韩千帆选注

　　Tom Freeman sees the United States differently than most of us see it.<注1> He looks down at the world from the air.<注2> Tom has an unusual job: painting flagpoles.<注3> The flagpoles can be 50 to 80 feet tall. Some poles are very narrow. They may be six inches wide at the bottom and only one inch wide at the top.

　　Tom is 54 years old. He started painting flagpoles 10 years ago when a friend asked him for help painting a flagpole. Tom liked the work and bought the equipment he needed to paint more. "I got my first job painting a flagpole at the university of Pennsylvania,<注4> and I've been painting flagpoles ever since,"<注5> he says. Now Tom advertises his services to colleges, schools, communities, and post offices.<注6> "I have a unique business, so it's important to tell people what I do," he says.

　　Tom travels all over the United States to paint flagpoles. He paints about 150 to 200 poles a year. He usually starts in April and works until October or November, when the weather gets cold. Sometimes he works in California or Texas<注7> in the winter.

　　What is the hardest thing about painting flagpoles? "You climb a big pole, and you hope it doesn't break," Tom says. "This job looks pretty scary from the ground, and it can be dangerous.<注8> You have to climb up really high." Some poles are very old. They are rusty, and they are difficult to paint. They can also be cracked. "I always hope they don't break when I'm painting them," Tom says.

　　The tallest pole Tom ever painted was 137 feet high. But he will always remember a pole he painted in Kansas.<注9> "It was 30 feet high, and the wind bent it over.<注10> I landed in a football field." Tom went to the hospital because he was bruised and sore.<注11> Fortunately, he didn't break any bones, and he was soon back at work.