Job and Dream

冉颖

    My father was foreman of s sugar-cane plantation in Rio piedras, puerto Rico. My first job was to drive the oxen that plowed the cane fields. I would walk behind an ox, guiding him with a broomstick. For $1 a day, I worked eight hours straight, with no food breaks.
    It was very tedious work, but it prepared me for life and taught me many lasting lessons. Because the plantation owners were always watching us, I had to be on time every day and work as hard as I could. I’ve never been late for any job since. I also learned about being respectful and loyal to the people you work for. More important, I earned my pay; it never entered my mind to day I was sick just because I didn’t want to work.
    I was only six years old, but I was doing a man’s job. our family needed every dollar we could make because my father never earned more than $18 a week. our home was a three-room wood shack with a dirt floor and no toilet. Nothing made me prouder than bringing home money to help my mother, father, two brothers and three sisters. This gave me self-esteem, one of the most important things a person can have.
    When I was seven, I got work at a golf course near our house. My job was to stand down the fairway and spot the balls as they landed so the golfers could find them. Losing a ball meant you were fired, so I never miss one. Some nights I would lie in bed and dream of making thousands of dollars playing golf and being able to buy a bicycle.
    The more I dreamed, the more I thought, why not? I made my first golf club out of guava limb and a piece of pipe. Then I hammered an empty tin can into the shape of a ball. And finally I dug two small holes in the ground and hit the ball back and forth. I practiced with the same devotion and intensity I learned working in the field – except now I was driving golf balls with club, not oxen with a broomstick.

冉颖

内容提示与分析
    本文作者回忆了自己年幼时的两次工作经历以及当时的梦想，这是一个交织着辛酸与幸福的故事，令人感到心灵的触动。全文分两个层次：第一层次讲述了作者的第一份工作---在农田里赶牛犁地。这份工作虽然单调劳累，却使作者为生活做好了准备，给他上了终身受用的一课。最重要的是，使他为自己那贫困的家庭赚了点钱，这给予了作者人生最宝贵的东西---自尊。第二层讲述了他的第二份工作---在高尔夫球场捡球。在努力工作中，作者梦想成为成功的高尔夫球手，能为自己买辆单车。怀着这样的梦想，年幼时的作者用自制的一个简易破烂的高尔夫球杆，以他在农田工作时学到的投入精神和热情进行着练习

f1mylove2004

梦想在不远处