. Black's trip. As I waited to hear when we would leave, disaster struck. A high official with the agency for International Development read the proposal. Something, he decided¹⁴, was not acceptable¹⁵. He canceled everything. Harvey Widroal called me almost in tears. "They say Mr. Black is too old." It did not seem fair for Harvey's big idea to die this way. I did my best to make him feel better.

"Too bad." I said.

"Yeah, too bad." he said, "It was over." That is, it would have been over. Right then, however, we learned how one part of the government does not always know what another part is doing."

Mr. Black naturally had told a lot of people about his trip. Someone at a newspaper in Winston-Salem heard about it and said "That is a good story" and the story appeared on page one of the paper. Next, someone at a national news service read the Winston-Salem paper and said "That is a good story", and they sent it to newspapers all over the country. Then, someone at the White House read about it, then said, "That is a good story. It would be wonderful if the president could see Mr. Black before he goes to Guyana." So on exactly the same day that the government official was canceling Mr. Black's trip, a White House official was inviting¹⁶ him to come to Washington to meet the president. The project became of top importance. All the wheels of government that hours before had rolled backward to a halt¹⁷, now started rolling forward again.

So, George Black got to meet the president. He got to go to Guyana, too. There, he taught brick-making with such energy that everyone around him was tired. One of them was probably the government official who said he was too old for the trip. I have not collected many objects from all the years I was on the road as a reporter, but from the story of George Black I have two. The first is one of his bricks. It is solid and strong like the man who made it. The second is a photograph of President Nixon in the Oval¹⁸ Office surrounded by Mr. Black and his family. In a corner of this photograph is the small face of a man wearing an …

1 brick   

n.砖；vt.用砖砌，用砖堵住

参考例句：

• She stared blankly at the brick wall in front of her.她面无表情地瞪着面前的砖墙。
• I bought a brick of ice cream for my daughter.我给女儿买了块冰砖。

2 bricks   

n.砖( brick的名词复数 )；砖块；积木；可靠的朋友

参考例句：

• He compounded water, sand and soil and formed bricks. 他用水拌和沙和泥土做成砖块。
• The United Auto Workers hit the bricks against General Motors. 联合汽车工人工会举行罢工，反对通用汽车公司。

3 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

4 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

5 mule   

n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人

参考例句：

• A mule is a cross between a mare and a donkey.骡子是母马和公驴的杂交后代。
• He is an old mule.他是个老顽固。

6 mill   

n.磨坊，碾磨机；制造厂，工厂；vt.磨，碾

参考例句：

• The rice mill was wrecked by the enemy bombing.碾米厂遭到了敌机的轰炸。
• The farmer took his grain to the mill.这个农民把谷子送到磨房。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 agency   

n.经办；代理；代理处

参考例句：

• This disease is spread through the agency of insects.这种疾病是通过昆虫媒介传播的。
• He spoke in the person of Xinhua News Agency.他代表新华社讲话。

11 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

12 proposal   

n.提议，建议；求婚

参考例句：

• I feel that we ought to accept his proposal.我觉得我们应该接受他的建议。
• They could not gain over anyone to support their proposal.他们无法争取到支持他们建议的人。

13 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

14 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

15 acceptable   

adj.可接受的，合意的，受欢迎的

参考例句：

• The terms of the contract are acceptable to us.我们认为这个合同的条件可以接受。
• Air pollution in the city had reached four times the acceptable levels.这座城市的空气污染程度曾高达可接受标准的四倍。

16 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

17 halt   

n.停住，停止，暂停；v.(使)停住，(使)停止

参考例句：

• When the children's play got too noisy, their mother called a halt.当孩子们的游戏过于吵闹时，他们的母亲叫他们停下来。
• No one can halt the advance of history.没人能阻挡历史的前进。

18 oval   

n. 椭圆，椭圆形跑道；adj. 卵形的，椭圆形的

参考例句：

• She has a lovely oval face.她长着一张可爱的椭圆脸。
• The shape of the earth is an oval.地球的形状是个椭圆形。