1997年6月9日是中国的传统节日——端午节。一周前，我们每个人都写了篇介绍这一节日的作文。

我在《The Dragon Boat Festival》里写了端午节吃粽子、小孩相互比谁的煮鸡蛋更硬、各家屋檐下插杨树枝和彩纸葫芦及贵州的龙舟竞渡等内容，最后写了端午节吃粽子、赛龙舟的由来，也就是屈原自沉汨罗江的故事。

我是这样写的：“In the anient days of china, a poet named QuYuan dropped himself into river because he didn’t satisfy the government .For to commemorate this great poet ,the people row boats and knock the drums and throw ZongZi into the river ,so the fishes dare not eat the body of the poet. So, this custom has spread far and wide until today.”

看了我的作文，Violet很高兴，给我打了个A并评价为Excellent，但她没弄明白为什么要投粽子喂鱼，是不是鱼有了吃的就不吃屈原的身体了：“Why do they throw it in the river? And throw ZongZi into the river to feed the fishes as they dare not eat the body of QuYuan. (They respect him so much the fishes wouldn’t eat his body? ) ”。

端午节那一天的早晨，LILY从家里给老师带来了粽子，Violet惊喜得像一个小孩子——她很高兴不仅了解到中国的风俗还品尝到了中华美食。

按Violet的要求，我们写了不少各种形式的作文，通过它们，她试图了解我们，也丰富自己的异国见闻。她是一个愿意学习、知识面也很宽的人，我们一般不称她为Teacher，而称其为Professor ，以示尊敬。

Violet的责任心尤其体现在她耐心地为我们批改作业上。可以想见，一个个夜晚，她看着我们那错误百出、文理不通，写得稀奇古怪的作业，该是多么折磨人的神经，但她常常不厌其烦地写出评语，有的还特别长，这一点很受我们敬重。

我还写过一篇介绍中秋节的作文，上面没有Violet的批改字迹。我所写的作文都是先组织中文，再译成英文，遇到不会的单词，就借助于一本很小的汉英词典。大多数中国人学英语都是这样，初学之始都有一层隔阂，或曰语言障碍。Violet就曾多次讲过，鼓励我们jump over the language barrier。

我写过民族英雄岳飞的简介，翻译了几篇课本上的小品文。我还经常从《读者》中找些感兴趣的文章翻译过来，如《The flower which can speak》等。

记得我在前边作Topic时讲了一个关于美国的笑话，惹得Violet扑哧发笑，她显然听出了其中的幽默感（由于东西方文化的差异，她很少对我们讲的幽默故事觉得好笑）。我觉得这个小笑话译得还行。

Violet对关于妇女的话题十分感兴趣，课文中有一篇谈妇女解放运动的短文，她引申出了很多别的话题，可惜我的听力太差，没搞清她说的是什么。她多次提起这个话题，也许是在加拿大有着切身感受？不得而知。

我写过一篇短文，《The position of women in family》：

“Today, the women can command their husbands to do everything! And the men can’t complain at all. When he is paid his salary ,he must take it to his wife. If he doesn’t , they will quarrel until the husband surrenders. So the women have a higher position in the family. They control their husbands, this makes the family steady. (此处Violet批到：Yes, but it seems they have too much control?) . When the men have a lot of money but perhaps poor accomplishments, they will escape from the control of their wives. Perhaps , a war will break out in the family. Even though the women have the highest position in their family, they can’t have this position at their work.(esp. in the plant), because the men are more suited to work in heavy jobs.

对于这一小篇文字，Violet的评语是：“V. good. I wish you had developed your position saying that women do not have higher positions than men at work.”

在背面她还写到：“Louie: Doing heavy work, yes men are better able but do you think one day in china you will have a woman president? Perhaps, they have as much ability as men to lead a government?”

另一篇《The ambition and success》谈的是如何对待树立志向与成功失败，我写到：

“In general, people want to do something to prove their ability to others. Some succeeds but most people fail. It is as if God is especially fond of those aspects of people and helps them to achieve their ambition. They gain a lot admiration, receive flowers and are surrounded by happiness. But I don’t think so (Violet 在此批到：You need to be more explicit “…I don’t think so.”). So long as you set up an ambition and pay your efforts constantly, whatever difficulty ,you will be happy no matter whether you succeed or not . Yes, the happiness is in the process. Regarding this ,it seems that Giorgius(这是老师给我们推荐的一篇读物中的人物，是怎么回事，现已记不得了)should be happy because he struggled with difficulty most of his life and finally became a acrobat. Maybe he was happy, but that makes me feel sad and bitter. (Violet在此不解：Why? Explain,) I understand him, because I, too, had an ambition, I wanted to be a writer. I tried my best for seven years. Though, I gave up it, (Violet又不解了：Why? )I felt happy in those years. The dream of literature opened my heart ,increased my knowledge and enriched my life. I have never complained that the dream made me lose something . I will be thankful for my dream forever. So I feel happy.  When one sets up his ambition , one must thinks it over and over because it is an important choice. It will affect one’s entire life, perhaps. Everyone wishes to realize his ambition. Success is certainly better than failure. But if you fail, you should treat it with a proper attitude. Remember that happiness is in the process. I will acclaim either the success or the failure of those who have ever done their best.

下面是Violet对我这篇短文的看法：“V. good ending, I enjoyed this . Do you think it is important to choose a suitable goal? Did Giorgius spend too long chasing /working at his goal? An ambition may take years of effort to achieve and there may be no guarantee that the outcome will be successful. Perhaps , one must be prepared for disappointment---not everyone succeeds, some people fail. Surely, facing and dealing effectively with our failures is the biggest challenge of all in life. We experience pain when we meet failure but pain is a vehicle for growth. You, Louie, have a certain maturity that I believe may be the outcome of your experience with your desire to write. ”。