Question

Albino Power

I was born an albino（白化病患者） in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1945. No one in my family had ever known what an albino was, what it meant to be an albino, what had to be done differently because I was an albino.

My parents and friends treated me just like they treated everybody else. They was just about the best thing they could have done. It gave me a leg up on trusting myself, so when troubles came along, I could deal with them.

Truly, my schoolbook photo always looked like a snowball with two pieces of coal for eyes. Like most albinos, I had terrible eyesight, but the fact that I could hardly see didn’t worry me all that much.

Kids laughed at me, calling me “Whitey”. People stared at me when I held reading material right at the tip of my nose so I could see it well enough to read. Even when I was eight or nine, movie theater workers started asking me to pay adult prices because I “l(fā)ooked older”.

The worst part for me was that because my eyesight was so bad that I couldn’t play sports very well. but I didn’t give up trying. I practiced playing basketball every day. And I studied harder.

Finally, I got better at school and loved it. By the time I got to college, I was double majoring（專業(yè)）, going to summer school and taking part in every kind of after-class activity I could find. I had learned to be proud of being an albino. I tried my best to make “albino” positive work. And I decided to make my living with my eyes—and in sports.

I couldn’t see well enough to play sports, but with a good and long-lasting education and the drive to do it, I could make a living involved in the area I loved. I’ve done it now for more than thirty years in print and in video, and now in cyberspace. People make jokes about how I’m the only “blind editor（編輯）” they know, but the jokes are friendly smiles now, and some of them are signs of respect. And I make jokes about being an albino. I have even developed an all-white routine, if you could call it that.

I was just a proud albino kid from the coal country of Pennsylvania. I now realize that being born an albino helped me to get over difficulties, become confident, and be proud of my personal achievements.

1.How did the writer’s parents and friends treat him?

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2.Why couldn’t the writer play sports very well?

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3.What was the writer doing by the time he got to college?

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4.What does the writer think of the “blind editor” jokes now?

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5.What does “Albino Power” mean to the writer?

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1.Just like they treated everybody else 2.Because his eyesight was very bad. 3.He was double majoring, going to summer school and taking part in after-class activities. 4.They are friendly sm...

Answer 1