British "Angle of the Beach" named Child of the Year Tilly Smith, 10, of Britain, who is credited with saving 100 lives by alerting people of coming waves during the 2004 tsunami smiles during the first anniversary of the Asian disaster in Phuket, southern Thailand. padding-bottom: 100%;"> Tilly Smith, the 11-year-old British girl, who was called as "Angle of the Beach", saved 100 tourists from a Thai beach hit by last year's tsunami and has been named Child of the Year by readers of a French children's newspaper. She came ahead of a South African Aids orphan, a six-year-old girl who survived a kidnapping by paedophiles and a young Parisian pop singer to win the Mon Quotidien award. Tilly had studied tsunamis with her geography teacher, Andrew Kearney, shortly before flying to Thailand for a holiday with her parents and younger sister last year. As she watched the waves suddenly begin to recede, and the sea was bubbling,she warned her mother, Penny, that the beach was about to be struck by a tsunami. Mrs Smith and her husband, Colin, alerted other holidaymakers and hotel staff and scores of people were cleared from Maikhao beach at Phuket. Tilly, now 11, and back in Thailand for anniversary commemorations of the disaster, said: "It's really good, just to know about tsunamis or any natural hazard in case you are in one. "I'm very glad that I was able to say on the beach that a tsunami was coming. And I'm glad that they listened to me." She had earlier said that the state of the sea, which was "sizzling and bubbling" was "exactly the same as in my geography lesson". Tilly read a Thai poem entitled Tsunami at a candle-light vigil（守夜） to commemorate victims of the disaster. She is unaware of her remarkable popularity among French children. Her picture appears on the front page of Mon Quotidien, which is read by 10 to 14-year-olds. "Our readers chose Tilly because they could identify with her," said Fran?ois Dufour, the editor-in-chief. "To be a pop star at 11 seems impossible, and the idea of having Aids or being kidnapped is remote from their lives." 蒂莉·史密斯，這個被稱爲"沙灘天使"的11歲英國女孩，在去年的那場海嘯中，曾讓100多名遊客從泰國的一個海灘上死裏逃生。她也因此被法國一家兒童報紙的讀者們評爲"2005年度風雲兒童"。 她的人氣超過了另外兩名候選兒童，一名是6歲的南非艾滋病孤兒，這個女孩曾經成功逃脫了一戀童癖者的綁架；另外一名是巴黎少年流行歌手。 去年，蒂莉和父母、妹妹一起去泰國度假，在這之前，她在安德魯·科尼老師的地理課上學了有關海嘯的知識。 當她看到海浪突然後退，海水不停的冒泡時，她馬上告訴媽媽佩尼，海嘯要來了。佩尼和丈夫科林隨即向其他遊客和賓館工作人員發出警告，之後，所有人從普吉島的麥克奧海灘上撤退。 11歲的蒂莉今年重返泰國，參加海嘯一週年的紀念儀式，她說："當遇到海嘯或其他自然災害時，如果能有關於這些災害的知識，那就太好了。" "我很高興我能在海灘上說出'海嘯就要來了'，也很高興大家都相信了我的話。" 蒂莉說當時海水發出噝噝的響聲，而且不停的冒泡，和她在地理課上學到的海嘯發生前的跡象一模一樣。 蒂莉在紀念海嘯遇難者的一個燭光守夜儀式上朗誦了一首題爲《海嘯》的泰國詩歌。 她並不知道自己已經在法國兒童中間聲名遠播，她的照片還登上了《我的生活》報紙的頭版，《我的生活》的讀者主要是10歲至14歲的兒童。 《我的生活》主編弗蘭克斯·杜福說，"小讀者們選擇蒂莉，是因爲他們能在她的身上找到相同的東西。11歲成爲流行歌星，似乎不太可能，而得艾滋病和被綁架離他們的生活又太遙遠。"
