Pam, the Daughter

Americans believe that a daughter brings out the tenderness in a father's spirit. When Pam was born, father Denis took 15 month old Eric to the hospital at 6:00 o'clock in the morning. Eric would run up and down the hall as his father waited for the doctor to come and allow him to see his new baby daughter.

　　When Dennis saw the new baby, his heart melted. The tired mother Janet introduced her son Eric to his baby sister Pam. In a few days, mother and daughter came home to begin a happy life together. It was much work for the mother to raise two very young children while her husband was teaching at the university.

　　Pam played tennis in high school. Since she was the daughter of two music teachers, she decided to play in the band. Girls usually chose the flute, the clarinet, or the saxophone. Her band teacher suggested she play a very difficult instrument, the oboe. It is difficult because it takes much wind to blow air past a double reed into a long tube with keys that open and shut. Pam accepted the challenge of this instrument and she became very good at playing it. When she went to college, she played oboe in her father's band. She also played in the orchestra. One time she was a soloist for an entire piece. Her major studies were in history and mathematics because she decided she wanted to be a teacher of middle school children, age 10 to 13. When she graduated, she decided to go to Sweden, the country of her ancestors, to study. She studied Swedish history, Swedish language, and morality by studying the Bible.

　　She wrote her father a letter from Sweden. She asked questions for the first time about her own ideas. Patiently with love, her father wrote back to her and praised her for developing her mind. She was becoming an adult, leaving her childhood in the past.

　　Pam married Gayle Beebe and became the mother of two girls, Anna and Elizabeth and a son, Ricky. She took a job as a middle school mathematics teacher. She lives in Los Angeles, California, one of America's most famous cities. Los Angeles is the home of Disneyland and Hollywood, where most American films are made.

　　Words and Phrases

　　hall n.大厅，穿堂，门厅

　　melt v.熔化，融化；软化

　　clarinet n.单簧管

　　saxophone n.萨克斯管

　　reed n.芦笛，簧

　　tube n.管

　　key n.琴键；钥匙

　　challenge n.挑战

　　soloist n.独唱者，独奏者

　　ancestor n.祖先

　　morality n.道德，品质

　　Bible n.《圣经》