Title:
How Manute Bol Used His Sports Fame for a Greater
Good
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
Manute Bol played ten years in the National
Basketball Association. But he will be remembered as
much for his basketball playing as for his charity
work in Sudan. He died June nineteenth from kidney
failure and a rare and painful skin disorder. He
became sick while working in his homeland. He was
forty-seven years old. A funeral took place at
Washington's National Cathedral. Manute Bol was born
in southern Sudan. He stood two hundred thirty-one
centimeters tall. This is tall even for a Dinka,
some of Africa's tallest people. His father, a
tribal chief, did not think basketball was "good
work for a Dinka." But the teenager chose it over
herding his family's cattle. He did not have much
luck, though, the first time he went up to dunk the
ball. As he once told the Washington Post: "When I
came down I hurt my teeth in the net."In the NBA,
Manute Bol averaged fewer than three points a game
on offense. But on defense, he became one of the
most feared shot-blockers in the league. Former
player Rory Sparrow says Bol was not afraid of
anyone -- not even Michael Jordan. Sparrow says Bol
once said: "Why should I be afraid of Michael
Jordan? I kill lion. He come in, I block his shot."
Manute Bol finished his career as the fourteenth
best shot-blocker in NBA history. He enjoyed his
fame. But he never forgot his people. Years of civil
war left southern Sudan in ruins. He estimated that
he lost two hundred fifty members of his extended
family. He helped raise money for refugees. Reports
say he donated nearly all of the estimated six
million dollars he made playing basketball. Before
his death, he was working with the Sudan Sunrise
group to help bring the country together. His goal
was to build forty-one schools. Manute Bol took his
Christian faith seriously. "God guided me to America
and gave me a good job. But he also gave me a heart,
so I would look back," he said in Sports Illustrated
magazine in two thousand four. That year, Manute Bol
broke his neck in a car accident. He was thrown from
a taxi. After recovering, he moved to the state of
Kansas, and met United States Senator Sam Brownback.
Senator Brownback said he cannot think of a person
in the world who used his or her fame for a greater
good than what Manute Bol did. He said he gave his
life for his people.And that's the VOA Special
English Development Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
