11 Saved Heroes in Everyday Life

CHAPTER 1 A Hero's Story: Tilly Smith IN 2004, A TEN-YEAR-OLD ENGLISH GIRL CALLED TILLY SMITH LEARNED ABOUT TSUNAMIS IN HER CLASS AT SCHOOL. Tilly's teacher, Andrew Kearney, told the children all about tsunamis. Tilly thought it was very interesting. Only a week or two after that, Tilly went to Thailand with her mother, father, and sister. They stayed in Phuket, a favorite place for people on vacation. One day, Tilly and her family went to Maikhao Beach. Many people were there to enjoy the sun, go swimming, play games, and have a good time. Then Tilly saw something very unusual. The water began to leave the beach quickly! She remembered Mr. Kearney's lesson: it is dangerous when water leaves the beach fast. It shows that a tsunami is coming. Tilly was worried. She told her mother and father about the water. They spoke to the other families on the beach and the people who worked in the hotels, too. They all left the beach. They quickly walked up to high ground, away from the water, and waited. And then the tsunami came. It was a wall of water. It was many meters tall! People in other places had big problems, and many people died. But the people at Maikhao Beach were all safe. A ten-year-old girl saved them. Tilly was a hero!

2004年，一个名叫蒂莉·史密斯的10岁英国女孩在学校的课堂上学习了有关海啸的知识。 蒂莉的老师安德鲁·科尔尼给孩子们讲了关于海啸的一切。 蒂莉认为这很有趣。 仅仅一两个星期之后，蒂莉和她的妈妈、爸爸和妹妹去了泰国。 他们住在普吉岛，这是人们度假时最喜欢的地方。 一天，蒂莉和她的家人去迈考海滩。 许多人在那里享受阳光，去游泳，玩游戏，玩得很开心。 然后，蒂莉看到了一些非常不寻常的东西。 海水开始迅速离开海滩！她想起了科尔尼先生的教训：海水迅速离开海滩是很危险的。 这表明海啸即将来临。 蒂莉很担心。她把水的事告诉了妈妈和爸爸。 他们和海滩上的其他家庭以及在旅馆工作的人交谈。 他们都离开了海滩。他们很快地走到高处，远离水面，等待着。 然后海啸来了。 那是一堵水墙。它有很多米高！其他地方的人遇到了大问题，很多人死了。 但迈考海滩的人都很安全。 一个10岁的小女孩救了他们。 蒂莉是个英雄！

CHAPTER 2 Superheroes SUPER CAN MEAN "GREAT" OR "BETTER THAN NORMAL." SO SUPERHEROES CAN DO MORE THAN NORMAL PEOPLE -AND MORE THAN OTHER HEROES! We all know Spider-Man and Superman with their famous costumes. Superman can do much more than us. He can fly, stop trains with his hands, jump over tall buildings, and see through walls. These are his super powers. In superhero stories, there are also villains. Villains do a lot of very bad things. The superhero's job is to stop the villain. Some villains are supervillains because they have super powers, too. In the Superman stories, Brainiac is a supervillain. He can fly like Superman, and he can move things by thinking about them. Many people like to read about superheroes or watch movies about them. It is fun for people to think about super powers. They think, "What super power would I like to have?" Of course, there aren't any superheroes in the world, and normal people do not have super powers. But who knows? Maybe one day...

超级英雄可以表示“伟大的”或“比一般人更好的”。 所以超级英雄可以比普通人做得更多——比其他英雄做得更多！我们都知道蜘蛛侠和超人穿着他们著名的服装。 超人能做的比我们多得多。 他能飞，能用手让火车停下来，能跳过高楼，还能看穿墙壁。 这些是他的超能力。 在超级英雄的故事中，也有坏人。 坏人会做很多坏事。 超级英雄的任务是阻止反派。 有些恶棍是超级恶棍，因为他们也有超能力。 在超人的故事中，Brainiac是一个超级反派。 他可以像超人一样飞，他可以通过思考来移动物体。 许多人喜欢读关于超级英雄的书或看关于他们的电影。 人们想到超能力是很有趣的。 他们会想，“我想拥有什么样的超能力？”当然，世界上没有超级英雄，普通人也没有超能力。 但谁知道呢？也许有一天……

CHAPTER 3 Folk Heroes PEOPLE LOVE STORIES ABOUT HEROES. SOME OF THESE STORIES ARE VERY, VERY OLD. The Romans lived in Italy more than 2,000 years ago. They wrote about Spartacus. He was big and strong. He fought hard to help people. Today, Spartacus is a folk hero. A folk hero is a hero that many people in a town or country know about. Usually, the story starts as a true story— a real person does something dangerous or heroic. People hear, remember, and tell the story year after year. The story changes and gets bigger and bigger. There are more and more stories. Soon, the real person is a folk hero, and the stories are folk stories. Many folk heroes take money from rich people and give it to poor people: Robin Hood in England, Ishikawa Goemon in Japan, Ustym Karmaliuk in Ukraine, and many others. Many people say that folk heroes do not die; they are sleeping, and they wake up when their people need them. These folk heroes are often kings or famous people: Arthur in England, Charlemagne in Germany, El Cid in Spain, and others. There are also many national heroes in different parts of the world. Simon Bolivar is a national hero in some countries in South America. He fought the Spanish to help some South American people be free. People like to tell stories about him. In the future, he may be a folk hero!

民间英雄人们喜欢英雄的故事。 有些故事非常非常古老。 两千多年前，罗马人居住在意大利。 他们写了关于斯巴达克斯的事。 他又大又壮。他努力帮助别人。 今天，斯巴达克斯是一个民间英雄。 民间英雄是一个城镇或国家的许多人都知道的英雄。 通常，故事以一个真实的故事开始——一个真实的人做了一些危险或英雄的事情。 人们年复一年地听到、记住并讲述这个故事。 故事发生了变化，变得越来越大。 有越来越多的故事。 很快，真实的人物变成了民间英雄，故事也变成了民间故事。 许多民间英雄从富人那里拿钱给穷人：英国的罗宾汉，日本的石川Goemon，乌克兰的乌斯廷·卡马柳克，还有很多其他人。 很多人说民间英雄不死；他们在睡觉，当他们的人民需要他们时，他们就会醒来。 这些民间英雄通常是国王或名人：英国的亚瑟，德国的查理曼，西班牙的埃尔希德等等。 世界各地也有许多民族英雄。 西蒙·玻利瓦尔是南美洲一些国家的民族英雄。 他与西班牙人作战，帮助一些南美人获得自由。 人们喜欢讲他的故事。 在未来，他可能是一个民间英雄！

CHAPTER 4 Professional Heroes SOME PEOPLE ARE PROFESSIONAL HEROES: IT IS PART OF THEIR JOB TO RESCUE PEOPLE. The police stop people from doing bad things. Paramedics go to dangerous places to help people. Soldiers fight for their country in a war. Many people say that these people are heroes. Think about firefighters. Is a firefighter a hero when he or she helps somebody leave a burning house? It is dangerous work, but we pay firefighters to do this job— to fight fire. Are they really heroes? Are doctors heroes when they save somebody's life? This is also difficult and important work, but we pay doctors to do it. And it is usually not dangerous for the doctors. Paramedics have a much more dangerous job. They help people when there is an accident on the road. Sometimes they have to go into burning cars to rescue people. They also have to help crazy or dangerous people. Are paramedics more heroic than doctors?

第四章职业英雄有些人是职业英雄：救人是他们工作的一部分。 警察阻止人们做坏事。 护理人员去危险的地方帮助人们。 士兵在战争中为国家而战。 很多人说这些人是英雄。 想想消防员。当消防员帮助别人离开着火的房子时，他是英雄吗？ 这是一项危险的工作，但我们付钱给消防员来做这项工作——灭火。 他们真的是英雄吗？当医生拯救了别人的生命，他们是英雄吗？ 这也是一项困难而重要的工作，但我们付钱给医生来做。 而且这对医生来说通常是没有危险的。 护理人员的工作要危险得多。 当路上发生事故时，他们帮助人们。 有时他们不得不钻进燃烧的汽车去救人。 他们还必须帮助疯狂或危险的人。 护理人员比医生更英勇吗？

Soldiers sometimes have to fight for their country. We usually call soldiers heroes if they save other soldiers when it's dangerous. But soldiers don't always fight. Sometimes soldiers save people when there is a natural disaster, like a flood. In a flood, the water from rivers gets very high and goes into people's houses. Are soldiers heroes when they rescue people from natural disasters? If a soldier is ready to fight or to save people, but there isn't a war and there isn't a natural disaster, is he or she still a hero? Sometimes professionals do heroic things when they are not working. They can stop something bad or rescue somebody. In Australia in 2011, police officer Raelene Longden was on a train after she left work. There was an accident. A man fell under the train. It was very dangerous, but Officer Longden jumped down and went under the train to help him. She saved his life. Are police officers heroes only when they are not working? What about when they are working?

士兵有时不得不为国家而战。 如果士兵在危险的时候拯救了其他士兵，我们通常称他们为英雄。 但是士兵并不总是战斗。 有时士兵在发生自然灾害时救人，比如洪水。 在洪水中，河水涨得很高，进入人们的房屋。 从自然灾害中救人的士兵是英雄吗？ 如果一个士兵准备战斗或拯救人民，但没有战争，没有自然灾害，他或她仍然是英雄吗？ 有时候专业人士在不工作的时候也会做一些英雄般的事情。 他们可以阻止坏事或拯救某人。 2011年在澳大利亚，警察雷琳·朗登（Raelene Longden）下班后在火车上。 发生了一场事故。一个人跌倒在火车下面。 这是非常危险的，但朗登警官跳了下来，走到火车下面帮助他。 她救了他的命。警察只有在不工作的时候才是英雄吗？ 他们工作的时候呢？

CHAPTER 5 Hero For a Day SOMETIMES, PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO BE HEROES. THEY DON'T ASK TO BE HEROES. BUT DANGEROUS THINGS HAPPEN, AND THEY ARE HEROES. In January 2009, a plane left New York City in the USA. There were a lot of big birds flying in the sky that day. After only three minutes in the air, the plane flew into some of the birds, and the plane stopped working. The pilot, Captain Sullenberger, was really worried. "This is dangerous," he thought. "This plane cannot stay in the sky!" He had to land the plane quickly and safely. He looked down, but there was nowhere to go— only the Hudson River. He had to bring the plane down on the water but not in the water. People near the river watched the plane and waited. This was crazy! But he did it! The pilot landed the plane on the river! All the passengers came out of the plane and stood on the plane's wings. People came to the plane in boats and rescued the passengers. They were all safe. Everyone said that Captain Sullenberger was a hero. Do you think Captain Sullenberger is a hero, or is he just a very good pilot? He helped many people that day, but he saved himself, too!

有时，人们并不想当英雄。 他们不要求成为英雄。 但是危险的事情发生了，他们是英雄。 2009年1月，一架飞机从美国纽约起飞。 那天有很多大鸟在天空中飞翔。 在空中只飞行了三分钟，飞机就撞到了一些鸟，飞机停止了工作。 飞行员萨伦伯格机长非常担心。 “这很危险，”他想。 “这架飞机不能在空中停留！”他必须使飞机又快又安全着陆。 他往下看，但没有地方可去——只有哈德逊河。 他不得不让飞机降落在水面上，而不是在水里。 河边的人们看着飞机等待着。 这太疯狂了！但他做到了！飞行员把飞机降落在河上！所有的乘客都从飞机里走出来，站在机翼上。 人们乘船来到飞机上营救乘客。 他们都很安全。大家都说萨伦伯格上尉是个英雄。 你认为萨伦伯格机长是个英雄，还是他只是个优秀的飞行员？ 那天他帮助了很多人，但他也救了自己！