my mother is a senior high school english teacher. under standably， she wanted her daughter to pick up english early to give her an edge to later study， which i did not understand at the age of eight. i was so obsessed with fun and *s that i hated to stay peacefully with all those strange phonetic symbols and odd words. i wondered what pleasure mother seemed to have found in teaching me a，b， c. wasn't teaching at school tire some enough for her？ i went on strike， refusing to spell a single word no matter how tender or s*re mother tried to be with me. for the first time in my life， mother beat me， imprinting on my mind. the physical pain was gone long， long ago. but i have finally come to understand how it pained my mother to beat me for my obstinacy and disobedience， and i ache at her pain. __