名著阅读之心灵鸡汤精选 Don’t Stop Believing
班级：____________学号：____________姓名：____________
心灵鸡汤精选Don’t Stop Believing
【文章梗概】我患有自闭症的儿子, Mickey, 惧怕理发。每次Mickey去理发，无论是对家长还是孩子都是一场身心疲惫的尴尬的场景。在治疗师的帮助下，Mickey逐步改变。现在，理发是自发而愉快的正常社交活动。但是，这样简单的15分钟的理发，却花了我们几年的时间才完成这个转变。永远相信奇迹会发生。
If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.
~William A. Ward
Two days before our nineteen-year-old son Mickey leaves for sleep-away camp, he asks to get a haircut. No big deal, right? But fifteen years ago this would have been unthinkable.
Back then, the barbershop was the scene of some of our worst parenting moments. By 8: of the Dreaded Haircut Day, my husband Marc would already be muttering, “I need a Scotch before I can do this” — and he doesn’t even drink Scotch. Bracing himlf in the barber chair, Marc would clench Mickey in a bear hug and scissor-lock him with his legs. Mickey would flailfrantically, head-butting his father and screaming like someone undergoing surgery without anesthesia. Customers gawked. One old man snarled, “Rotten spoiled brat.” Marc sweated through his shirt. When the barber declared he was done, I’d take Mickey into my arms. Sobbing and spent, he’d collap against my shoulder, smearing us both with snot and hair. We tipped big. Very big.
Unable to face a repeat performance, we’d let 请假条学生病假
long months go between haircuts. Mickey’s great-uncle Jack liked to tea him. “You look like a girl, buddy!” he’d say. Some days wh
en we’d walk by that barbershop on our way to the deli, I could swear that as soon as the barbers saw us passing, they’d quickly pull down the white shade that said “Clod for Lunch.”
But today when we enter the barbershop Mickey sings out a cheery “Hi Dom!” as he plops into the chair. Dom drapes him in a marooncape, and picks up a shaver. A screen splits in my head: I can still picture that terrified little boy, even as I watch my son, nearly a man, sitting solemnly watching his reflection in the mirror.
I wait quietly, soaking in the sounds of barbershop banter, the sports talk, the sharing of summer plans. It is all so completely ordinary. A radio is tuned to a Lite FM station; the song playing is “Don’t Stop Believing ” by Journey. I reflect how anyone who’d en my son all tho years ago would never have believed that Mickey would one day request — insist — we take him for a haircut. Yet here we are.
“How’s this?” Dom asks. I stand beside Mickey and glance down; the cape is feathered in a field of light brown hairs, as covered as a forest floor.
“Let’s take it down a bit more,” I suggest. “Is that okay with you, Mick?”
“Yeah, Mom,” he says.
I remember how we ud to sneak into his bedroom at night with a pair of shears to give him a trim as he slept. I think of the time he was five and we took him to a local performance by the Paperbag Players; we hadn’t known that they were going to perform a new skit called the “The Horrible, Horrendous, Hideous Haircut.” “NO!” Mickey shrieked, and every head in the audience swiveled our way.
Nowadays, Autism Speaks’ Family Services division offers a Haircutting Training Guide for families and stylists on how to make the experience more positive, but back then there was nothing. Fortunately, one of our behavioral therapists offered to tackle the challenge. Mickey was ven years old. She took him to the next town over — too many negative associations with our local barber — where they simply practiced strolling by a barbershop. The following week, they stood in the doorway. Eventually they progresd to sitting in the waiting area, watching other people get haircuts, then having Mickey sit in
the barber chair. Eventually they introduced the cape, the shaver, the scissors. It took months, but by the time Kathy was done, Mickey was able to — miracle of miracles — tolerate a haircut.
“This feels better,” Mickey tells 舞蹈用英语怎么说
me. His hair is crew cut short; I can e scalp. I think he’s more handsome with a little more hair. But Mickey is happy with how he looks, and that’s all that matters.
“Thanks Dom,” Mickey says softly. Dom dusts a brush with talcum powder, sweeps it across the back of Mickey’s neck. Mickey stands, turns to me and asks, “Can I have a dollar?”
I give him a twenty-dollar bill. He hands it to Dom. “Keep the change,” he says breezily. A man of the world.
“Is Dom proud of me?” Mickey asks.
“Very proud,” I say. “You know what? We’re all very proud of you.”
This whole visit to the barbershop has lasted fifteen minutes. But it took us years to get here.
【词汇过关】
请写出下面文单词在文章中的中文意思。
1.dreaded [dredd] adj.______________________________
2.mutter [mt] vi.______________________________
3.brace [bres]&钻石皇朝
nbsp; vt.______________________________
4.clench [klen(t)] vt.______________________________
5.flail [flel] vt.______________________________
6.butt [bt] vt.______________________________
7.anesthesia [nsiz] n.______________________________
8.gawk [gk] vi.______________________________
9.frantically [frntkli] adv.______________________________
10.snarl [snl] vi.______________________________
11.rotten [rt()n] adj.______________________________
12.brat. [brt] n.______________________________
13.horrendous [hrends] adj.______________________________
14.shriek [rik] vi.______________________________
15.stylist [stalst ] n.______________________________
16.spent [spent] adj.______________________________
17.smear [sm] vt.______________________________
18.snot [snt] n.______________________________
