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下面这一段是卡罗尔第一次见到露丝蒂时的印象。
A girl dressed in a green nursing assistant’s uniform stepped out from one of the rooms in front of me. Something in her stance let me know she was the one the nurse been calling. Rusty. She was attractive with blonde, short hair, which fell in place perfectly. I figured she must about twenty. Her uniform was immaculate, obviously pressed carefully, and her white shoes were not only polished but buffed to a high shine. She was thin, her arms muscular, not in a way a man’s were but as though she had worked hard. She wore her watch low on her wrist on a thick leather band, the face turned in. She began to walk quickly towards what was now a real commotion.
（一个穿着绿色助理护士制服的女孩从我面前的一个房间里走出来，从她急匆匆的姿态中我知道，值班护士叫的就是她——露丝蒂。她长得很迷人，金发碧眼，短发很得体地披在脑后。我猜想她大约二十岁。她的制服洁净无暇，显然熨得很仔细，而她的白皮鞋不仅打光了，而且擦得铮亮。她身材苗条，可是胳膊上肌肉却很结实，虽不是像男人那样肌肉发达，但是看得出她很下力地干过活儿。她的手表低低地戴在手腕上，表带是很厚的皮带，表盘在手腕的内侧。她开始飞快地向那个现在乱作一团的地方走去。）
这就是露丝蒂。作者几句简洁朴实的话语，就把露丝蒂的形象呈献给读者了。她年轻美丽，有金色的头发；她制服洁净挺括，连白色的皮鞋也擦得铮亮；连她戴的手表也交代了，很厚的皮质表带说明她不富有……英语的表现力让我感叹，以前我总以为汉语在塑造人物形象方面很有优势，可是读了Rusty，我觉得我的英语视野太狭窄了，英语在表现力方面有它很独特的地方。下面这一段里，有一些用法是我以前不了解的，特别是几个并列的短语，给了我很深的印象。
The only constant in my life for all the years was nursing. No matter how harrowing and painful my regular life was, as soon as I walked on to a hospital floor dressed in white uniform, I felt like Cinderella at the ball. It was the one place I could be totally me. The place I could be as smart, as kind, as giving, and as real as I was capable of being. My patients and I had an understanding past words; we needed each other; we healed each other; and neither of us judged the other. There was no mask, no pretence, we were just human beings who because of circumstances had to learn to trust each other and so were allowed to really touch each other. And I had gotten used to that kind of closeness. Regular relationships compared to those special ones were like to trying to talk to someone through a glass barrier and trying to touch through a wire mesh divider.
（在这些年里，我生活中唯一不变的只有做护理。不论我平常的生活多么可怕、多么痛苦，只要走进护理院，穿上白色的护士服，我立刻就觉得自己是舞池中的灰姑娘。只有在这里我才是完整的。只有在这里我才能轻松，亲切，尽我所能照顾病人。我和我的病人之间有一种相互理解的语言，我们互相需要，我们互相治愈对方。我们谁也不对谁评头论足。这里没有面具，没有伪装，我们只是人，因为各自的处境，我们学会了相互信任，也只有这样，才让我们相互体贴。我已经习惯了这种亲密的关系。这与平常的关系相比，是不一样的，那种关系就像要隔着一层玻璃跟人说话，隔着铁丝网跟人握手一样。）
这是Rusty这本书中的主人公Carol作为第一人称的叙述，她表白了自己作为一个护士对待工作和病人的态度。她已经把自己的一切都和病人联系在一起了。
要知道，在卡罗尔工作的护理院里，那些病人都是有攻击性的吸毒者、酗酒者，当他们疾病发作时，他们会拒绝治疗，甚至随意地打骂护理人员，把他们长长的指甲深深地抠进护士美丽的脸庞……可是他们得到的却是百倍的耐心、爱护和诚意，这些年轻美丽的护士们是用自己的心温暖他们，感化他们……
露丝蒂本身也是癫痫病患者，这是一种随时可能发作，引起昏厥、休克、甚至死亡的疾病，而且，没有十分有效的药物可以控制它的发作，能够使用的都是一些精神药物，这会严重地损害她的健康。露丝蒂的病一次次地剧烈发作，在上班途中的汽车里，在楼梯上，在浴室里……可是由于她坚强的意志和卡罗尔的悉心照料，使她固守着自己战胜疾病的信念。
在我看过的描写人与疾病作斗争的小说中，Rusty给我的印象是最深的。我觉得，读这本小说就仿佛在读一本英语的护理日记，在不知不觉中就跟随了英语最平实的表达。书里的那些句子，好像你一张嘴也能说出来似的，这是一种阅读的快乐。
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