In 1972, I returned to Miami Beach High School to speak to the drama class. Afterward I asked the drama teacher any of my English teachers are still there. Irene Roberts, he tells me, is in the class down the hall.
I was no one special in Miss Roberts’ class — just another student who did okay work. I don’t recall any one special bit of wisdom she passed on. Yet I cannot forget her for language, for ideas and for her students. I now, many years later, that she is the perfect example of a teacher. I’d like to say something to her, I say, but I don’t want to her from a class. Nonsense, he says, she’ll be to see you.
The drama teacher Miss Roberts into the hallway where stands this 32-year-old man she last saw at 18. “I’m Mark Medoff,” I tell her. “You were my 12th-grade English teacher in 1958.” She her head to one side and looks at me, as if this angle might remember me in her . And then, though armed with a message I want to in many words, I can’t think up anything more memorable than this: “I want you to know,” I say, “you were to me.”
And there in the hallway, this lovely woman, now nearing age, this teacher who doesn’t remember me, begins to weep; and she encircles me in her arms.
this moment, I begin to sense that everything I will ever know, everything I will ever pass to my students, is an inseparable part of a legacy(遺產) of our ancestors.
Irene Roberts holds me in her arms and through her tears whispers my cheek, “Thank you.” And then, with the briefest of looks into my forgotten face, she back into her classroom, to what she has done thousands of days through all the years of my .
On reflection, maybe those were, , just the right words to say to Irene Roberts. Maybe they are the very words I would like to speak to all those teachers through my life, the very words I would like spoken to me one day by some returning student: “I want you to know you were important to me.”
小題1:A．thatB．ifC．asD．when
小題2:A．justB．almostC．nearlyD．about
小題3:A．kindnessB．respectC．friendshipD．love
小題4:A．knowB．learnC．realizeD．believe
小題5:A．selfishB．self-confidentC．self-consciousD．selfless
小題6:A．callB．dragC．pushD．pull
小題7:A．upsetB．delightedC．interestedD．annoyed
小題8:A．bringsB．takesC．fetchesD．introduces
小題9:A．bowsB．raisesC．risesD．puts
小題10:A．thoughtB．brainC．attentionD．memory
小題11:A．announceB．speakC．deliverD．tell
小題12:A．usefulB．importantC．hopefulD．beneficial
小題13:A．retirementB．enjoymentC．employmentD．happiness
小題14:A．RemindingB．ExplainingC．RememberingD．Forgetting
小題15:A．happilyB．straightC．calmlyD．briefly
小題16:A．againstB．withC．offD．beyond
小題17:A．escapesB．gathersC．disappearsD．fails
小題18:A．longsB．continuesC．goesD．returns
小題19:A．absenceB．classC．workD．task
小題20:A．or ratherB．in additionC．as usualD．after all
