The walls of our house were supposed to be white. But I never remember them being white. At first, they were grey, then turning black. My father was a coal worker. He made charcoal (木炭) in our house. Have you ever seen charcoal being made? The little bags you buy in the store for barbeque, they come from somewhere, and honestly, it’s a very dirty business.
I remember one day I was bagging up the charcoal with my dad, and it was really cold and raining. All we had was the tiny roof over our heads. After a few hours, I got to go to school, where it was warm. My dad stayed out there working, all day. If he didn’t sell that day, maybe we wouldn’t have enough to eat. I thought to myself: At some point, everything is going to change.
For this, I owe football everything. I started football early. I played so much football that every two months, my boots would break apart. When I was seven, I must have been pretty good, because I scored 64 goals for my neighborhood team. That year, my dad got a call from a coach saying they wanted me to play there. My dad asked, “Oh, it’s too far away. Nine kilometers. How will we get him there?” My mom said, “No, no, no! Don’t worry, I’ ll take him!” And that is when Graciela was born.
Graciela was an old yellow bicycle that my mother would use to drive me to training every day. It had a little basket in the front. Imagine this: A woman biking through town with a little boy on the back and a bag in the basket with his boots. Up hills. Down hills. Through the dangerous neighborhoods. In the rain. In the cold. In the dark. Graciela got us where we needed to go.
Nowadays people look on YouTube, watch the World Cup and see the results, but they don’t know the journey. They don’t know about my living room walls turning from white to black. They don’t know about my father working under a little roof. They don’t know about my mother riding Graciela through the rain and the cold.
【小题1】Why did the walls of the author’s house turn black?| A．His family wanted to change the look of their old house. |
| B．The color black could cover up his father’s dirty business. |
| C．The author often made indoor barbeques with the charcoal. |
| D．There was a lot of coal dust created from his father’s work. |
| A．Graciela was a yellow bicycle with a basket. |
| B．Graciela was named after the author’s mother. |
| C．Graciela was born when the author was nine. |
| D．Graciela got the family wherever they wanted to go. |
| A．Determined. | B．Confident. | C．Ambitious. | D．Easygoing. |
| A．In time of test, family is best. | B．Happiness is a choice, not a result. |
| C．One who fears failure limits his activities. | D．Behind every glory there is always a story. |
