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w关键词：chicken/小鸡，confidence/信心，danger/危险，afraid/害怕 |
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w目录：Education/教育 |
w话题：
孩子，助人，信心 |
w类型：记叙文 |
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w难度级别：中级 |
w词汇要求：1000+ |
w文章词数：500 |
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[ 生 词 可 拖 选 或 双 击 ] |
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My 9-year-old son, Peter, likes to
hear the stories told by our chickens. Not stories about the chickens -
he wants me to tell him exactly what the chickens are saying. It is the art of
"squawk interpretation." |
A 'squawk
interpreter'
“咕咕声”的翻译者
作者：Judith
Costello
[美] 来源：www.csmonitor.com
日期：2008-08-20
责编：Emma
As a mom, I realized this art form
could be humorous and fun for kids. It can also be a great way to deliver
parenting messages.
I began cultivating the skill one
afternoon when a chicken sat on her roost, cackling up a storm. The children
asked what the hen was saying.
"Can't you hear it?" I said. "The
hen is telling stories about you, Peter. She's telling the other hens, 'That boy
just stole my eggs. And he's the same one who's been stealing eggs all week.
I've been robbed, ladies. So listen up. He's an awful boy, stealing eggs from us
chickens every day at the same time. Why do we put up with this? And look at
those skinny legs he has. He's an odd-looking creature, he is.' "
The children laughed. Peter has
learned not to mind being teased. He knows we think he's a good-looking boy -
and the chickens have much skinnier legs than he has. He also realized that the
chicken was pointing out that he was acting responsibly. In a backhanded way, I
had congratulated him for following through with his chores.
Ever since, we have found it
enjoyable to eavesdrop on animal "conversations."
Then, one day when one of our hens
wandered into the neighbor's backyard, my daughter came running to get me. Two
dogs had the hen trapped in a corner. The chicken was making a kind of
whimpering sound. And the wildly barking dogs were arguing over which one got to
feast on her first.
That's when I arrived. I yelled,
"No!" to the dog I knew, and she backed away. But the other dog was a newcomer
and continued to dance closer and closer to the wide-eyed hen. The dog was
saying, "No fair. This is my catch."
I ran to the gate, opened it, and
entered. I grabbed the chicken and threw her over the fence. But the hen -
instead of being thrilled to escape from danger - huddled on the ground, still
feeling afraid.
"We humans get that way
sometimes," I told my daughter, as things calmed down. "The hen keeps telling
herself, 'I'm in danger. I'm in danger,' even though she knows she is totally
safe now."
I reminded my daughter of the time
she had been afraid to perform in a play, although she had plenty of people
supporting her.
When we took the chicken back to
the henhouse, my daughter decided she had a special sense of connection to that
particular chicken because of her own experience. She started to carry her
around every day. "I'm giving her confidence to face whatever happens," she told
me before she returned to whispering reassurances to the hen.
In my "squawk interpretation," I
suspect the hen said, "This is the life!"
Quiz/小测：
1. By saying “We humans
get that way sometimes,” the mother means sometimes humans
______.
A. will
be afraid even though it is safe
B. will
be brave when death comes
C. will
be angry no matter what happens
D. will
be confident though in danger
2. After saving the
chicken, the mother ______.
A.
asked her daughter to perform in a play
B.
encouraged her daughter to be brave
C.
advised her daughter to be careful
D.
started to carry her daughter around
3. By telling her own
experience, the author tries to show ______.
A. how
to communicate with children
B.
different ways of teaching children
C. how
to encourage children to be brave
D. a
great way to educate children
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