通过英语文章背六级词汇。

UNIT 4
Big Tom
Of all the males in our company’s dormitory,
I felt the most affection for Tom.
He was a genius, I thought,
but the other guys took him for a nut.
He came from far away,
and at first had a strong Spanish accent.
Now, after a year with the company,
he spoke English very well.
But his English accent had an exaggerated precision
that the other guys didn’t like.
In the crude environment of the dormitory,
Tom’s accent seemed artificial.
But he was a big man, a giant,
and strong as an ox,
and the others feared him and left him alone.
I on the other hand had a weak constitution.
I couldn’t digest any real food
and lived on little more than coffee.
My arms and legs were as thin as stems.
And what work did I do there, you may well ask.
I was chief garbage man for the dormitory.
Our company had a big project to build
a reinforced concrete reservoir out
in a suburb surrounded by hills.
At night a portion of the project was closed to us
by means of a big square gate made of brass.
One cold evening I was depositing the garbage
from supper behind our dormitory
when I saw a torch and the shape of a man
passing through the brass gate.
I walked over.
“I knew it was you,” I said to Tom.
“It’s open,” he said.
“Shall we go in?”
“Don’t you know we shouldn’t?” I said.
“You still haven’t adjusted to the company.”
“Adjust?” he said.
“I’d rather quit. Come.
What are you afraid of?
Don’t you want to investigate this portion?”
He knew I did.
Already it seemed inevitable that I would go with him.
I only feared that the torch would be noticeable
on the TV monitor of the chief watchman.
“Turn off the torch,” I said,
and we walked through the brass square gate.
Tom and I penetrated all the way to the crane,
and no watchman had yet pursued us.
This giant crane was used for moving
and placing the reinforced concrete blocks.
In the dark we recognized it by its shape—
an immense pillar of zigzag rods.
At the top of it, we knew, at the peak,
would be the flag.
And far over our heads, up in the dark sky,
would be the crane’s giant arm.
On the arm was the banner that we saw everyday,
with the letters ABC,
the initial letters of our company’s name.
We had ABC written on our shirts, too,
and on the chairs and beds with which our dormitory was furnished.
“Let’s go up!” said Tom.
I laughed—but Tom had spoken in earnest.
Strong as he was,
he really had no concept of authority.
“Tom, you are a nut!” I said,
wanting to show him that I was reluctant.
But in the end he convinced me,
and we mounted the ladder to the lift.
There were two buttons,
a red one and a green one.
I pressed the latter,
just to see if the lift might be operational.
It was. I pressed the red button and stopped it.
Tom got in.
I pressed the green one again
and we rose and rose and finally reached the top.
We were at the peak of the pillar,
just underneath the