At our New Year’s Eve family dinner, Dad talked about his plan for the coming year. He was going to learn ice skating. He said that it was his dream for many years.
There is a canal (运河) in our city. In winter it freezes over and becomes a wonderful outdoor skating rink (滑冰场). Every winter, Dad walked on the canal and watched people skating. He wondered how people were able to stand on the narrow metal skates on ice. He never thought he would learn to skate himself. He thought he was too old and might break a bone if he fell. But, on that New Year’s Day, Dad took the whole family to the canal.
We helped him put on his skates. I showed him how to stand on the ice. My sister told him to keep his body low in case he fell. Dad learned like a young student, listening carefully to our instructions. After the first 10 minutes, Dad could stand on his skates. Thirty minutes later, he began to move across the ice slowly. At the end of the day he could skate, but mostly on his left foot. He pushed himself forward with his right foot.
From that day on, Dad went skating more often than anyone else in our family. A month later, he became a good skater. Now we spend a lot of time skating on the canal together.
What did Dad wonder about while watching people skating?