阅读理解
It was Saturday. As always, it was a busy one, for "Six days shall you labor and do all your work"
was taken seriously back then. Outside, Father and Mr Patrick next door were busy chopping firewood.
Inside their own houses, Mother and Mrs. Patrick were engaged in spring cleaning.
Somehow the boys had slipped away to the back lot with their kites.Now, even at the risk of having
Brother caught to beat carpets, they had sent him to the kitchen for more string(线). It seemed there
was no limit to the heights to which kites would fly today.
My mother looked at the sitting room, its furniture disordered for a thorough sweeping. Again she
cast a look toward the window. "Come on, girls! Let's take string to the boys and watch them fly the
kites a minute."
On the way we met Mrs. Patrick, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something wrong, together
with her girls.
There never was such a day for flying kites! We played all our fresh string into the boys' kites and
they went up higher and higher. We could hardly distinguish the orangecolored spots of the kites. Now
and then we slowly pulled one kite back, watching it dancing up and down in the wind, and finally
bringing it down to earth, just for the joy of sending it up again.
Even our fathers dropped their tools and joined us. Our mothers took their turn, laughing like
schoolgirls. I think we were all beside ourselves. Parents forgot their duty and their dignity; children
forgot their everyday fights and little jealousies. "Perhaps it's like this in the kingdom of heaven," I
thought confusedly.
It was growing dark before we all walked sleepily back to the houses. I suppose we had some sort
of supper. I suppose there must have been a surface tidyingup, for the house on Sunday looked clean
and orderly enough. The strange thing was, we didn't mention that day afterward. I felt a little
embarrassed. Surely none of the others had been as excited as I. I locked the memory up in that
deepest part of me where we keep "the things that cannot be and yet they are".
The years went on, then one day I was hurrying about my kitchen in a city apartment, trying to get
some work out of the way while my threeyearold insistently cried her desire to "go park, see duck."
"I can't go!" I said. "I have this and this to do, and when I'm through I'll be too tired to walk that far."
My mother, who was visiting us, looked up from the peas she was shelling."It's a wonderful day,"she
offered, "really warm, yet there's a fine breeze. Do you remember that day we flew kites?"
I stopped in my dash between stove and sink. The locked door flew open and with it a rush of
memories. "Come on," I told my little girl. "You're right, it's too good a day to miss."
Another decade passed. We were in the aftermath (余波)of a great war. All evening we had been
asking our returned soldier, the youngest Patrick Boy, about his experiences as a prisoner of war. He
had talked freely, but now for a long time he had been silent. What was he thinking of-what dark and
horrible things?
"Say!" A smile slipped out from his lips."Do you remember -no, of course you wouldn't. It probably
didn't make the impression on you as it did on me."
I hardly dared speak."Remember what?"
"I used to think of that day a lot in POW camp (战俘营), when things weren't too good. Do you
remember the day we flew the kites?"
1. Mrs.Patrick was laughing guiltily because she thought ________.
A. she was too old to fly kites
B. her husband would make fun of her
C. she should have been doing her housework then
D. her girls weren't supposed to play the boy's game
2. By "we were all beside ourselves", the writer means that they all ________.
A. felt confused
B. went wild with joy
C. looked on
D. forgot their fights
3. What did the writer think after the kiteflying?
A. The boys must have had more fun than the girls.
B. They should have finished their work before playing.
C. Her parents should spend more time with them.
D. All the others must have forgotten that day.
4. Why did the writer finally agree to take her little girl for an outing?
A. She suddenly remembered her duty as a mother.
B. She was reminded of the day they flew kites.
C. She had finished her work in the kitchen.
D. She thought it was a great day to play outside.
