B
一个孩子眼里"刻薄"的母亲,会是个好母亲吗？让我们一起来看看作者的母亲是如何"刻薄"地对待自己的孩子的？
I had the meanest mother in the world. While other kids ate candy for breakfast, I had to have cereal and eggs. When others had Coke and candy for lunch, I had to eat a sandwich. As you can guess, my supper was different from the other kids'. But at least I wasn't alone. My sister and two brothers had the same mean mother as I did.
My mother knew where we were at all times. She also knew who our friends were and what we were doing. We had to wear clean clothes and take a bath every day. The worst is yet to come. We had to be in bed by 9:00 p.m. and up at 7:45 a.m. We couldn't sleep till noon like our friends. So while they slept, our mother gave us some work to do. We had to wash dishes, make our beds and learn to cook. I believe she lay awake at night thinking up mean things to do to us.
Through the years, things didn't improve a bit. We could not lie in bed "sick" like our friends did in order to miss school.
My mother was the meanest mother. Out of four children, a couple of us went on to higher education. None of us has ever done bad things. She forced us to grow up into educated and honest people. I am trying to raise my children like this. I will feel proud when my children call me mean.
Mother's love to their children can be rather deep, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and become fully independent. That is where true love lies.
WORD BOX ＞＞
| mean | [miːn] | adj. 刻薄的 | cereal | ['sɪəriəl] | n. 谷类食物 |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| lie awake | 寐而不睡 | | couple | ['kʌpl] | n. 数个 |
| independent | [ˌɪndɪ'pendənt] | adj. 独立的 | | | |
COMPREHENSION CHECK UP ＞＞
Choose the best answer according to the passage.
() 1. What does the underlined sentence "But at least I wasn't alone." mean?
A. The writer's mother was only mean to her.
B. The writer's mother liked her the best.
C. The writer's sister and brothers were mean to her as well.
D. The writer's mother was also mean to her sister and brothers.
() 2. What did NOT the writer's mother often ask her children to do?
A. Eat as much candy as they wanted.
B. Learn to do housework.
C. Wear clean clothes.
D. Go to bed and get up at fixed times.
() 3. Which of the following things did the writer hate to do most?
A. Eating differently from other kids.
B. Wearing clean clothes every day.
C. Going to bed early and getting up early.
D. Letting Mother know where they were.
() 4. Why was the writer's mother mean to her children?
A. She wanted them to be competitive with each other.
B. She wanted them to make more friends easily.
C. She wanted them to drop out of school early.
D. She wanted them to be educated and honest people.
() 5. What is the writer's attitude towards her mother now?
A. Hateful.
B. Thankful.
C. Worried.
D. Angry.