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The story began on a downtown Brooklyn street corner. An elderly man had collapsed while
crossing the street, and an ambulance rushed him to Kings County Hospital. There, when he came
to now and again, the man repeatedly called for his son.
From a worn letter located in his pocket, an emergency room nurse learned that his son was a
marine stationed in North Carolina. Apparently there were no other relatives.
Someone at the hospital called the Red Cross office in Brooklyn, and a request for the boy to
rush to Brooklyn was sent to the Red Cross director of the North Carolina Marine Corps camp.
Because time was short--- the patient was dying--- the Red Cross man and an officer set out in an
army vehicle. They found the young man walking through some marshes (沼澤) in a military exercise.
He was rushed to the airport in time to catch the only plane that might enable him to reach his dying
father.
It was dusk when the young marine walked into the entrance lobby of Kings County Hospital. A
nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside.
"Your son is here," she said to the old man. She had to repeat the words several times before the
patient's eyes opened. The medicine he had been given for the pain from his heart attack made his eyes
weak and he could only see the shadow of the young man in Marine Corps uniform standing outside
the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The marine wrapped his strong fingers around the old man's
weak ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement. The nurse brought a chair, so the marine
could sit by the bed.
Nights are long in hospitals, but all through the night the young marine sat there in the dimly lit ward
(病房), holding the old man's hand and offering words of hope and strength. Occasionally, the nurse
urged the marine to rest for a while. He refused.
Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the marine was there, but he paid no attention to her and
the night noises of the hospital --- the banging of an oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff exchanging
greetings, the cries and breathing of other patients. Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words.
The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son through most of the night.
It was nearly dawn when the patient died. The marine placed the lifeless hand he had been holding
on the bed, and went to inform the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he smoked a cigarette, his
first since he got to the hospital.
Finally, she returned to the nurse's station, where he was waiting. She started to offer words of
sympathy, but the marine interrupted her. "Who was that man?" he asked.
"He was your father," she answered, shocked.
"No, he wasn't," the marine replied. "I never saw him before in my life."
"Why didn't you say something when I took you to him?" the nurse asked.
"I knew immediately there'd been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just
wasn't here. When I realized he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, I guessed he really
needed me. So I stayed. "
With that, the marine turned and left the hospital. Two days later a message came in from the North
Carolina Marine Corps base informing the Brooklyn Red Cross that the real son was on his way to
Brooklyn for his father's funeral. It turned out there had been two marines with the same name and
similar numbers in the camp. Someone in the personnel office had pulled out the wrong record.
But the wrong marine had become the right son at the right time. And he proved, in a very human
way, that there are people who care what happens to their fellow men.
1. An emergency room nurse found out that the old man's son was a marine ______.
A. by calling the Red Cross office in Brooklyn
B. because the old man repeatedly called for his son
C. from a letter found in the old man's pocket
D. form the old man's relatives
2. When the marine was found, ______.
A. he was setting out in an army vehicle with an officer.
B. he was participating in a military exercise
C. he and his fellow soldiers were stuck in marshes
D. he was already with the old man
3. In the hospital, ______.
A. the nurse stayed by the old man's bed most of the night
B. the dying man said a few words to the young man
C. the young marine offered him comfort in the last few hours of the old man's life
D. the night was cold and long, with people coming and going all night
4. The young marine told the nurse that he was not the real son of the old man ______.
A. after the old man died
B. when the nurse sensed something strange
C. before the marine came to the nurse's station
D. as soon as he arrived
5. The mistake was due to ______.
A. the fact that the two marines had the same name and looked alike
B. carelessness on the part of someone in the personnel office
C. the wrong records kept in the North Carolina Marine Corps base
D. the wrong information provided by the Brooklyn Red Cross
6. The sentence "the wrong marine had become the right son at the right time" in the last paragraph
means that ______.
A. the marine was wrong in fooling the dying man
B. the marine did not tell the truth at the hospital until some time later
C. the marine told the real story about him and the old man
D. the marine made the right decision about what he should do
