【英文原文】

May 12 Florence Nightingale’s Birthday

In 1837，to the age of seventeen，Florence Nightingale decided to become a nurse，which horrified1) her whimsical2) mother．In those days，nurses were little more than janitors3)，and hospitals were pits of squalor and neglect．Nightingale pressed on，and in 1853she became superintendent4) of a small London hospital．She went on to the Crimea when war broke out there between Britain and Russia．She established the first of what we now know as war hospitals：sanitary，safe，and stocked with supplies．Her tireless ministrations to the wounded soldiers made her famous all over the world．Following the war，Nightingale avoided fame and continued to train nurses，ever battling against what she herself declared“a commonly received idea．．．that it requires nothing but a disappointment in love，or incapacity5) in other things，to turn a woman into a good nurse．”Since 1921，her birthday has been the centerpiece of National Hospital Week，observed in British and American hospitals with special exhibitions，workshops，and publicity drives．