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The silent young woman in bed number six is called Jasmine. So am I, but names are only superficial
things, floats on the surface of the water, and we share deeper connections than that. That is why she
fascinates me-why I spend my off-duty time sitting beside her.
Today is difficult. The ward (病房) is full of patients and I am kept busy emptying bed-pans, filling
out forms, changing dressings. Finally, late in the afternoon, I get a few moments to make coffee, to take
it over to the orange plastic chair beside her bed. I am thankful to be off my feet, glad to be in her
company once again.
"Hello, Jasmine," I say, as if greeting myself.
She does not reply. Jasmine never replies. She is down too deep.
She has been sea-damaged. I too am the daughter of a fisherman, so I choose my words like
fish-hooks, cast them into her ears, imagine them sinking down through cold, dark water. Down to
wherever she may be.
"I have little time today," I tell her, touching her hair.
With Jasmine, it is always difficult not to touch. She is that rare thing, a truly beautiful woman.
Because of this, people invent reasons to walk by. I catch them looking, drinking her in, feeding on her.
They are barracuda (梭鱼), all of them.
Great beauty is something Jasmine and I do not share. I am glad of it.
"Your father may be here soon," I say. "Last week he said he would come."
Jasmine says nothing. Her left eyelid flickers, perhaps.
It is two months since the incident on her father's fishing boat, since she fell overboard, sank, became
entangled in the nets. It was some time before anyone noticed, then there was panic. Her father hauled
her back on board and sailed for home. When he finally arrived, he carried ashore what he thought was
his daughter's body.
"Jasmine," I whisper. I want her to take our baited (用作诱醒的) name. I want her to swallow it.
Fortunately, there was a doctor in the village that morning, a young man visiting relatives. It was he
who brought this drowned woman back from the brink, he who told me her story. She opened her eyes,
he said, looked up at her father and spoke a single word-then sank again, this time into coma.
Barracuda. That is what Jasmine said.
When her father visits, he touches her hair, kisses her cheek, sits in the orange plastic chair at the
side of her bed and holds her hand. Like my own father, he has the big, brown, life-roughened hands
of a fisherman. He too smells of the sea, and pretends he is a good, simple man.
Jasmine. We share so much, we are almost one.
I remember early mornings, my hair touched to wake me, my father lifting me half-asleep from my
bed, carrying me, dropping me into his boat. His voice rough in my ear, his hands rough on my skin. I
never wanted to go, but I was just a child. He did as he wished.
I remember salt water, hot sun, my mother shrinking on the shore. I remember the rocking of the
boat, the screams of the seagulls.
"Jasmine, you have a life inside you. Can't you hear it calling?"
Nothing.
The ward door bangs, and I see Jasmine's father walking towards us, carrying flowers. He smiles
at me. Even in death, my own child had my father's smile, and Jasmine's will have this man's. I know it.
He stops by her bed and touches her hair. Something stirs deep inside me. I watch Jasmine's eyelids,
waiting for her to bite.
1. Why does the author show special sympathy for Jasmine?
A. They share the same name.
B. Jasmine looks very fascinating.
C. They have much in common.
D. Jasmine's father is very pitiful.
2. From the passage we can learn that Jasmine's father _________.
A. comes to see his daughter every day
B. is a good and simple man in the author's eyes
C. took his daughter out to the sea against her will
D. thought his daughter dead when back to the shore
3. What kind of situation is Jasmine in now?
A. She is unconscious.
B. She is nearly dying.
C. She is completely deaf.
D. She is in a bad mood.
4. We can learn from the story that __________.
A. ihe author enjoys her early life on the sea
B. Jasmine was pulled out of water without delay
C. the author spends her duty time attending Jasmine
D. it was a young doctor who happened to save Jasmine

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