All her life, my mother wanted busy children。 It was very important that her house should remain at all times clean and tidy。
                                    我母亲的一生，都在忙碌的应对她调皮的孩子们。对她来说，时刻保持屋子的干净整洁非常重要
You could turn your hack for a moment in my mother’ s house, leave a half-written letter on the dining room table, a magazine open on the chair, and turn around to find that my mother had put it back where it belonged,” as she explained。
   
如果在我母亲的家中，你留在桌上没有写完的信和椅子上翻开着的杂志，只要一转身，就会被我母亲收拾好放回原处。
My wife, on one of her first visits to my mother’ s house, placed a packet of biscuits on an end table and went to the kitchen to fetch a drink。
   When she returned, she found the packet had been removed。 Confused（疑惑的）, she set down her drink and went back to the kitchen for more biscuits, only to return to find that her drink had disappeared。
   Up to then she had guessed that everyone in my family held onto their drinks, so as not to make water rings on the end tables。
   Now she knows better。
我妻子最初到我母亲家的一次 ，她把怡包打开的饼干放在桌边，去厨房拿杯饮料。当她回来的时候，却发现饼干没有了。她奇怪极了，她把杯子放在桌上，再回到厨房去拿些饼干，可再回到桌前，她的饮料又不见了。那时，她猜想一定是我的家人担心她的饮料会在桌上留下水印而拿走了。
  而现在，她终于理解了其中的原因。
These disappearances had a confusing effect on our family。 We were all inclined to（有……的倾向）forgetfulness。
   And it was common for one of us, upon returning from the bathroom, to find that every sigh of his work in progress had disappeared suddenly。
   “Do you remember what I was doing was a question frequently asked, but rarely answered。
 像这样，东西会“消失”的情况让我的家人们常常有些晕头转向。我们会变得很健忘。
  你可能从浴室出来，却根本看不出，这里之前正进行到一半的工作的痕迹。 “你记得我刚才在干什么”成了大家最常问的一个问题，但是几乎不会有人能回答你。这样的情况对在我母亲家中任何一个人来说都太常见了。
Now my sister has developed a second-hand love of clean windows, and my brother does the cleaning in his house, perhaps to avoid having to be the one to hit his feet。
   I try not to think about it too much, but I have at this later time started to dust the furniture once a week。
现在，我的妹妹也爱上了擦玻璃，我兄弟也会自己打扫自己的房间。
  或许是为了避免使自己的物品“消失”。我呢，也不去多想，不过自那以后，我每周都会把家具擦拭一遍。
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