时间:2019-01-27 作者:英语课 分类:365个英语简短小故事


英语课

A ten-year-old boy confessed to his parents that he was playing with matches on a windy day in October in southern California. The Santa Ana winds were howling that day, and his carelessness resulted in the Witch fire. That fire destroyed 18,000 acres of woodland and 12 homes. The total damage and the cost of firefighting efforts were estimated at $25 million. Ironically, his parents’ house was untouched by the fire.


The authorities did not immediately announce what they would do to the boy or his parents. An official in the district attorney’s office said that, probably, no criminal charges would be filed. But the parents would still be liable for civil charges. That is, victims could sue for their losses and rebuilding costs. Suing the middle-class family for millions would be the easy part, though; collecting the millions would be unlikely.


Homeowners disagreed on what should be done. “I don’t have a house anymore,” said John Ritter. “It will take at least two years to build a new house, and my insurance is only going to pay about half the cost of the new house. Ordinarily, I would say that the boy and his parents ought to be put in jail for at least 10 years. But because their house didn’t burn down, I think the law should just allow me to trade property with them. They can have my burned-down house, and I can move into their house. That’s fair enough for me.”


“We all make mistakes, especially when we’re young,” said Michael Richards, another homeowner whose house burned down. “I remember setting my sister on fire when I was about 10. I didn’t mean to do it, of course, and she jumped into the lake, so she was okay. But it could have been a terrible accident. I think the poor boy has learned a valuable lesson. People should forgive, rebuild, and get on with their lives.”


 



学英语单词
.tc
absolute colcmun temperature
aerated mud
aglianicos
almanc
average man
axial varying pitch
barboni
Beattie James
bed-time
behm
black water fever
camshafteccentric
centre hole reamer
chrome-faced piston ring
Chuna
cicatrice
complex molecule
consumption account
corn powder
cranse-iron
crosswordese
cudgel one's brains
Deslandres
dial peer hunting
dishono(u)red bill
disk machine
dividing mechanism
double semi-trailer road train
down grading
downlong
downplayer
dunera
employee rating
Estradial
find favour with in someone's eyes
fixed-based natural frequency
foist one's company on someone
full bridge
Garden of England
general initiation factor
genus ambloplitess
grass fabric filter
group orbital
in high snuff
IP Security
Knight Commander
Kocs
lift microphone
M.I.NG
magnetic distortion
minutely
multiple spindle drilling machine
narcoanalyst
nominative tender
Pawtucket
personal goals
photofission product
physiological properties of mineral
pneumatolytic metasomatism
pre-placental
precap
purlwise
Radicularia
rafter timbering
rating fraction
rational circle
real-property
rectangular strip
research vessel unit
resection of lower lobe of right lung
rubber flag
ruminate endosperm
Runsten
sadiqs
school boy
seam ravelling
self-limiting reactor
self-modification
semi-simplicial complex
sensation-seekers
sensibilite
set sb thinking
set-time
souris
spatial wave
steady-state temperature
supply lines
supracondylar osteotomy
The matter stands thus.
total actual spending
trichlorophenolate
two-party sequential bargaining experiments
U.P.W.A.
unconfound
unearnable
urfa
user side
weighed into
wingbeat
word separation
world wildlife fund