我们从去年第六期开始陆续刊登首届“北外杯”中学生英文写作大赛的部分获奖作文。本期选登的是上海市光明中学高三(10)班毛鹏辉同学的文章。
Worries about Telephone
■毛鹏辉
As is known to all, telephone is one of the
most indispensable parts in people's everyday life. However, it has
brought a lot of worries as well as quite some trouble to me.
As long ago as I was studying in junior high
school, my deskmate, who was rather poor at his school work simply regarded
me as his private teacher. On average he telephoned me five times a
day and asked me many questions concerning different subjects, which
made it hard for me to concentrate on my own study. However, thinking
that he was in real need of help, I did my best to provide him with
satisfying answers, although it always took me plenty of time.
Since I entered senior high school, more
trouble emerged. Maybe owing to my good study and my appearance which
seems always ready to help others, at school, I was invariably surrounded
by several puzzled faces and my brain was thus constantly filled with
a large number of academic questions. Then at home, on the phone, I
was inevitably wanted by my classmates and even my former ones to solve
their problems of study, especially before the exams, during which period
of time I was almost fully engaged by those regular telephones. And
I just couldn't concentrate on my preparations for the exams.
However, as time went by, it turned out to
be more than Mom could possibly bear. Every night's continual disturbance
eventually gave up to the explosion of her annoyance . "You are
a student. You aren't their teacher!" she said angrily to me, "They
only care about their own study. They've never thought of your heavy
burden." "One day, you will see them making great progress
while you yourself...."
At first, I didn't take it seriously as I
thought she didn't understand me. I really didn't want to disappoint
my friends. I even reasoned her with all the good that answering telephones
would do to the mastery of my own knowledge. But that didn't help at
all. What was worse, for the next several months, I had indeed had a
hard time putting up with Mom's endless screaming every time after a
phone call. The worst was that at last she spoke really loudly when
I was answering a phone call. At those moments, I felt really embarrassed
because her penetrating remarks could be heard by my classmates. What
would they think of her and then me?
I understood that Mom was just worried about
my school work, but as far as I could see from my academic achievements,
I had not been affected by answering the calls. So by then I was still
under the impression that it wouldn't do much harm to my study. Therefore
I persisted in answering each phone call regardless of Mom's opposition.
It was not until I got poor marks during
the two consecutive examinations that I came to realize how telephone
had affected my study. What was more important, I shouldn't have placed
too much concern over other people's attitude towards me. I shouldn't
have turned away from the reality that I didn't have enough time and
energy to spare. My ambition of becoming a key university student was
unlikely to achieve unless I put my whole heart to the arduous and tortuous
process of study. Mom was right.
Thus, it was necessary for me to do something
to make my telephone somewhat silent. How? I had no alternative but
to appeal to my classmates. To my great comfort, they all understood
me and promised to ask fewer questions on the phone.
Sure enough, ever since then, I have been
able to go on smoothly with my study every evening, free from the frequent
blaring of the phone and the screaming of Mom. Of course, occasional
telephone calls still distract me now and then. But I don't have to
'worry' about the ill results of them any more.
Above all, I have already got out of the
trouble brought about by phone calls and I've come to know that it is
absolutely important for a student like me to have a correct and practical
attitude towards the relationship with his classmates and the relationship
between helping others with their study and making progress himself.