【恒心】Message of the Land【课文原文】.doc

更多精彩请加824135830 请告诉你的姓名省份文理学校...谢谢更多精彩请访问我的私人博客/orange/ PAGE PAGE 1 Unit 3 Message of the Land 编辑校对：李炳璋（原名李东升）全国唯一一位曾经连续三年命中过高考试题中理科和文科一些试题的人 Pira Sudham Yes, these are our rice fields. They belonged to my parents and forefathers. The land is more than three centuries old. Im the only daughter in our family and it was I who stayed with my parents till they died. My three brothers moved out to their wives houses when they got married. My husband moved into our house as is the way with us in Esarn. I was then eighteen and he was nineteen. He gave me six children. Two died in infancy from sickness. The rest, two boys and two girls, went away as soon as we could afford to buy jeans for them. Our oldest son got a job as a gardener in a rich mans home in Bangkok but later an employment agency sent him to a foreign land to work. My other son also went far away. One of our daughters is working in a textile factory in Bangkok, and the other has a job in a store. They come home to see us now and then, stay a few days, and then they are off again. Often they send some money to us and tell us that they are doing well. I know this is not always true. Sometimes, they get bullied and insulted, and it is like a knife piercing my heart. Its easier for my husband. He has ears which dont hear, a mouth which doesnt speak, and eyes that dont see. He has always been patient and silent, minding his own life. All of them remain my children in spite of their long absence. Maybe its fate that sent them away from us. Our piece of land is small, and it is no longer fertile, bleeding year after year and, like us, getting old and exhausted. Still my husband and I work on this land. The soil is not difficult to till when there is a lot of rain, but in a bad year, its not only the ploughs that break but our hearts, too. No, we two havent changed much, but the village has. In what way? Only ten years ago, you could barter for things, but now its all cash. Years ago, you could a