First Listening
Please listen to a short passage carefully and prepare to answer some questions.
When I was a child, the guerrillas occupied our village, took our home and food, and killed my mother. Later I emigrated to America to live with my father.
After I entered the junior high school, I chose Newspaper Club for “club hour” on Fridays. I was soon fascinated by the teaching ways of my teacher — Miss Burd, who was an eloquent woman. Once she assigned me to compose an essay about what had happened to my family in my motherland. On a warm weekend afternoon I recalled the painful days in, and wrote about my mother's death, my emigration to America and some other things. Miss Burd first had the essay published in the school paper and then entered it in a national contest where it won a medal. It was a great honor that stimulated me to make further efforts.
I was so grateful to Miss Burd, for it was she who lit the spark of my potential, directed my grief and pain into writing, and led me to the literary road and established my whole-life career. She was my salvation.
Second Listening
Listen to the tape again. Then answer the following questions.
1. When did the guerrillas occupy the speaker's village?
2. Which country did the speaker escape to after his mother was cruelly killed by the guerrillas?
3. Who is Miss Burd? What is the speaker's attitude towards her?
