“Ordinary” was the worst word my mother could find for anything. I remember her taking me shopping and taking no【小题1】 of the shop assistants when they suggested that some dress or pair of shoes was very【小题2】－ “we’ve sold fifty already this week.” That was all she needed to hear.

“No,” she would say. “We’re not 【小题3】 in that. Haven’t you got something a little more unusual?” And then the assistant would bring out all the【小题4】 colors no one else would buy. And later my mother and I would argue 【小题5】 I wanted to be ordinary but she wanted to be unusual.

“I can’t stand that hairdo (发型) ,” she said, when I went to the hairdresser【小题6】 my friend and came back with a boy haircut. “It’s so terribly ordinary”. Not【小题7】, not unsuitable. But ordinary…

“Couldn’t you please wear something else?” I asked one day, when she was 【小题8】 for Parents’ Day in tight-fitting pants and a bright pink sweater.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

Nothing was 【小题9】 with it!

“I just wish you’d wear something ordinary,” I said,

She looked at me【小题10】 and then said, “Are you ashamed of your own mother? If you are, Isadora, I feel sorry for you. I really do.”