Ⅰ. 阅读理解
I was standing in the kitchen helping with dinner, asking my mom about my brother’s doctor’s appointment. They were testing him for autism(自闭症 ). My brother, Captain, four years old at the time, had always been my best friend. We would wrestle, play games and have the best of times together, even though we were far apart in age. My mom told me about the appointment, but when she got to the point about the test, she stopped. I turned around and she had tears in her eyes. I stared at her, wishing she would say something, when I realized what that silence meant. My eyes got blurry (模糊的) and my breathing got very ragged. “The test was positive, sweetheart. ”she said. I broke down, crying.
My mom was trying to cool me down, saying that Captain couldn’t see me like this and I had to be a big girl, when the front door opened, and Captain, our three-year-old sister Cali, and my father came in. I walked out of the kitchen. I couldn’t look at him. Everything had just changed. He was no longer that little baby brother who was just a normal little boy.
We had to move a while later because Captain needed treatment. One day, I was standing in the bus line waiting when the “short bus” came and picked some kids up. The children in the other line started making jokes about the “retards( 智力迟钝者)”on that bus and I felt a strange feeling in my stomach, which I had never felt before.
During a band class, my teacher, Mrs Young, stopped our playing to give us some feed-back. “Guys, we’re playing like the kids on the short bus ! Come on! ” I felt that same feeling I had in the bus line. The entire room was laughing when I raised my hand. “Yes, Alexis? ” Mrs Young asked. “I don’t think we should make fun of the short bus, because there are a lot of people on that bus who have great personalities and have the same feelings as we do. And also, I know some people on those buses and they are some of the most caring, sweetest, and smartest people, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t make fun of them. ”
Everyone stared at me. Mrs Young apologized for the comment and then started the song again.
