Module1 Let’s talk teens
Extended Reading Mama and Her Bank Account
Every Saturday night Mama would sit down by the kitchen table and count out the money Papa had brought home.
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Mama would put one or two coins to the side We would watch with anxious interest. At last, Papa would ask, \look up and smile, \We do not have to go to the Bank.\We were all so proud of Mama's Bank Account. It gave us such a warm, secure feeling.
When Nels graduated from grammar school, he wanted to go on to high school. \little money,”he said.
Eagerly we gathered around the table. I took down a box and laid it carefully in front of Mama. This was the \Christine broke her arm and had to be taken to a doctor.
Nels listed the costs of the things he would need. Mama counted out the money in the Little Bank. There was not enough. \our heads.
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Mama gave him a bright smile and wrote down a number. \not enough,\said. Then he took his pipe out of his mouth and looked at it for a long time \will give up smoking, he said suddenly.
Mama reached across the table and touched Papa’s arm. Then she wrote down another figure.
“I will look after the Elvington children every Friday night,” I said.“Christine can help me.”
Now there was enough money. We all felt very good because we did not have to go downtown and draw money out of Mama's Bank Account.
So many things came out of the Little Bank that year: Christine's dress for the school play, my little sister Dagmar's operation ... Whatever happened, we always knew we still had the Bank to depend upon.
That was twenty years ago.
Last year I sold my first story. When the check came, I hurried over to Mama's and put it in her lap. \
I noticed for the first time how old Mama and Papa looked. Papa seemed shorter, and Mama's hair was silver now.
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Mama looked at me. \bank.\
And when I didn't-couldn't-answer, Mama said seriously, \afraid-to not feel secure.\
(Adapted from Kathryn Forbes's Mama's Bank Account, which has 17 short stories and describes the struggles and dreams of a family in San Francisco in the early 1900s)
(新牛津译林)模块一U2 Extended reading
