阅读理解 My father never wanted his children to know what he did for a living．Dad worked in PlantC．Lying beside lake Erie, it saw him in at sunrise and out at nightfall．Sometimes my mother would take my siblings(兄弟姐妹)and me to the public beach in our hometown of Ashtabula．she'd gather us round and point to the smokestacks, coughing clouds into the sky． "Wave to daddy!" she' d shout．Four little hands would shoot into the air．I never knew what Dad did in Plant C, but during 34 years of hard work, he had surgery(手术)on his shoulder and hand．At 48, he had his first heart attack．He retired in 1993, right after the last kid graduated from college．But the damage was done．A few years later, the next heart, attack killed him． I saw my dad in Plant C only once, when I took dinner to him．That night, I looked at my father, covered in sweat and 'coal, and for the first time I knew why he was so often angry for no reason． Recently my father' s friend, Toby Workman, walked me there．I knew my father never wanted me to see it．At every station, he described the job and the danger．It was, like listening to a foreign language．I walked past many DANGER signs．Toby put his hand on my shoulder．"look," he said, "you need to understand something．Your dad was a maintenance mechanic．He-worked the most dangerous job．If something broke, he fixed it．" A few days later, my daughter graduated from college．I gave her the hard hat Toby handed to me as I left, and this note：" Whenever you feel something difficult, put this on, look in the mirror, and remember your roots．" |
