二战时的欧洲西线战场，最著名的战役有两个:  敦克尔克大败退和诺曼底登陆战。前者将被德军围困主的四十万英法联军中的三十四万撤到了英伦三岛。四年后，后者又把百万英美盟军渡过英吉利海峡，给第三帝国敲响了灭亡的丧钟。

英国老兵里，参加过其中之一的幸存者现在是少之又少，两次都参加过的那更是凤毛麟角，犹如参加国长征的中国老红军，都是比熊猫还要真贵的稀罕物。

英国现在还真幸存者这么一只"老熊猫"，都93岁了，得过的军功章就有一包。可是这位"熊猫"大叔，在参加敦克尔克老兵庆典泛舟泰晤士河时，他的那些军功章全都落入泰晤士河。要将这些军章从泰晤士河底捞起，那真叫一个大海捞针，英文说法就是:  mission impossible。但有一家英国打捞公司，想老英雄所想急老英雄所急，主动要求帮助老英雄打捞失物。结果您猜怎么着?  还真把那mission impossible给找着了，真是可喜可贺。

下面就是这则新闻:

Divers reunite British war hero with lost medals

Divers defied the murky waters of the River Thames on Saturday to recover priceless medals for a British war hero after he feared they were lost forever.

World War II veteran Charles Brown, 93, was taking part in a Dunkirk veterans river cruise last weekend when his medals slipped out of his jacket pocket and into the water at Teddington, as he boarded a boat.

When the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) heard about the loss it offered to recover the irreplaceable medals which included an OBE (Order of the British Empire) awarded for his work for war veterans and his Dunkirk and Normandy campaign medals.

Malcolm Miatt, lifeboat operations manager at RNLI Teddington, said: "I wasn't sure that we'd find the medals because they been down there all week and visibility from the silt was bad due to all the heavy rain recently.

"However, our divers found them almost immediately, there was no drama."

When he heard the news, an overjoyed Brown took a taxi from his retirement home to the river to be reunited with his medals.

"I do get a bit emotional because these medals meant so much to me. I wasn't a celebrity, a pop singer or a cricketer, these medals were what I was proud of," he said.

"I'm not going to be celebrating with cream cakes or anything like that, just having the medals back is enough for me."

学词汇:

murky:  混浊不清，是clean的反义。

"无价之宝"怎么讲?  "价格"是price，"无价"就是priceless；"无价之宝"就是什么样的高价都买不走，也即priceless。英文里还有一词，invaluable也是"无价之宝"的意思:  动词value是"估算价值"，valuable是"有价值的"或"可估算出价值的"，"invaluable"是"怎么估高价也不为过"、即"无价之宝"的意思。注意，千万不能把invaluable看成是"一钱不值"。

war hero:  战斗英雄。有人可能会说，war是战争，battle才是战斗；因此，战斗英雄该是battle hero才对。细究用词是应该受到鼓励的，但英语是英美人民的英语，不是中国人民的英语。所以用词要随人家。war hero就是中国的"战斗英雄"，人家这么用了，我们也要这么用。

slip out of his jacket pocket:  滑出他的上衣口袋

to board a boat:  登船。那登机呢?  对了， to board a plane。知道boarding pass是什么吗?  登机牌。
地名敦克尔克和诺曼底的英文是什么?  Dunkirk和Normandy。千万别以为英文地名不重要，与人交流，时间地点人物非常要紧，而这方面是中国人说英语时的弱点，需要加强。

Royal National Lifeboat Institution:  做好事的这家公司。

"无可替代的"怎么说:  irreplaceable，动词"放置"是place，"重新放置"也即"替代"，形容词"可替代的"是replaceable，这样下来，irreplaceable当然就是"不可替代的"。

"救生艇"会说吗?  lifeboat。
"能见度"呢?  visibility。

"河床淤泥"是silt。打捞的时候，军功章落水已经一个礼拜了，加上近日来的大雨使得河床底部的能见度很差。但潜水员(divers)几乎是瞬间就找到了军章。

"高兴坏了"怎么说?  Overjoyed，就是"兴奋过度"。
"那可不是说故事"，怎么讲?  There was no drama，就是"这都是真的"的意思。
"我真是有些激动"，会说吗?  I do get a bit emotional。

"我不是名人"，会吗?  I am not a celebrity。中国学生有滥用famous一词的倾向，"to be a celebrity"和"to be famous"不完全一样。某人可能在一科学领域很famous，但不一定是celebrity。

cricketer:  英国板球运动员

celebrating with cream cakes:  用奶油蛋糕来庆祝。动词celebrate和名词celebrity，从读音到词义要搞清楚两者的异同。