每天读一篇英语小故事：A Cleaner River (1)

英语自学网

　　The three brothers were sitting on their boat, having a few beers and
talking about the good old days. As they talked, they watched the trash float by
on the St. James River. Their conversation turned to the trash.
        　　“It didn’t use to be like this,” said Manny. “Remember how we used to go
swimming in this river? I wouldn’t put my big toe in this river nowadays.
There’s no telling what disease you’d catch. Time was when people knew that
trash went into trash cans. Nowadays, the streets, the woods, the public parks,
and the lakes and rivers are just huge trash cans without lids.”
        　　“Not to mention the freeways—last night on the radio they reported a
refrigerator in lane one and a washing machine in the middle of an off-ramp,”
said Moe. “And almost every day drivers have to dodge mattresses, ladders, and
tires on the freeways. And what about all the graffiti on the freeway
signs?”
        　　They all agreed that slobs were making America ugly. Then Jack had an idea.
“Look, since we’re all retired and we have the time and energy, why don’t we do
something instead of just complaining? We can't clean up everything, but maybe
we could clean up our river.” They liked this idea, and talked about it for
another couple of weeks. Manny suggested a name for their effort—the Green
Fleet, an organization devoted to turning the St. James River blue again.