21世纪大学英语读写教程(第一册)Unit4.docVIP

Unit 4 Text A II. The washwoman was already past seventy when she started washing for the narrator’s family.She was a small woman, old. Wrinkled and thin. This washwoman possessed a strength that came from generations of peasant forebears.She usually put the bundle of laundry on her narrow shoulders and carried it the long way home.But most Jewish women of her age were sickly and weak.They had bent backs and leaned on sticks when they walked. The sentence means that the narrator’s mother was very much pleased with the wash the old woman did.The washwoman was considered a real find because she did the wash better than other washwomen,but charged no more than the others. Laundering was not an easy job for the old woman in those days because the old woman had no running water where she lived but had to bring in water from a pump,and the drying could not be done outside for thieves would steal the laundry,so it had to be carried up to the attic and hung on clotheslines.The old woman had to endure much hardship each time she did a wash. Because there was in her a certain pride and love of labor and she didn’t want to become a burden on anyone. The washwoman was treated badly by her son,who was rich but ashamed of his mother.He never came to see his mother,nor did he give her money.When he got married,he did not even invite his mother to his wedding. The old woman still loved her son .She didn’t ask him for anything,nor did she care what he did.On her son’s wedding day,though not invited,she went to the church and waited at the steps to see him lead the bride to the altar. Because the narrator’s family needed the laundry,and they did not even know the woman’s address.It seemed to them that they would never see their things again. The family mourned for the old woman bucause she had grown close to them through the years she had served them so faithfully. The washwoman had been very ill for about two months.In fact,she had been so sick that the doctor had went for a priest.