Sinsof Chemical secret
响水县向阳中学 冯可悦
At first, I picked up thebook at random and read it just to kill time. The book was much older than me and its plots might be no more excitingthan those in TV series.
John Duncan, old andpoor, was successfully employed by a factory for its chemical safety. Hisfamily moved into a big house, owned a boat, and enjoyed wonderful holidays.Besides, John fell in love with Mary Carter. They sailed and saw a place whereseals had babies.
Before sailing, when hewas working with the paint, John spilt some of the waste products on his leg.He cleaned it off quickly, but it left a red, painful place on his skin, whichwouldn't not go away and kept him awake at night. His doctor threw doubts aboutthe waste products.
“Well, yes, of courses,’”said John. “But it’s all right, you know,” he added quickly. “It’s verycarefully checked, all the time. It’s a big river, and we only produce a fewhundred litres of the waste products a day. And we’re only two kilometers fromthe sea, after all.”
“Good,”said the doctor.“I wouldn’t want anyone to drink those waste products, that’s all.”
“They won’t, doctor,’ said John. “All thedrinking water comes out of the river five kilometers upstream, you know that.Who’s going to drink salt water from the river mouth, for haven’s sake?Chemists from London have checked it, too, you know, and our company lawyersknow all about it. So it’s not dangerous and we’re not doing anything wrong.Don’t worry about it.”
After Sailing, he askedMary to look at a new experiment.
“Ten rats have had thewaste products in their drinking water for two weeks now. I gave them a lot---five parts per million. They’re going to have babies today. If babies are OK,we’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Mary didn’t like it andthought it awful. She felt terribly ill especially when she saw baby rats withon eyes, no ears, six legs!
“It's awful, isn’t it?But I had to know. And remember, Mary---their mother had five parts per millionof these chemicals in their drinking water for two weeks. That’s a lot---much,much more than we’re putting in the river. The company can build machines toclean the waste products.” John comforted Mary.
“But...” She turnedround to face him. “Don’t you think we should stop making the paint now, John?Perhaps it’ll take years to build those machines, and we’re putting thechemicals into the river right now!”
“I... don’t think we needto do that now, Mary. ..............”
Mary remembered her longyears of work, the hundreds of unsuccessful experiments.
John heard the similar excuses when the bossrefused to clean up the waste. John thought of his children, sailing on theriver in their boat. He thought of the seals, and people fishing, and littlechildren playing on the beach and swimming. “If I tell the newspaper...”
“You’ll lose your job.You’ll have to sell your house, and go back to living in a nasty little flat.You’ll never have a house or any money again. “You’ll just be an old man,walking the streets without friends or money. Is that what you want?”
Mary left, John stayed.
John didn’t agree themarriage between his daughter Christine and Simon who was ajournalistfor an environmental groups ---Greenworld. Finally he gave in. After ahappy supper, Simon showed his first full-page article. The headline read:
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