资料题：The man did not know that cars were passing by because he was（  ）。

The book, grandiosely titled Vladimir Putin, the History of a Life, is the first of three volumes, all to be published this year.ht concentrates on the young Vladimir and is based on interviews with school - friends and teachers.The President is quoted reflecting on what losing a fight in his early schooldays had taught him:“I understood that in any situation, whether I was right or not, I had to be strong, to be able to strike beck.I also leamt that you have to always be ready to strike back in a flash."Pution was keen on martial arts, and eventually became a black belt in judo.Like the rest of his generation he watched spy films, and admits that“in ninth class, under the influence of books and films, I decided I wanted to work at the KGB(克格勃)".Mr Putin tells of his childhood in a Leningrad communal flat, which had no bathroom and was infested with rats.To wash, the family had to heat a bucket of water.Friends of Mr Putin recall him playing waltzes on the accordion.“With hindsight I understand that he was not a virtuoso(演奏高手)," remembers one girl,”“but at the time I enjoyed hearing him play the same tune over and over again.”According to another friend, Viktor Borisenko,“He might have been small but he could fight anyone, ”Mr Barisenko says.“He was never afraid of anyone.If someone offended him,Volodya [Vladimir] immediately jumped up and scratched and bit the offender, and pulled out his hair.He would do anything to avoid humiliation."Mr Putin emphasizes that he built his career alone." I had no contacts in the KGB.I decided to go to the KGB building myself." As if following a direct path to the top of a mountain,this Putin never wavered and is proud of it.Blotsky refuses to compare Mr Putin with any previous ruler of Russia, but his biography is eerily reminiscent of the tomes about the lives of Communist leaders.