高等学校研究生英语综合教程（上）--- Unit 6 主编：熊海虹
What do Chinese immigrants and their descendents seek in America? Read the extract below taken from The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. It is the story of four Chinese women born and raised in China before 1949 and their four America-born daughters.
FEATHERS FROM A THOUSAND LI AWAY
Amy Tan 1 The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. This bird, boasted the market vendor, was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose, and now look! It is too beautiful to eat.
2 Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of li wide, stretching their necks toward America. On her journey she cooed to the swan: \America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband's belch. Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She will know my meaning, because I will give her this swan --- a creature that became more than what was hoped for. \
3 But when she arrived in the new country, the immigration officials pulled her swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory. And then she had to fill out so many forms she forgot why she had come and what she had left behind.
高等学校研究生英语综合教程（上）--- Unit 6 主编：熊海虹
4 Now the woman was old. And she had a daughter who grew up speaking only English and swallowing more Coca-Cola than sorrow. For a long