When I was a foreign teacher in China, every day I taught English to my students and they taught me about China. One day the topic turned to saying “ I love you”. I was shocked to learn that not one of my students has said this to their mothers, nor had their mothers said it to them. “Does your mother love you?” “ Of course,” they answered.
“ How do you know?” was my logical question. They responded that their moms cooked and always told them what they were doing wrong to show their caring. I was stunned. So mom’s cooking and criticizing read out as “I love you”. “Then do you say‘I love you’to her?” They agreed that getting good grades, followed by good jobs would be how they showed their love.
I come from a culture where most people are expressive enough, so I repeated these questions in classes over time. Gradually, I began to get different responses. Some of them had exchanged those sentiments with their moms.
One of my favourite stories of change came from a girl. When she came home from university, her mother met her at the door and hugged her. This had never happened before, but her mom said, “ Now that you have gone, I have more time to myself. I noticed that in some places mothers and children hug each other and decided it was a good idea and that I would begin hugging you.”
In my family we all say “I love you” a lot. While it is true that we often say the words without having great depth of feelings at that moment, it is almost like a blessing we give each other. Those three words carry a world of meaning, even when said as a greeting, but most especially if they are the last words we say to or hear from those we love.
小题1: Chinese people prefer to show love by __________.
A．saying “I love you”
B．cooking
C．getting good grades
D．doing something helpful小题2: The underlined word “stunned” mean________ in Chinese.
A．好笑
B．难受
C．震惊
D．有趣小题3: In paragraph 4, what’s the real meaning of the mom’s hugging?
A．She is meeting her daughter at the door.
B．She loves her daughter and misses her.
C．She is glad that she has more time to herself.
D．She finds it interesting to hug her daughter.小题4: Which of the following statements is RIGHT?
A．Chinese people never show love to their mothers.
B．Chinese students express love to their mothers by studying hard and trying to get good jobs.
C．In foreign countries people have great depth of feelings to say “I love you”.
D．People from different countries will never understand each other.小题5: What’s the main idea of the passage?
A．Say “I love you” more to your family.
B．Say “I love you” a lot to Chinese people.
C．Say “I love you” as a greeting to others.
D．Say “I love you” without great depth of feelings.
