Childhood (excerpt)
Cao Wenxuan
My childhood has particularly beautiful and warm memories.
I had a kind old grandmother. She had beautiful silver hair, and often leaned on her crutches and smiled kindly at people at the door. She called me her "big grandson". When I went away to college, she missed me day and night. She had never been outside the three-mile radius in her life, so she didn't know that there was a big, wide world outside the three-mile radius. She thought that there was probably another part of the world besides the one she saw, and that everyone who went out went to that part. Therefore, she stood at the main crossing, waiting for someone to return from that place. One day, she waited for a soldier and asked him, "Have you seen my eldest grandson?"
Mother's love for me was instinctive and absolute. She didn't seem to have any appetite, and I've never seen her have a particular desire for any kind of food. She would always eat the children's food in silence, and then she would eat the rest. My father's culture was purely self-taught, not systematic, but he was almost a philosopher. Once, I went to a place eight miles away to watch a movie, and returned late at night, already hungry, but too lazy to make a fire to cook. My father sat up, put on some clothes and said to me, "If you want to eat, make a fire and do it, even if the firewood is piled up three miles away, you should go and carry it back." That night, he established a positive attitude toward life for me. And that unique piece of land also gave me unlimited interest and favor. It was an authentic water town. I grew up in the sound of "creaking and yawning" sculling, in the sound of fishermen's "chopping and snapping" stomping boards (urging fish eagles to enter the water), and in the sound of "splashing and splashing" water from the old-fashioned waterwheel. My soul will never be dry, because when I open my eyes, I see a big piece of water. Most of the stories I carry in my mind are about water. The value of water to me is not merely biological; it is involved in the construction of my character, my temperament, my outlook on life, my aesthetic mood.
All this made my "writing" possible. Suffering has given me the wings of fantasy. I use fantasy to make up for my shortcomings and gaps, use fantasy to weave tomorrow's garland, use fantasy to comfort themselves, strengthen themselves, develop themselves. Suffering has given me a thorough life experience and injected tenacity into my character. My grandmother, my father and my mother gave me a heart of love, so that I never knew what hatred was. I have never held on to hatred for anyone. I have always felt that the world is good, even though I have often seen evil in action. That land gave me spirit, subjects, themes and stories. The water that opens the door moistens my pen and allows me to always be intimate with a fresh style.
(From Sunshine New Reading, November 2009)
A Petal of Heart:
Childhood is beautiful, happy and joyful. When we grow up, the memories of our childhood are like fragrant flowers spreading in the depths of our memories, lingering for a long time, mesmerizing us and making us miss them. Writer Cao Wenxuan's childhood is "especially beautiful and warm", in childhood there is a kind old grandmother, there are parents who love "me", there is to inspire "me" to grow up in the suffering, there are nourish "My hometown that nourished and nurtured me. The beautiful childhood gave "me" character, temperament and outlook on life, and under the influence of childhood, "I" also became a writer. Childhood is a wealth of life; childhood, the future of life.
Exercises:
1. What are the moments of childhood that the author tells us about? Please briefly summarize.
2. The author says, "It was on that night that he laid the foundation for my life's positive attitude." What is the "positive attitude toward life" contained in his father's words?
3. Please briefly analyze the following sentences in terms of rhetorical techniques, thoughts and feelings.
I grew up in the sound of the sculling boat, in the sound of the fishermen's stomping boards (urging the fish eagles to enter the water), and in the sound of the old waterwheel's "splash, splash, splash. The sound of water in the old waterwheel "splash, splash, splash" grew up.
4. The selection writes of the grandmother: "She had beautiful silver hair, often on crutches, leaning in the doorway to the people very kindly smiled." Please use your imagination to expand this sentence to 100 words by using appearance, demeanor, action and other descriptions to vividly show your grandmother's loving image.
5. The concluding paragraph of the article says, "Suffering has given me the wings of fantasy" and "Suffering has given me a thorough experience of life". Do you agree with this view? Talk about your understanding.
Reference Answer:
1. In my childhood, there was a kind old grandmother, parents who loved me, suffering that inspired me to grow up, and nourishment that nourished me. "The first thing that I want to do is to get a good understanding of what I'm talking about and what I'm talking about, and I want to know what I'm talking about.
2. Reference: If you have set a goal, you should go forward, overcome difficulties, and persistently move toward the goal.
3. This sentence uses the rhetorical technique of prose to present the beauty of the water town to the reader, expressing the nourishment given to "me" by the water town. The three onomatopoeic words vividly reproduce the scenes of sculling, stomping boards, waterwheels and other activities.
4. Beautiful language, in line with the theme can be.
5. It makes sense. Example: Agree. Suffering will make us lose, sad, when we get up, suffering becomes a valuable treasure, give us inspiration, give us experience, make life more perfect.