Chapter 5 chapter Five

one It's July, and the weather is very hot. The streets, sidewalks, and houses have been exposed to the sun for a day, and the whole street is like an oven.People are hiding in their homes, in courtyards or under hallways.Only an occasional puff of cool air from across the East dispelled the heat a little.One Saturday night, Roy and Flora took a blanket and spread it on the balcony.Tom and Eva were put to bed, but they couldn't sleep at all. My parents stood by the window, poking their heads out to get some cool air.It was pitch black outside.Some of the people who lived across the street sat on the fire escape to enjoy the shade.There was also an old man with a bald head, wearing a loose nightgown, pulling the table to the side of the window, leaning his upper body on the fence outside the window, sitting securely and comfortably on the window sill, with his feet resting on the table.

There was silence everywhere, and apart from occasional children's laughter and singing, there was only the noise of trains speeding past on the Eyre Railway at regular intervals. Tom heard his parents standing at the window, talking about a hearty meal they had had in Chinatown. Mother!Can I sleep on the balcony? no!The elder brother and sister-in-law are there. Why can't we go? no!children!You don't feel hot when you lie still, you just ate ice cream, so your stomach is busy now, no wonder you feel hot. Tom heard those words so often that, indeed, he felt his stomach burn!If you feel hot, just drink a cup of hot tea and you will cool down after sweating.After taking a hot shower, you will feel cool, and after taking a cold shower, you will feel hot.The best way is not to move, as long as you don't move, no matter how hot it is outside, your mind will cool down naturally.

However, I have been sweating!Tom protested. Nonsense, you just got wet playing in the yard, just lay still. Tom fell silent.He listened to his parents' conversation. Why, Mott Street is full of gold.Mom said. Father didn't answer her. You can also see how good their restaurant business is.Uncle said that their daily income is only three or four hundred yuan! I know!I know!Father said calmly. How much does it cost to open a restaurant? Father spoke in a tone as if he was talking about something on another planet. He said indifferently: Probably ten thousand dollars! Then there was a dead silence.It took a while for Mom to say: I said Mott Street is full of gold, and it would be nice to open a restaurant there one day.

Where are you going to find this large sum of money? I'm not talking about opening a restaurant as big as the Pacific, we can start small, how much will the smaller ones cost? It depends on the situation, but it always costs more than four or five thousand yuan. We will always find a way.I've been thinking that since Tom and Eva and I are here, you will have to raise three more people.Food is so expensive, we are literally eating gold dollars.Where do we start from?You and Roy can't do enough work to support us, and Tom and Eva are young and they have to go to school again.It's not easy!

It's not easy!said father. Tom fell asleep. two Autumn came, and Tom and Eva went to school. Their school was the public school on First Avenue, which was an ugly building made of dark red bricks.They quickly lost themselves among the American boys and girls all around them.They also spent time in elementary school when they were in China, and they were surprised to find that in American schools, there were more games than reading and doing homework.School ends at three o'clock in the afternoon, and there is no class all day on Saturday.Soon, in just a few months, Tom and Eva could learn what the teachers and classmates were saying.

They walked to school every morning, just as they used to walk out of the house at four o'clock in the afternoon.But they used to wander around aimlessly. It was different now, and Eva didn't hate it any more.In her heart, something slowly awakened.She had always been a happy and obedient child in the family, never getting into trouble or pestering her parents to play tricks, as if there was no her in this family. Flora had never seen such a silent little Chinese girl, and she didn't know Eva at all.She liked Tom's bright eyes and puzzled expression; he frowned and bit his lip when he was thinking, and he kept thinking and asking and refusing to be told the answer.When the second brother told him that the nutritional value of four tomatoes was equal to a pound of beef, Tom just looked at him without saying a word, and he didn't look away until the second brother felt embarrassed and didn't know what to do.

Eva was different.She doesn't speak much, but she believes everything others say.Father dotes on her more, and is very gentle and kind to her. When he holds her little hand, he will laugh happily and proudly.The second brother also plays the role of a big brother in front of her.Only her mother was a little stricter with her, because she was a girl, a girl, mother always said so.The meaning of this word can be many, but it is difficult to give a clear definition.Eva thought the word seemed to mean that to be a girl was to be in the same position as she was.The meaning of this word also means that even Confucius, a sage, opposed girls and set rules for girls.Girls should be quiet, kind, hardworking, and taciturn, and girls should have gentle manners.And boys can not be bound by these rules.Girls have to learn stability at a certain age, but boys don't have to.She has to play a different role, the role of a woman, quiet, gentle, observant, whether you agree with it or not, you have to accept the instructions of tradition, mother and family training.The male role is lively, creative, and fast-moving.When mother said the word girl, her tone was like warning Eva to be a good wife and daughter-in-law.When her mother asks her something, she must answer; when she is scolded, she must not speak back.Speak softly, sit in a sitting position, and keep your legs together.So when the second brother talked wildly, due to long-term habits, she always kept silent.The second brother thought she was a well-behaved and quiet girl, but he never knew what was going on in her head.Her answers were always short yes and no and the rest was just watching, listening, thinking and being quiet.

Eva brought these rules to school and never disobeyed them. How quiet is that Chinese girl!Mrs. Anderson said, I wonder if all Chinese girls are like this. Still, something in Eva was awakened.On the street, in school, she can see energetic, noisy, noisy, screaming, laughing, or walking, shuffling, playing with a ball, boys and girls. Same.American girls used to scream at the top of their voices, and how tall and proud they were standing up.How fast they walked with their struts!Their world is a wonderful world of chatting, talking, jumping, and whispering, and Eva can only slip past quietly.In the playground in the park, she saw many big girls running, jumping, climbing, and rolling. She also saw many girls in sports shorts playing volleyball. Standing wide apart, she thought they looked beautiful and healthy, unafraid.And girls who drive, swim, play hockey, skate, ride bicycles, ride horses, whatever boys do, they can do.For Eva, these scenes are weird, brand-new, and unfamiliar. She likes them so much, as if she has discovered a new freedom, and the bondage that made her a lady in the past seems to have disappeared, and she only feels that she is free. Yes, I have hope.In this new, rich, untried world for her, anything is possible.

So Eva is happy.She was never late for school, and if Tom was too late, she would go first by herself.Tom just ran along, sometimes catching up with Eva before she got to school. three Tom and Eva's English is improving quickly and children usually pick up another language quickly.When Tom was in the third grade, Miss Carlette, who taught him English, had a great influence on him.Miss Carlette was from Lichfield, Connecticut, and she always spoke with a vibrato.She was a great discovery for Tom, who had never imagined an American like Miss Carlette before.She had a sweet voice, and she always had a sweet smile when she spoke to Tom; her blue eyes always widened when she was surprised; her hair always shone silver. When students irritate her, she opens her mouth into an O shape, with tears in her eyes; Her pronunciation is always gentle, clear, with a little trill, and Tom thinks she is so sacred and solemn; besides teaching English, she also teaches music lessons, and her delicate and trembling voice sounds very nice.Miss Carlette also only sang when her head, hands, and body would move to the beat, and it seemed as if the whole body was integrated into the singing. This was the only lesson that fascinated her.

Tom admires her very much. In his mind, English is equal to Miss Carlette, and Miss Carlette is equal to English. From his love for Miss Carlette, he aroused his love for English pronunciation, which led him to start learning English systematically, and he paid special attention to those pronunciations that are most different from Chinese pronunciation.The first English word that caught his attention was smudge (sweat, dirty). Miss Carlette, what does smudge mean?Tom asked Miss Carlette who was sitting at the desk after school. Miss Carlette opened her blue eyes wide with interest.A little foreign boy who can ask such questions deserves some special instruction from her.She took out her handkerchief, wiped her lips, dabbed the lipstick on her fair hand, and said: This is smudge. Smudge means smear.

Tom looked at her white hands, with tiny blue veins and shiny hairs.look!She was wiping the lipstick off with a handkerchief and saying, I rubitoff (I wiped it off). Tom listened carefully, but took no notice of what she said.He repeated it after her. you rubit off. He thought it was another new word, and felt a little confused. Miss Carlette wrote out these words and said slowly and clearly: Rub it off. You didn't read it like that just now!Tom said. What did I just say? You say rubitoff.I like that way of thinking. After Tom walked away, he muttered to himself: smudge︱smear︱rubitoff.The last few words were quick and fun, and he shook his head, enjoying himself. The next day, he found Miss Carlette again, showed her his notes and said to her: I found these words in the dictionary!I like them. Miss Carlette saw in his notebook: smudge, smear, smart, smack, smash, smuggle.The other half was written with explanations of Chinese characters, and he looked it up in an English-Chinese dictionary. Why did you single out those words? I like smudge and smear. When I looked up the dictionary and saw other words, I wrote down the words that sounded better. Which word do you like best? Tom looked at it and said: I like smack best. Miss Carlette liked the words as much as Tom did.She never found a student like Tom, and she never quite understood the drama of English pronunciation.She enthusiastically demonstrated to Tom, closing her mouth and then opening it suddenly to make a sound, saying: This is smack.She reached out and patted the table again and said: smack can also be interpreted as slap (beating). Tom seemed to grasp a string of pearls, keeping this sentence firmly in mind, Asmack is a slap, I still prefer the word smash. Yes!Miss Carlette said enthusiastically again, you smash (shatter) everything in this classroom, this is smash, I can't demonstrate it for you. Miss Carlette then wanted to explain to him the meaning of smuggle. I checked the Chinese dictionary and I know what that means. Why do you like this word? I like the sound of this word. There is no pronunciation of gle in our Chinese characters. I like words with this pronunciation, like giggle, juggle, jumble, and scramble. Then you must also like the word snuggle (near) very much! What does this word mean? Check it out yourself.I have an idea, you can find out what you like from the words starting with sn, and then write them down, okay? Tom nodded.The next day his notebook reads snuggle, sneak, sneer, sneeze, snicker, sniff, snivel, snore, snort, snuff.Miss Carlette demonstrated for him the meaning of the words snicker (sneaker) and snort (snorting). It became a game between the two of them, Tom wrote a word he liked, and the teacher wrote some words with the same pronunciation.Tom likes some simple and vivid sounds, like chum, punch, munch, crunch, chump, hump, hunk, pump.Especially domb is a word that he will never forget in his life. So, Tom's vocabulary is improving rapidly, and English is a language with vivid pronunciation.Tom would never forget how Miss Carlette demonstrated the meaning of the words sway and swing.She also made other students relearn the words they had learned, for example, she wrote nch, and then asked the students to write the words that ended in nch that they remembered.Tom was so excited when the teacher asked them to do this exercise that it was like a game to him.When Miss Carlette walked into the classroom one day, she found that it was written on the blackboard: Tom Tunch, I have a hunch you munch your bunch, which is a bunch of spaghetunch with spinach. (Tom Tonk, I have a hunch you're munching on a bunch of macaroni and spinach for your lunch). Miss Carlette also designed a Tom-style word table to test the English ability of foreign students.There are twenty-four monosyllabic words on the form.A French girl thought she was ready to learn intermediate English, but she was overwhelmed by the twenty-four monosyllabic words.The twenty-four characters are: cot, mop, nap, slab, cop, throb, lap, stab, pod, lop, tab, scab, plod, pop, tagscalp, prod, prop, nab, stack, sop, crop, snap, snack. In order to remember new words, Tom also designed a method for himself: put words with the same pronunciation together, such as gripe and tripe, or gripe and grape.When he collected some words ending in ash, such as clash, crash, smash, slash, lash hash, mash, he found that these words were all related to the action of destroying, cutting, and smashing.When he encountered similar and confusing words, he used a special method to memorize them, such as warble and wobble. He drew the r of warble (bird song) as a bird standing next to a new shoot on a branch; ) made him think of a goose egg or a goose back.That way he can remember and not get confused. Four Tom learned how to show respect to the American flag, Citi is the American flag in Cantonese, which is synonymous with the United States.He associated the flag with the playground, and the hopeful boys and girls who played and somersaulted under it, their bodies as soft and beautiful and glorious as their flag. Wow!It is really the most beautiful flag in the world.Tom thought so.But later, affected by an accident at school, his love for the American flag changed. Tom is a little boy who loves to use his brain. His nails are bitten bare when he thinks hard.In the eyes of others, he is different from other boys, and looks a little weird.He likes games and playing ball, but he has never been interested in fighting.Seeing other kids fighting and writhing in a ball felt like nothing.Why do people fight each other?This was the first question that came to his mind.It's fun to play a prank once in a while, but isn't it inhumane to fight or lie on each other's stomach?Even behaves like a beast.Does the fight prove anything?Prove that the winner is stronger.So what if he was stronger and won the fight?When you see a gangster in a movie being slapped by detectives or police, and then grabbing his dazed head and throwing it to the ground, you will feel creepy.That's right!Gangsters should be subdued, but then who wants to be a cop, or hunt down bad guys?An educated person would never want to!If a gangster came to the laboratory of a famous scientist and threatened him with a revolver, what would the scientist do?If he was a good scientist, he might defer to the gangster and keep silent.It doesn't make him a better scientist if he snaps the gangster's head off.Cops are hired by the people to fight gangsters, that's what people pay them for.What Tom didn't understand was why American girls always praised the taller, stronger boys.Tom didn't even understand why the protagonists in the movie, the soldiers, used their fists to solve their problems.The downed people were sometimes guards or gatekeepers, who carried out orders not to let them in.Why do audiences praise this protagonist? There is a group of boys in Tom's class, Jack, Jas, Stephen, and some gangs headed by Hruschuk Jeffy, who are the leaders when the teacher is away.Stephen is Tom's good friend.And Jeffy is a group of misbehaving and bullying the weak. Teachers had forbidden students to use words like chinks and niggers. Hello!Chinaman, yelled one of the Jeffy gang, go get me a popsicle!That was when class was over at noon. No, I'm going home!Tom said. Hey!what happened?Don't you know me? Of course I know you! Well!I said, help me buy a popsicle, hurry up! I'm not going, I'm going home for lunch. I am amazed!yelled the Jeffy Gang guy. He stood up, walked over with his hands in his pockets, and said in a nonchalant but confident tone: You don't want to do what Jeffy told you to do! You don't want to trouble him.Stephen said. I'd love to see who's up against Jeffy!He took another step forward and reached out and gave Tom a slap on the ear.you!Chinese! Tom took a step back. Are you going to buy popsicles now?Or fight with me? I won't go, and I won't fight with you either! coward! The other boys stood watching and Eva appeared in front of the classroom, guessing that Tom was going to fight him. Tell me!Do Chinese girls have two mouths?He was slightly bent over, ready to fight. you stop!Stephen said. Tell me!Did you mess with your sister? You don't have to pick on him at all, and he doesn't get into trouble with you. Tom!what happened?Eva asked. Your brother's a coward, that's all, he's scared. Do you want to fight?Jeffrey asked. what purpose?Even if you win, just because your muscles are stronger than mine doesn't make you right. All the boys were confused, and everyone was yelling. up!Hit me!If you are not a contemptible person! show me your arms!Tom spoke slowly. Jeff raised his arm, but Stephen grabbed it. Tom calmly raised his hand, stroked Jeff's biceps, and said, "I'm not going to fight with you. Your muscles are stronger, so it's pointless to fight like this."Tom is going to go. So you are a coward. I know you have bigger muscles, I don't have to fight you to know that.But that's all you have.I said I won't fight with you, and I won't buy popsicles for you.If you want to eat, buy it yourself! Tom pushed aside the boys surrounding him and tried to get out.Jeff frowned to see how his fist was clenched, then grabbed Tom's arm and said, "You can't just walk away like this, you Chinaman!" Tom turned around.What's wrong with the Chinese? You are crappy. And you? I am American. What about your father? Don't talk about my father, he immigrated to America. Me too, just like your father! Jeff flew into a rage, but Tom had walked away.He took Eva's hand and walked out of the school, leaving the other boys with a lot of surprises. what happened?Eva asked. nothing!He called me Chinaman.I don't understand what's wrong with this word.Isn't it the same as Englishman, Frenchman, Dutchman?I don't understand what's wrong with this word. five One night, the second brother came home to visit them, and Tom heard him talking about standing up. The second brother said: The problem with us Chinese is that we don’t stand up ourselves.You stand up and fight with them, and they will like you instead.If you don't want to fight, they look down on you.We should hold our heads up and face the world, and that's what I did.When I saw the American, I stood up and slapped him on the shoulder to say hello to him.He'll be a little scared, wondering who you really are, understand?If you stand up for your rights, he will think you are right.If you don't stand up and don't say a word, he will think you are wrong.You never hit a woman, that's okay.Be a gentleman in everything you do, proud, funny, and fearless.If they're wrong, tell them straight up, it's not a matter of being rude.If you have any advantages, you don't have to be polite to say it.Your wife, your sister, your mother are all good, you can say without shame, you're proud of them, you know?Americans are simple, honest people, and they are easy to get along with.It's not a matter of manners, you have to know how to manipulate them. I learned some things from school.Eva said that in the first grade, a classmate asked me what grade I got, and I told her that I did not do well in the exam.She said to me: I feel sorry for you.Those American girls, if they did a good job on the test and got a high score, they will tell you openly.Now if I get a high score in the test, I will also tell them, lest they feel sorry for me. Are you used to it in school?the second brother asked. I'm used to it. Do you like school? like very much.I was terrified at first, but American girls are basically the same as Chinese girls.It's just that they get excited about things easily, they scream about things, it's their way of expressing their feelings.They don't say they like it, they say they love it, but when they don't like it, they say they hate it.One day, the teacher brought a white mouse into the classroom, and the mouse slipped to the ground.They just screamed, I didn't think they were really that scared, they just exaggerated it.We still have some fun to do.If you like them, talk to them; if you don't, just ignore them.They are simple, straightforward, frank, and easy to get along with. Tom, what's the matter with you?Not saying a word?The second brother turned to Tom at once. Tom didn't know the second brother, he was ten years older than Tom.The cigars and the cigar-trimming knife in his coat pocket, his work, his manner, all puzzled Tom.In his vest pocket were two lighters, one of which was broken.It seemed to Tom that they lived in different worlds.nothing.Tom answered briefly. Why don't you grow up quickly? Tom couldn't answer this question. In fact, Eva grew faster than him. The second brother said it was because of American milk.But sixteen-year-old Tom looked like an American boy of twelve or thirteen. You should drink more milk, it is good for you.I drink three glasses of milk a day, so I never get a cold.I have enough vitamins.Also you should go out and play more, American kids never do their homework, they play all day.So they grew up one by one. There was an animal energy on the face of the second brother.His cheeks were full, his nose flared, and his lips were thick enough that his gums showed when he spoke.His hair was thick and thick, and it was shiny because of the pomade.The pectoral muscles under the shirt are bulging and look firm. Take my advice and drink more milk.The second brother told him this before leaving.Tom thought: rich in vitamins? ! In fact, Tom envied him very much. He could think that he understood Americans thoroughly, had no questions, knew the answers to all questions, and knew how to survive in this world.