Passage 1

Frenchmen attach great importance to education. They regard the cultivation of children as asocial obligation. French education mixes warm romantic humor into its careful and severeeducation. I have ever heard such a story:

It took place in an ordinary French family. One day, when the boy was playing basketball, theball hit a vase offthe shelf with its mouth knocked ,off a large piece. The vase was an antique handeddown through generations from Bourbon Dynasty. To cover the great trouble, the boy glued thepieces together and put the vase back to its place panic-stricken.

That evening his mother noticed the change on it. At dinnertime, she asked her boy if he hadbroken the vase. Being scared of punishment, the boy said by a sudden inspiration that a cat jumpedin from the window and knocked the vase off the shelf. His mother was quite clear that her son waslying, for all the windows were closed before her leaving. However, she just said that it seemed itwas her carelessness not to have the window tightly closed.

Before going to bed, the boy found a note on his bed, on which he was asked to go to the study.

The boy had thought he had gotten by under false pretences, but then felt he couldn′t dodge themisfortune. Now that he had already lied, he made up his mind no matter what his mother said, hewould disavow to the end.

On seeing her son enter in fear, his mother took out a chocolate box and gave one piece of thechocolates to her son. "Baker, this chocolate is a reward for you, for you created a cat with yourspecial imagination." Then, she put another chocolate in his hand."This chocolate is a reward foryour ability to restore. But the glue you used is for restoring paper materials; to restore a vase needshigher special technique. Tomorrow, let′s bring the vase to the artists to see how they make acraftwork intact as it was." With that, she took the third chocolate, "The last chocolate stands for myapology. I shouldn′ t have laid a vase in a place where it could so easily fall down. I wish you hadn′ tbeen scared, my little sweetheart."

"But, Mom, I..." The boy tried to make something clear, but he awkwardly uttered nothing butsome words. "Our talk is over. Good night, Baker!" She gave a soft kiss on his forehead and walkedout of the study.

The following days were the same as before. The only change was that the boy had never told alie since then.

No scolding. It looks unimaginably queer. In fact, the three chocolates are the alarm in the boy′ sheart all the time. Sometimes, no punishment itself is a kind of punishment.

what does the author intend to tell us

• A.Spare the rod and spoil the child
• B.Forgiveness with love is a good education
• C.An apology is more powerful than a punishment
• D.The cultivation of children is parents' priority