Unit4 A Visiting My Old School

After an absence of thirty years, I decided to visit my old school again .I had expected to find changes, but not a completely different building .As I walked up the school drive, I wondered for a moment if I had come to the right address .The grimy, red-brick fortress with its tall windows that had looked down grimly on the playground and playing fields had been swept away.In its place stood a bright, modern block raised from the ground on great concrete stilts .A huge expanse of glass extended across the face of the building; and in front, there was a well-kept lawn where previously there had been an untidy gravel yard . I was pleased to find that it was break-time and that the children were all in the playground . This would enable me to meet some members of staff .On entering the building, I was surprised to hear loud laughter coming from what appeared to be the masters&`& common room .I could not help remembering the teachers in my time, all dressed in black gowns and high collars .And above all, I recalled Mr. Garston (whom we had nicknamed “Mr. Ghastly”) , the headmaster, who had imposed iron discipline on staff and pupils alike .I knocked at the common room door and was welcomed by a smiling young man who introduced himself to me as the headmaster .He was dressed casually in a sports jacket, and his cheerful manner quickly dispelled the image of “Mr. Ghastly”.After I had explained who I was, the headmaster introduced me to the teachers ( all of whom were only a little younger than himself) , and said he would show me round the school . Here the biggest surprise of all was in store for me .Gone were the heavy desks of old with their deeply-carved initials; gone, too, were the gloomy classrooms with their ink-stained, dark-brown walls, and their raised platforms for the teachers .The rooms now were gaily painted in contrasting colours, and the children, far from sitting rigidly in their places, seemed almost free to do as they liked .I looked at them with envy as I remembered how, as a child, I had gazed at the blackboard, barely daring to whisper to my neighbour. Notes on the passage (注释） common room (line 10) 教师或学生的公共休息室 of old (line 19) in or since past time we know him of old = we have known him for a long time)