阅读理解In honour of Mother's Day, Michelle shares memories of her mum, Marian Robinson. In a special speech, she reflects on what she learned about parenting from her own mother:
My mother is a woman who chooses her words carefully. She sometimes speaks slowly with a smile to make herself understood. It's a style that makes her a good partner or friend who doesn't need the limelight(公众焦点).
As I've grown older, I've seen how her manner in conversation reflects her way of parenting. When it came to raising her kids, my mum knew that her voice was less important than allowing me to use my own, which meant she listened a lot more than told you how she thought you should behave. During my growing up, she was willing to endure(忍受) endless questions from me: Why do we have to eat eggs for breakfast? Why do people need jobs? Why are the houses bigger in their neighbourhoods? Why do we need to study? She would listen patiently to my reasons, instead of speaking angrily to me, if I had a fight with some of the neighbour kids.
In today's world, it is easy to think that she wasn't being responsible, and that she was letting the kids rule the roost But that was not true. She and my father love their children very much, pouring a deep and long- lasting foundation(基础) of goodness and honesty, of right and wrong, into my brother and me. Even if I got bad grades at school, she never punished me seriously. Instead, she always talked about the reasons with me. What they did simply let us be ourselves.
. . . I see now how important that kind of freedom is for all children, especially for girls. . . It's up to us, as mothers and mother figures, to give the girls in our lives the kind of support(支持) that lifts up their voices—not necessarily with our own words, but by letting them find the words themselves.
