题型：任务型阅读 题类： 难易度：普通
【全效学习】英语八年级下册课时提优学习八年级下册英语A本 Module 8 Unit 3
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When I was finishing my tour in Iraq, my parents provided a vacation as a Christmas gift. "London,"I said. They seemed a bit surprised: I grew up there. Why didn't I choose a foreign place? I told them I wanted to go somewhere cold and wet after seven weeks in the desert. At that time this made sense(讲得通), but 10 years later, I've realised I wanted to return for a different reason: South Bank.
When I was 9, we packed up our home in Los Angeles and arrived at Heathrow, London, on a gray January morning. Everyone in the family was comfortable living in this city except me. Without my beloved beaches and endless blue-sky days, I felt lost and out of place, until I found something.
South Bank is the centre of British skateboarding. I loved it. I soon made friends with the local skaters. We spoke our own language, and my favourite: Safe. Safe meant "cool". It meant"hello". It meant"don't worry about it". Once, when trying a certain skill, I fell onto the stones, and Toby came over, helping me up, "Safe, man. Safe." A few minutes later, when I landed the skill, my friends beat their boards loud, shouting,"Safe! Safe! Safe!"And that's the important thing —landing skills, being a good skater.
When I was 15, my family moved to Washington. I tried skateboarding there, but the locals were far less welcoming. Within a couple of years, I'd given it up.
When I returned to London years later, I found myself walking slowly down to South Bank for hours. I've traveled back several times since, most recently this past spring. The day was cold but clear: tourists and Londoners stopped to watch the skaters. Then a teenager, in a baggy white T-shirt, sat next to me. He seemed not to notice me. But soon I caught a few of his glances. "I was a local here 20 years ago," I told him. Then, slowly, he began to nod his head, "Safe, man. Safe."
"Yeah,"I said. "Safe."
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