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  3. I first met him in a small lumbertown. I was sitting in front of the hotel watching people pass by. It was a warm day. Now and t

I first met him in a small lumbertown. I was sitting in front of the hotel watching people pass by. It was a warm day. Now and t

admin2016-10-21  90
问题     I first met him in a small lumbertown. I was sitting in front of the hotel watching people pass by. It was a warm day. Now and then, a group of laughing rivermen marched by.
    One group especially caught my eye. They wore bright red shirts and heavy boots. Suddenly, one of them came up to me. "Say, Mister," he said. "You look mighty interested. Are we your long lost friends?"
    His voice was friendly enough but he seemed ready for any answer ... trouble, if I wanted it, or help if I needed it.
    "Can you tell me where all these people are going?"
    He pushed his little cap further back on his head. "Birling match!" he said. "Come on!"
    I joined him and we followed the crowd to the river. There, we saw six men running toward the river with their peaveys. They used the round metal hooks on the end of the peaveys to push a heavy log into the water. Then one of the men took a long leap and landed on the end of the log. The force of his jump pushed the log out into the middle of the river. The man, arms folded over his chest, stood straight up like a statue of bronze.
    The crowd roared approval. The man’s name was Darrell. He was a small man, but he had wide shoulders and long arms. He walked to the center of the long heavy log and turned to face the crowd. Then, slowly, he began to walk, not forward or backward, but in the same place ... in the center of the log. The log began to turn under his feet. It rolled around and around. His folded arms, his straight back, did not move, only his legs and feet, soon the log was spinning. Suddenly the man jumped up in the air and came down on the log with both feet. The log stopped turning and rested under him like a great quaking animal.
    The man on the log then dropped his arms and stood still for a moment. And he jumped into the air again. But this time he turned completely over in the air, then landed on the log with both feet. The crowd roared again. Someone pushed a long pole out toward the log. The log, with Darrell on top, was pulled toward shore. Another man then ran to the river and jumped on the log with Darrell.
    They stood facing each other. Then, together, they began to walk, slowly at first, then faster. The log began to turn around under them, spinning faster and faster. Soon, it became clear that the other man could not keep up with Darrell. The man was being forced off the top of the log. Suddenly, the man fell backward into the water.
    "Clean birled?" my friend said. Twelve other men — one after the other — tried to get Darrell to fall into the water. But none of them could move their feet as fast as he could. The crowd now shouted for someone to stop Darrell. It wanted the best and began to shout: "We want Powers!" Jimmy Powers was my friend. He got up, ran to the river and jumped onto the log with Darrell.
    At first, the two men just stood looking at each other waiting for the first move. Suddenly, Darrell birled the log three times quickly, then jumped up and down to stop it.
    Powers felt the log shake under him but kept his balance. The battle started. Sometimes, the log rolled left to right, then right to left. They moved their feet together faster and faster. At every move, the crowd shouted for Powers to throw Darrell into the water. Suddenly, there was a big splash. There was Powers swimming toward shore.
    I walked over to him. "How did he do it?" I asked. He turned to me and I saw the anger in his wet face. "Oh, it’s you? Well, that’s how he did it," and he showed me a row of holes in his boot. Blood was running from the holes. " He jumped on my foot with his boots and pushed the metal spikes right through." "Why didn’t you say something?" I asked.
    "Look, Mister," he said, "I am big enough to take care of myself. Don’t lose any hair over this. I’ll stop Darrell next time."
    The following year I visited the old lumbertown again. But this time the town was empty. "Everybody has gone to see the log jam." The jam was up the hill above town. When I got there everybody was down at the river. There, in the middle of the water, was a mountain of logs. Thousands of them, one on top of the other, blocking the river. About fifty tnen were using peaveys to free the logs. Sometimes, one would break loose and ten others followed. All floated down the river away from the jam. At noon, the men came to shore for lunch. "Hello, Powers," I said. "Do you remember me?"
    "Sure," he said. "Aren’t you a little early this year?" "No," I said, "this is better than a birling match. It will be a great sight when the logs break loose."
    "You bet it will," he said. We talked of many things and finally I said, "Darrell is your boss this year, huh? Did you ever get a chance to birl him off a log?"
    "Mister," he said, "those little marks are still on my foot. Just you remember this: Dicky Darrell will get his from me!"
    About three o’clock that afternoon the log jam began to break up. There was no warning — just a loud cracking sound that got louder and louder as the rows of logs began to hit each other. At first, a few hundred broke loose and fell into the swift water. Others quickly followed.
    The rivermen separated. They raced away in all directions, leaping and hopping from log to log to get to shore. One man fell into the water and started to swim to shore. It was Darrell. He was caught in the river, a thousand logs rushing toward him. Suddenly another riverman raced across the floating logs, seized Darrell by the coat collar and started to climb up the mountain of logs, pulling Darrell with him. It was an exciting rescue. The logs were falling and rolling down toward them, but they finally got to the top of the pile. Without stopping for thanks or shaking hands, the two men immediately went to work. They pushed and pulled the logs on top to keep the others moving. Forty other men attached the logs. Then with a mighty roar the mountain broke free. The falling logs leaped forward like animals down into the swift water. The log jam was broken.
    One by one, the town people left. The sun moved down behind the trees and a cool evening breeze came up the river. Jimmy Powers walked toward me. "You know," he said, "the owner of the largest lumber mill saw me work today and offered me a job as a boss. Imagine that ... me, a boss."
    There was a strange look on his face. "Well," I said, "you earned it. I’m not going to call you a hero because you wouldn’t like that. But what you did this afternoon showed courage. It was a brave act. But it was better because you saved your enemy ... you are a leader of men." I stopped. Jimmy kept looking at me.
    " Mister," he said, " if you are going to hang stars on my Christmas tree, just stop right now. I didn’t rescue Darrell because I had any Christian feeling for him. I was just saving him for the birling match next Fourth of July."
When was the birling match held?
选项 A、On Independence Day.
B、On the Easter holidays.
C、At Christmas.
D、On New Year’s Day.
答案A
解析 细节题。从文末Fourth of July可得知在每年的美国独立日举行旋转浮木比赛，所以选A。
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