In this information age, there are plenty of mindless activities to keep a child busy. Yet despite the competition, my 8-year-old daughter Alice wants to spend her leisure time writing short stories. She wants to enter one of her stories into a writing contest, a competition which she won last year.
As a writer, I know about winning contests---and about losing them. I know what it is like to work hard on a story only to receive a rejection letter from the publisher. I also know the pressure of trying to live up to a reputation created by previous victories. What if she doesn’t win the contest again? That’s the strange thing about being a parent. So many of our own past scars and destroyed hopes can resurface in our children.
A revelation(启示) came last week when I asked her, “Don’t you want to win again?” “No,” she replied, “I just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade.”
I had just spent weeks correcting her stories as she spontaneously(自发地)told them. Telling myself that I was merely an experienced writer guiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions for characters, conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angel starting first grade was quickly “guided” by me into the tale of a little girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turned her contest into my contest without even realizing it.
Staying back and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I know very little about farm animals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, I had to accept the fact that I was co-opting my daughter’s experience.
While stepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that I will quickly follow with more steps, putting myself far enough away to give her room but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will be reminding myself that children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.
What do we know about the author’s own writing experience?
| A.She was constantly under pressure to write more. |
| B.Her road to success was full of pain and frustrations. |
| C.Most of her stories had been rejected by publishers. |
| D.She did not quite live up to her reputation as a writer. |
Why did Alice want to enter this year’s writing contest?
| A.She wanted to share her stories with readers. |
| B.She had won a prize in the previous contest. |
| C.She believed she possessed real talent for writing. |
| D.She was sure of winning with her mother’s help. |
The underlined sentence probably means that the author was .
| A.trying not to let her daughter enjoy her own life |
| B.helping her daughter develop real skills for writing |
| C.making sure that her daughter would win the contest |
| D.trying to get her daughter to do the thing as the author wished |
What does the writer mean to tell us in the last two paragraphs?
| A.Children need more room to develop. |
| B.Parents should co-opt children’s experience. |
| C.Children should be provided enough help. |
| D.Parents need to remind their children of their own choices. |