Mercy for a thief

A frantic call came into Jimmy Gilleece’s bar this past March. A newly married woman who had spent the afternoon at the dive beach bar, couldn’t find her wallet. She didn’t care about her ID, credit cards, or $150 in cash—but her wedding ring was tucked inside.

Gilleece, the barkeeper, spent several hours watching surveillance footage(监控录像). He noticed a young man in a hoodie approach the bench that the woman had just sat on. He put something in his pocket, and walked off. Gilleece posted a clip on the bar’s Facebook page. Within hours, Gilleece got a text from 17-year-old Rivers Prather, who’d heard about the post from his sister. Prather told Gilleece he’d done it because he hadn’t eaten in two days. He said he saw the ring but thought it was fake, so he took the money and threw the wallet off the public docks into the ocean.

Gilleece, unsure whether he believed Prather, told the teen to meet him at the docks. There, after talking with the teen, Gilleece knew Prather wasn’t getting along with his family and had been living in the woods for a week. Gilleece thought Prather was more of a kid than a criminal. He thought he had to help him somehow. But the police were already on the case, and because of the missing ring, Prather could probably be sent to the jail.

The next day, Gilleece had two local divers search the waters where Prather had thrown the wallet. A policewoman was waiting for them there. More than an hour passed, with no sign of the ring. Prather looked nervously at the water. And then a diver popped up. In his hand was the wallet, and inside was the ring. Prather jumped up excitedly. Even the policewoman was happy. When Gilleece called the wallet’s owner, she burst out crying.

“Most people would have given the clip to police, and he chose to help me,” Prather told CBS News. “I say thank you to him every day.”

lost     real     jump     decide     relationship       miss throw     approach     nervous     tears   hold   happy
A newly married woman ________ her wedding ring
Gilleece found that a young man _________ where the woman had just sat. He posted a clip on the bar’ s F acebook page.		Prather admitted that he took the money and threw the wallet with the ring into the ocean, because he thought it was not_________.
After Gilleece and Prather had a talk, Gillece_________ to help him.		Prather told Gileece he had a bad _________ with his family.
The next day, Gilleece had two local divers search the waters for the wallet which _________ by Prather.		Prather was a bit_________ as there was no sign of the ring for more than one hour.
A diver popped up with his hand_________ the wallet, and inside was the ring.		Prather was so happy, _________ up excitedly.
When Gilleece called the wallet’s owner, she burst into __________.

When other nine-year-old kids were playing games, she was working at a petrol station. When other teens were studying or going out, she struggled to find a place to sleep on the street. But she overcame these terrible setbacks (挫折) to win a highly competitive scholarship and gain entry to Harvard University. And her amazing story has inspired a movie, “Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”, shown in late April.

Liz Murray, a 22-year-old American girl, has been writing a real-life story of willpower and determination. Liz grew up in the shadow of two drug-addicted parents. There was never enough food or warm clothes in the house. Liz was the only member of the family who had a job. Her mother had AIDS and died when Liz was just 15 years old. The effect of that loss became a turning point in her life. Connecting the environment in which she had grown up with how her mother had died, she decided to do something about it.

Liz went back to school. She threw herself into her studies, never telling her teachers that she was homeless. At night, she lived on the streets. “What drove me to live on had something to do with understanding, by understanding that there was a whole other way of being. I had only experienced a small part of the society,” she wrote in her book Breaking Night.

She admitted that she used envy to drive herself on. She used the benefits that come easily to others, such as a safe living environment, to encourage herself that “next to nothing could hold me down”. She finished high school in just two years and won a full scholarship to study at Harvard University. But Liz decided to leave her top university a couple of months earlier this year in order to take care of her father, who has also developed AIDS. “I love my parents so much. They are drug addicts. But I never forget that they love me all the time.”

Liz wants moviegoers to come away with the idea that changing your life is “as simple as making a decision”.