During the years that passed from I was born until my siblings (兄弟姐妹) and myself moved away from home, my mother didn’t have a job. If she had been asked to fill out a questionnaire about her personal data, she would have left the question ‘Employment’ empty. She believed that her job was to be our mother- full time. That was the way she had chosen it to be.
There is an old yellowed photograph of my mother and father, taken in 1942, when they were on their honeymoon. They are sitting at a table in a restaurant. In the photo my mother looks very beautiful, I think. She was 23 years old then.
When I look at the photo, I see a woman who would have had an unlimited number of opportunities in life. She is more than just pretty; it is clear to see that she is both intelligent and vivid. I know that if she had put her mind to getting a career, the whole world would have been at her feet. The story of her youth confirms this. She got a brilliant exam in one of the finest schools in the country. In fact, she is the most intelligent person I know.
Yet she has always considered herself as house wife and mother. Everyone in the town admired her for the great effort she put into charity work, but if someone asked her what she did for a living or who she was, she answered that she was Robert Greene’s wife, and Robert’s, Deborah’s and Timothy’s mother.
Today there are probably many women who will see what she did as a waste of my mother’s good abilities. Why should an intelligent and determined woman be content with making soup and sandwiches?
We all go through our adult life with the conception that we have never been anything but fully developed grown-ups. But any of us have been small children once, who hurried home from school completely assured that someone was waiting for us at home. It meant something then and it means something today. And I am eternally (永恒地) grateful that the woman in the yellowed photograph was waiting for me.
【小题1】Why did Mom leave the question “Employment” empty?| A．Because she couldn’t write. | B．Because she was a full time mother. |
| C．Because she couldn’t find a job. | D．Because she was angry at this question. |
| A．Diligent and stubborn. | B．Beautiful and strict. |
| C．Intelligent and selfless. | D．Ambitious and clever |
| A．The author has two siblings. |
| B．The author thinks highly of Mom’s devotion. |
| C．Being a full time mother is a waste of ability. |
| D．An intelligent woman shouldn’t be content with cooking. |
| A．An Old Yellowed Photograph |
| B．The Memories of My Family |
| C．The Importance of Siblings’ love |
| D．The Standard of Being a Good Mother |
