2015개정 실용영어 능률(김) 5과 본문

 

 

실용영어 능률김 5과 본문.hwp

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실용영어(NE능률김성곤) - Lesson 5 The Blue Sweater

Jacqueline Novograts is the founder of Acumen, a nonprofit global venture that is committed to tackling poverty. In the following story, she tells how she came to realize that we are all connected.

 

When I was young, I received a present from my uncle Ed that I would treasure for many years. It was a blue sweater. But it wasn't just any blue sweater. It was made of soft wool, and on the front were two zebras and Tanzania's majestic, snowcapped Mount Kilimanjaro behind them. It was my most precious possession. I wrote my name on the tag inside the collar to mark the sweater as mine, and I wore it whenever I could -all through middle school and even into high school.

One day in ninth grade, however, my love for the blue sweater was shattered by some boys at my school. They made fun of my sweater, saying out loud, "Look at Novogratz! She wears that old sweater all the time! She must not have any other clothes!" I felt so offended and embarrassed. That afternoon, I told my mother about the incident and said that I couldn't wear the blue sweater any longer. We gave it away to a donation center, and I was certain that I would never see it again.

Many years passed. I had quit my job on Wall Street and moved to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, to help establish a bank that would provide financial assistance to poor women. One sunny day, I was jogging down a steep slope in Kigali. Suddenly, something caught my eye. There was a young boy walking toward me. To my disbelief, he was wearing the blue sweater I had given away years ago. He seemed to be only about ten years old, and the sweater looked very big on him. I was so amazed that I ran over to him pointing to the sweater. Of course the boy had no idea why I was acting so strangely. There was only one way to know for sure whether this truly was my old blue sweater. I got the boy to turn around and pulled the tag from inside the collar. There it was: my name, Jacqueline Novogratz.

That sweater had traveled thousands of miles, all the way from the US to Rwanda. It probably went from the donation center to Mombasa, Kenya, which is one of the major port cities in Africa. There, along with hundreds of other pieces of used clothing, perhaps it was sold to secondhand clothing distributors and shipped to Rwanda. Finally, it ended up with this little boy.

 

This story has always reminded me that everyone on the earth is connected. While I worked in Rwanda, I had constantly struggled to find ways to help the people there. Seeing the blue sweater in Kigali was a timely coincidence, as I gained a strengthened sense of determination from it. Many years have passed since then. It is still difficult for the poor to access capital and move out of poverty in Rwanda. Nonetheless, memories of that day still influence me. It makes me think that even my smallest actions can affect anyone in the world.