大学英语精读听力第三册 unit5

[00:00.00]A mother and her son learn more from a moment of defeat
[00:28.34]than they ever could from a victory.
[00:28.41]Her example of never giving up gives him courage
[00:32.15]for the rest of his life.
[00:33.93]THE DAY MOTHER CRIED   Gerald Moore
[00:38.37]Coming home from school that dark winter's day so long ago
[00:43.70]I was filled with anticipation
[00:45.97]I had a new issue of my favorite sports magazine tucked under my arm
[00:51.22]and the house to myself
[00:53.28]Dad was at work, my sister was away
[00:56.73]and Mother wouldn't be home from her new job
[00:59.21]for an hour I bounded up the steps
[01:02.58]burst into the living room and flipped on a light
[01:05.46]I was shocked into stillness by what I saw
[01:09.17]Mother, pulled into a tight ball with her face in her hands
[01:13.45]sat at the far end of the couch. She was crying
[01:17.47]I had never seen her cry
[01:19.80]I approached cautiously and touched her shoulder
[01:24.06]"Mother?" I said. "What's happened?"
[01:27.22]She took a long breath and managed a weak smile.
[01:31.27]"It's nothing, really.Nothing important.
[01:34.79]Just that I'm going to lose this new job
[01:37.46]I can't type fast enough."
[01:40.12]"But you've only been there three days,"I said.
[01:43.36]"You'll catch on."
[01:44.51]I was repeating a line she had spoken to me a hundred times
[01:43.51]when I was having trouble learning of doing something important to me
[01:47.61]"No," she said sadly. "
[01:50.28]I always said I could do anything I set my mind to,
[01:53.91]and I still think I can in most things.But I can't do this."
[01:58.90]I felt helpless and out of place.
[02:01.74]At age 16 I still assumed Mother could do anything.
[02:06.31]Some years before
[02:07.43]when we sold our ranch and moved to town,
[02:10.15]Mother had decided to open a day nursery.
[02:13.18]She had had no training,
[02:15.63]But that didn't stand in her way.
[02:17.70]She sent away for correspondence courses in child care,
[02:22.35]did the lessons and in six months formally qualified herself
[02:26.60]for the task.
[02:28.15]It wasn't long before she had a full enrollment and a waiting list.
[02:32.93]I accepted all this as perfectly normal instance of Mother's ability
[02:38.57]But neither the nursery nor the motel my parents bought later
[02:43.48]had provided enough income to send my sister and me to college
[02:47.97]In two years I would be ready for college.
[02:51.29]In three more my sister would want to go. Time was running out
[02:56.25]and Mother was frantic for ways to save money.
[02:59.41]It was clear that Dad could do no more than he was doing already
[03:04.17]farming 80 acres in addition to holding a fulltime job
[03:08.84]A few months after we'd sold the motel
[03:12.71]Mother arrived home with a used typewriter
[03:16.00]It skipped certain letters And the keyboard was soft
[03:16.08]At dinner that night I pronounced the machine a "piece of junk."
[03:21.12]"That's all we can afford," Mother said.
[03:24.13]"It's good enough to learn on."And from that day on,
[03:27.78]as soon as the table was cleared and the dishes were done,
[03:31.26]Mother would disappear into her sewing room to practice
[03:35.18]The slow tap, tap, tap went on some nights until midnight
[03:39.72]It was nearly Christmas when I heard Mother got a job
[03:43.46]at the radio station.I was not the least bit surprised
[03:47.90]or impressed.But she was ecstatic.
[03:51.24]Monday, after her first day at work,
[03:54.77]I could see that the excitement was gone.
[03:57.56]Mother looked tired and drawn.
[04:00.59]I responded by ignoring her.
[04:03.05]Tuesday, Dad made dinner and cleaned the kitchen.
[04:07.02]Mother stayed in her sewing room, practicing.
[04:10.08]"Is Mother all right?" I asked Dad.
[04:12.53]"She's having a little trouble with her typing," he said.
[04:16.87]"She needs to practice
[04:18.75]I think she'd appreciate it if we all helped out a bit more.
[04:23.11]"I already do a lot,"I said,immediately on guard
[04:27.39]"I know you do,"Dad said, evenly.
[04:30.27]"And you may have to do more.You might just remember
[04:34.03]that she is working primarily so you can go to college."
[04:37.66]I honestly didn't care.
[04:40.09]I wished she would just forget the whole thing
[04:43.22]My shock and embarrassment at finding Mother in tears on Wednesday
[04:47.93]was a perfect index of how little I understood the pressures on her
[04:52.18]Sitting beside her on the couch,
[04:54.72]I began very slowly to understand.
[04:57.83]"I guess we all have to fail sometime," Mother said quietly.
[05:02.22]I could sense her pain and the tension of holding back
[05:05.64]the strong emotions that were interrupted by my arrival
[05:09.69]Suddenly, something inside me turned
[05:13.00]I reached out and put my arms around her
[05:16.45]She broke then.She put her face against my shoulder and sobbed
[05:22.62]I held her close and didn't try to talk.
[05:25.39]I knew I was doing what I should, what I could
[05:28.73]and that it was enough. In that moment
[05:31.94]feeling Mother's back racked with emotion
[05:34.87]I understood for the first time her vulnerability
[05:38.60]She was still my mother,but she was something more:
[05:42.65]a person like me,capable of fear and hurt and failure.
[05:48.11]I could feel her pain as she must have felt mine on a thousand occasions
[05:53.15]when I had sought comfort in her arms
[05:55.85]A week later Mother took a job selling dry goods
[05:59.71]at half the salary the radio station had offered
[06:02.98]"It's a job I can do,"she said simply
[06:06.63]But the evening practice sessions on the old green typewriter continued
[06:11.57]I had a very different feeling now
[06:14.34]when I passed her door at night and heard her tapping away
[06:17.81]I knew there was something more going on in there
[06:21.26]than a woman learning to type
[06:23.25]When I left for college two years later
[06:26.88]Mother had an office job with better pay and more responsibility
[06:31.24]I have to believe that in some strange way
[06:34.90]she learned as much from her moment of defeat as I did
[06:38.84]because several years later
[06:40.67]when I had finished school and proudly accepted a job
[06:43.91]as a newspaper reporter
[06:42.91]she had already been a journalist
[06:45.29]with our hometown paper for six months
[06:48.13]The old green typewriter sits in my office now unrepaired
[06:52.92]It is a memento,but what it recalls for me
[06:56.76]is not quite what it recalled for Mother
[06:59.39]When I'm having trouble with a story
[07:01.95]and think about giving up or when I start to feel sorry for myself
[07:06.24]and think things should be easier for me
[07:08.98]I roll a piece of paper into that cranky old machine and type
[07:13.55]word by painful word, just the way Mother did
[07:17.60]What I remember then is not her failure
[07:20.79]but her courage, the courage to go ahead
[07:24.34]It's the best memento anyone ever gave me