I was 15 years old the day I skipped school for the first time. It was easily done: Both my parents left for work before my school bus arrived, so when it showed up at my house on that cold winter morning, I simply did not get on. The perfect crime!
And what did I do with myself on that glorious stolen day, with no adult in charge and no limits on my activities? Did I get high? Hit the mall for a shoplifting extravaganza (狂欢)?
Nope. I built a warm fire in the wood stove, prepared a bowl of popcorn, grabbed a blanket, and read. I was thrilled and transported by a book ---- it was Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises ---- and I just needed to be alone with it for a little while. I ached to know what would happen to Jake Barens and Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting in a classroom taking another biology exam when I could be traveling through Spain in the 1920s with a bunch of expatriates (异乡客).
I spent that day lost in words. Time fell away, as the room around me turned to mist, and my role ---- as a daughter, sister, teenager, and student ---- in the world no longer had any meaning. I had accidentally come across the key to perfect happiness: I had become completely absorbed by something I loved.
Looking back on it now, I can see that some subtle things were happening to my mind and to my life while I was in that state of absorption. Hemingway’s language was quietly braiding itself into my imaginations. I was downloading information about how to create simple and elegant sentences, a good and solid plot. In other words, I was learning how to write. Without realizing it, I was hot on the trail of my own fate. Writing now absorbs me the way reading once did and happiness is their generous side effect.
【小题1】Why did the author skip school on that day?A.Because she was fascinated by novel. | B.Because it was a cold winter morning. |
C.Because she hated to take the biology exam. | D.Because her parents left home early. |
A.Reading by the fire. | B.Travelling in Spain. |
C.Being occupied by one’s passion. | D.Breaking the regulations. |
A.I was tired of my real-life roles. |
B.Hemingway’s style influenced me a lot. |
C.Becoming a writer was my childhood dream. |
D.I learnt how to write on the internet. |