UNIT 8: LISTENING 2: Against All Odds, Twin Girls Reunited

Hannah Storm: Over the past 14 years, (1)45,000 Chinese children have been adopted by American families.
So what are the odds that sisters, (2) separated at a very early age, could actually find each other again

half a world away? Some might call it a (3) miracle , and they wouldn’t be far off. To see Renee Surrey

now, a happy eight-year-old who loves (4) gymnastics, dancing, and horseback riding, you would never
know she was once a sad and scared (5) orphan in China.

Eileen Surrey: She was crying so hard she was turned all red. She was very scared .
She’d never seen anyone who looked like us.
Storm: Eileen and her husband, David, brought Renee back to their home in Florida to (6)

shower her with love, but they could tell her heart still ached.

Eileen Surrey: Her sense of loss was just so big, and she was just so afraid to be alone. And at first I thought it was
because in the orphanage she wasn’t alone, but it—it seemed bigger than that.

Storm: Meanwhile, just outside (7) Philadelphia, Annie Bernstein, almost eight, loves her new home a
world away from the orphanage in China. Her parents, Andrea and Craig, remember their daughter as a bright little
girl.
Andrea Ettingoff: She was very alert and bright. She was very aware —she was looking around, and she was very
aware of what was going on.

Storm: But Annie also seemed very (8) deprived, /dɪˈpraɪvd/ (not having the things that are necessary for

a pleasant life, such as enough money, food, or good living conditions) because they noticed she ate as if she ’d never eat
again.

Andrea Ettingoff: She wouldn’t want to leave the table. All the other kids seemed to eat

and be (9) satisfied , but all this food was around her and she wasn’t
stopping.
Storm: Andrea sought help from a support group on the Internet, and one of
the many who (10) responded was a mom named Eileen.
Andrea Ettingoff: Her answer was the best answer, which was to try sharing a plate in the middle of the

table, and we ’d both eat from the same plate. It was (11) incredible. It was —stopped it
immediately.
Storm: These two moms, who lived 1,000 miles apart, noticed their daughters were from the same orphanage and

decided to (12) exchange pictures.

So, when you opened up her email, do you remember that moment of what that was like when you saw her
daughters picture?
Andrea Ettingoff: I was shocked.

Storm: The girls had the same hairline, same nose, same (13) chin
After exchanging more pictures, they just had to bring their two-year-olds face to face.
, same mouth.

Eileen Surrey: It was . . . it was . . . David Surrey: Amazing! Eileen Surrey: Amazing. That’s the word, yeah.
David Surrey: It was like a miracle! Storm: What did you think? Eileen Surrey: I thought they were twins. Yeah.

Storm: Andrea didn’t believe it, but she did notice the girls seemed to have a special (14) connection.
Andrea Ettingoff: We have pictures where Renee has her hand on Annie’s stroller, and Annie would never let even us,

like touch the rim of her stroller, but she seemed like there was some kind of (15) comfort level
there.
Storm: But it would be four more years before Renee and Annie saw each other again, in July 2004, at a (16)

reunion of families who had (17) adopted children from the same

orphanage.

David Surrey: And they never left each other the whole time.

Eileen Surrey: When Renee came back to the room she would say things like, '‘Please don 't tell my
best friend at home, but Annie’s my best friend.”
Annie Bernstein: Best, best friends. Renee Surrey: Sisters!
Storm: Since the reunion, the families have met three more times. We brought them together again for another visit.

Renee Surrey: Sometimes me and Annie (18) trade places.

Storm: What? You play tricks on people? Annie Bernstein: Yeah.

Renee Surrey: Sometimes I say I ’m An —I’m Annie, and sometimes Annie says I’m Renee.

Yeah. I would like to live next door

Storm: Do you wish you guys lived closer together? Annie Bernstein:
to —to —to play together, like —or have play dates, like, right after school.

Storm: Four months ago the (19) families tested their daughters’ DNA.

Andrea Ettingoff: They were really beginning to consider themselves to be sisters, and I didn't want them to have

false hopes that this was, you know, a relationship that had a (20) biological root and it didn’t.

Storm: The DNA results: the girls are almost certainly sisters, which means, because they're the same age, Renee and

Annie, in all probability, are (21) fraternal twins.

Eileen Surrey: Renee, she just started jumping up and down and (22)

squealing , “Yes, were sisters, were sisters. Yeah, we’re sisters!”

Storm: Finally, Eileen and Dave understood why their daughter Renee never liked to be alone.

Eileen Surrey: She was never alone, not even in the (23) womb . So for her, she needed

Annie.
Mr. Craig Bernstein: Since it’s important to Annie, I think its important to all of us.
Storm: OK, you tell me why —why you love Renee.

Annie Bernstein: Because we hardly ever (24) fight and we agree on a lot of things.
Storm: And why do you love Annie? Renee Surrey: Because she’s my sister, and I just love her.
Eileen Surrey: My daughter has —has not asked me a single question about her birth family or (25)

searching for them since she’s got Annie in her life