Recently I gave my adult students homework. It was “go to someone you love and tell them you love them.” It has to be someone you have never said those words to before or at least haven’t shared those words with for a long time.
It sounds like very tough homework since most of the men were over 35 and were raised in the generation of men that were taught expressing emotions is not “macho (阳刚之气).” Showing feelings or crying was just not done. So this was very threatening homework for some.
At the beginning of our next class, I asked if someone wanted to share what happened when they told someone they loved them. I fully expected one of the women to volunteer, as was usually the case, but on this evening one of the men raised his hand, quite moved and a bit shaken.
As he unfolded out of his chair (all 1.85 meters of him), he began by saying, “Dennis, I was quite angry with you last week when you gave us this homework. Who were you to tell me to do something that personal?”
“But as I began driving home my conscience (良心)started telling me that I knew exactly who I needed to say ‘I love you’ to.”
“Five years ago, my father and I had a severe disagreement and really never settled it since then. We avoided seeing each other unless we absolutely had to at Christmas or other family gatherings. But even then, we hardly spoke to each other.”
“So last Tuesday by the time I got home I had convinced myself. I was going to tell my father I loved him.
It’s strange, but just making that decision seemed to lift a heavy load off my chest.”
小题1: The homework is threatening for some students because_________.
| A．they are middle-aged people | B．they are not macho enough |
| C．they were taught to hide their emotions | D．they didn’t know how to show feelings |
小题2: From the passage we know that_________.
| A．the adult students have classes in the day time only |
| B．not all the adult students in the writer’s class are male |
| C．the man refused to meet his father after their quarrel |
| D．the man quickly decided to say “I love you” to his father |
小题3: The underlined phrase “unfolded out of his chair” in Para 4 is close
st in meaning to_________.
| A．stood on his chair straight | B．sat quietly in the chair |
| C．bent himself over his chair | D．raised himself slowly from the chair |
小题4: What does the man imply by saying the underlined sentence in the last paragraph?
| A．He felt it too strange to say “I love you” to his father. |
| B．He felt relaxed just thinking of saying “I love you” to his father. |
| C．He felt very relaxed after saying “I love you” to his father. |
| D．He had to lift a heavy load off his chest before saying “I love you”. |