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2007年VOA标准英语-Volunteers Fight Fires to Protect Their Communi

时间:2007-05-31 03:09来源:互联网 提供网友:minzixin   字体: [ ]
    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

By Jeffrey Young
Washington
17 April 2007


To most Americans, the governments in their towns and regional areas called counties are the governments they interact with the most.  And alongside these local governments are groups of citizens who work on their own to make life better.

In this segment of a multi-part series, VOA correspondent Jeffrey Young takes a close-up look at the Rockville, Maryland, Volunteer Fire Department. 

 
 
Fires destroy. Fires can be deadly. And when the alarm bell rings, there are people in Rockville, Maryland who give up their time -- and risk their lives -- to serve as volunteer firefighters.

It is the end of another weekday -- quitting time for most people.  But not for Mike Pokorney and Tony Roman at the volunteer fire department in Rockville, Maryland, a city just outside Washington, D.C.

Pokorney and Roman are just starting their second work shift of the day at the station house.  Rockville has paid professional firefighters, but that is not enough. Highly trained volunteers help ensure the city's safety.

 
Mike Pokorney
For Mike Pokorney, being a volunteer firefighter is more than serving his community.  It is his life. "It's every kid's dream or fantasy to be a fireman. I always wanted to do this," he says.

Tony Roman says firefighting is what makes his life exciting. "Some people play golf. I come here. I have lots of fun doing it. "

Firefighters stick together, both on the scene of a fire and at the station house. The camaraderie1 among firefighters, both professionals and volunteers, is strong. After all, they are protecting each other's lives... and the lives of those they rescue.

Whatever people are doing at the station house stops when the fire alarms go off. Mike Pokorney says that sound goes straight to his heart. "When the tones go off for the [fire] engine, the adrenaline levels go way up because you have no idea what we're going for. The feeling of that is incredible."

Pokorney's full time career is with Montgomery County's government. He makes sure that new buildings' plans conform to fire safety regulations.  Tony Roman's daytime job is with the U.S. government's Department of Agriculture, where he handles permits for farm product imports. 

 
Tony Roman
Roman says he has learned how to balance emergency calls with chances to get some sleep at the station house so he can function at his day job.

[After the fire call] "You just cool down and try to go back to bed because I have to be up next morning just to go to work,” says Roman. “I have the support of my regular job. They [the Department of Agriculture] know I do this."

But Mike Pokorney says getting those naps in-between calls is not easy. "If you're running [working at] a fire and you're there three or four hours, you're dead, dead tired.  But our job's not done.  You have to come back to the station house and clean up everything you used.  Then, maybe, you can go to bed."

 
 
Volunteer fire departments are the majority -- 56 percent – of the firefighting force in Montgomery County, Maryland. The head of the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department, Eric Bernard, says his and other volunteer fire stations save taxpayers2 millions of dollars.  "We raised the money ourselves to build this fire station. We bought most of the equipment in it as well."

Volunteer firefighting has been a tradition in the United States for hundreds of years. Many of today's Rockville volunteer firefighters had fathers who also manned this station house. Firefighting is such a part of life for some of these volunteers that they take their sense of duty, and community, with them to the grave.

And some of their children, and grandchildren, will step into their boots.

Video production assistance provided by VOA's Craig Fitzpatrick.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 camaraderie EspzQ     
n.同志之爱,友情
参考例句:
  • The camaraderie among fellow employees made the tedious work just bearable.同事之间的情谊使枯燥乏味的工作变得还能忍受。
  • Some bosses are formal and have occasional interactions,while others prefer continual camaraderie.有些老板很刻板,偶尔才和下属互动一下;有些则喜欢和下属打成一片。
2 taxpayers 8fa061caeafce8edc9456e95d19c84b4     
纳税人,纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
  • She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。
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