美文欣赏 The Best Teacher I Ever Had

　　The Best Teacher I Ever Had

　　Mr.Whitson taught sixth-grade science. On the first day of class, he gave us a lecture about an animal called the Cattywampus, an animal that was wiped out during the Ice Age, he passed around a skull as he talked. We all took notes and later had a quiz.

　　When he returned my paper, I was shocked. There was a big red “X” through each of my answers. I had failed. There had to be some mistakes! I had written down exactly what Mr. Whitson said.

　　Then I realized that everyone in the class had failed. What had happened? Very simple, Mr. Whitson explained. He had made up all that story about the Cattywampus. There had never been any such animal. The information in our notes was, therefore, incorrect.

　　Needless to say, we were outraged. What kind of text was this? And what kind of teacher is?

　　We should have figured it out, Mr. Whitson said. After all, at the very moment he was passing around the Cattywampus skull (in truth, a cat’s), hadn’t he been telling us that no trace of the animal remained? He had described its amazing night vision, the color of its fur and any number of other facts he couldn’t have known. The zeroes on our papers would be recorded in his grade book, he said. And they were.

_小精灵 儿童网