From Junk to Love
化腐朽為神奇
Different Parts of a Bicycle
Paragraph 1-1
 Something about the battered old bicycle
at the garage sale caught the eye of
fourteen-year-old Justin Lebo. It was a
BMX bike with a twenty-inch frame.
Everything on it was bent or broken. Justin
bargained the owner down to $6.50 and
loaded the bike into the back of his
father’s car.
Paragraph 1-2
 After they got home, Justin and his father
cleared out a work space in the garage and
they replaced the broken pedal, put on a
new seat, and restored the grips. In less
than a week, the bike looked brand-new.
Paragraph 2
 However, Justin soon forgot about the bike.
Not long after, he bought another beat-up
bicycle at a yard sale and fixed it up, too.
After a while it bothered him that he
wasn’t really using either bike. He realized
that what he liked was not riding the old
bikes, but the challenge of making
something new and useful out of
something old and broken.
--Paragraph 1-1- catch one’s eye 引起某人注意
=attract/draw one’s attention
 Cf. broken vs. broke
– broken 受到毀損的；破損的
– broke 破產的
--Paragraph 1-2- replace A with B 以B代替A
= substitute B for A
Ex. We replace typewriters with computers.
=We substitute computers for typewriters.
 less than 少於
 no less than (1)不少於 (2) 至少=at least
Paragraph 3-1
 Justin wondered what he should do with
them. Then he remembered that when he
was younger, he used to live near a large
brick building called Kilbarchan Home for
Boys. It was a place for boys whose
parents couldn’t care for them for one
reason or another. So he decided to donate
the bikes to those unfortunate boys.
Paragraph 3-2
 The next day when Justin and his mother
unloaded the bikes at the Home, two boys
raced out to greet them. They leapt aboard
the bikes and started riding them around
and around the driveway.
Paragraph 4
 The Lebos watched for a while and then
started to get into their car to go home.
“Wait a minute! one of the boys called out.
You forgot your bikes! Justin explained
that the bikes were now theirs to keep.
“They were so happy,” Justin remembers.
“It was like they couldn’t believe it. It
made me feel really good to see them so
happy.”
--Paragraph 3-1- fortunate / unfortunate
 fortune /misfortune
adj.
n.
– Misfortune never come singly.
– Misfortunes tell us what fortune is.
– If fortune smiles, …
--Paragraph 3-2- leap, leaped, leaped (leap, leapt, leapt)
– Look before you leap.
=Think twice (before you leap.)
 Cf. “跳”
– jump
– leap
– hop
--Paragraph 4- You use “for” to say how long something
lasts or continues.
– for a while
一陣子
– Cf. after a while
過了一會兒
once in a while 偶爾；有時
 call out = cry out
Paragraph 5-1
 On the way home, Justin was silent. He
was thinking about what would happen
once those bikes got wheeled inside and
everybody saw them. How could all those
kids decide who got to ride the bikes?
Only two bikes for so many boys was just
asking for trouble.
Paragraph 5-2
 “Mom,” Justin said, as they turned onto
their street. “I’m going to make a bike for
every boy at Kilbarchan for Christmas.”
When they got home, Justin called
Kilbarchan and found out there were
twenty-one boys. It was already June. He
had six months to make nineteen bikes.
That was almost a bike a week.
Paragraph 6
 Justin and his mother spent most of June
and July hunting for cheap bikes at garage
sales and thrift shops. But by the
beginning of August, Justin had managed
to make only ten bikes. Summer vacation
was almost over, and school and
homework would soon cut into his time.
Garage sales would dry up when it got
colder, and Justin was out of money. But
still, he was determined to find a way.
Paragraph 7
 At the end of August, Justin got a break. A
neighbor wrote a letter to the local
newspaper describing Justin’s project, and
an editor thought it would make a good
story. In her admiring article about a boy
who was devoting his summer to helping
kids he didn’t even know, she said Justin
needed bikes and money, and she printed
his home phone number.
--Paragraph 5-1- wheel
v.
– If you wheel something which has wheels on it,
you push it along.
– Ex. He wheeled his bike through the alley.
 got to 有機會做…；必需，一定
– Ex. I never got to ride in a Concorde.
– Ex. I’m not satisfied with my grades, but I got
to accept it.
-- Paragraph 6- by +時間 ph. 到…的時候，常與完成式連用
– Ex. By next month, the couple will have been
married for fifty years!
 manage to V. 成功做到…
– Cf. try to v. 設法做到…
 S be determined to V. S 下定決心去做…
= S make up one’s mind to V.
-- Paragraph 7- story 報導
– make a good story 成為一篇不錯的報導
– print a story on sth. 發表關於…的報導
– cover story
封面報導/封面故事
 devote sth. to sb./sth. 把…奉獻給…
=dedicate sth. to sb./sth.
– Ex. The doctor devoted/dedicated his life to
helping AIDS patients.
Paragraph 8
 The week before Christmas Justin delivered the
last of the twenty-one bikes to Kilbarchan. Once
again, the boys poured out of the home and leapt
aboard the bikes, riding them happily around in
the snow. Once again, their joy inspired Justin.
They reminded him how important bikes were to
him. Wheels meant freedom. He thought about
how much the freedom to ride must mean to
these boys. They had so little freedom in their
lives. And so he decided to keep on building.
Paragraph 9
 “First I made eleven bikes for the children
in a foster home, then I made bikes for all
the women in a battered woman’s shelter.
Then I made ten little bikes and tricycles
for children with AIDS. Then I made
twenty-three bikes for the Paterson
Housing Coalition.
Paragraph 10-1
 Justin Lebo is often asked the question,
“Why do you do it?” This question seems
to make him uncomfortable. It’s as if the
reporters and interviewers want him to say
what a great person he is. Their stories
always make him seem like a saint, which
he knows he isn’t.
Paragraph 10-2
 “I don’t have to, but I want to. In part, I do it for
myself. I don’t think you can ever really do
anything to help anybody else if it doesn’t make
you happy. Once I overheard a kid who got one
of my bikes say, ‘A bike is like a book; it opens
up a whole new world.’ That’s how I feel, too. It
made me happy to know that kid felt that way.
That’s why I do it.”
 --Adapted from“Justin Lebo”by Phillip Hoose in North Star: Focus on
Reading and Writing. Longman, 1998--
--Paragraph 8- remind sb. to V.
= remind sb. of sth. 提醒某人(做)某件事
– Ex. Please remind me to file my tax reports.
= Please remind me of filing my tax reports.
-- Paragraph 9- To foster a child means to take him/her into
your family for a period of time, without
becoming his/her legal parent.
 代表數字的字首
– uni- / bi- / tri- / quarte- / penta– union, bicycle, triangle, quarter, The Pentagon