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閱讀理解
World leaders burdened with resolving conflicts(沖突)between nations have my sympathy．When my three children were young, most days it was hard keeping my house from becoming a war zone．And that was before breakfast．
It got worse as they grew older．Three years aw, Zack, then 16, couldn’t make it through a day without playing tricks on his sisters, Alex and Taryn, then 11 and 9．
My husband and I tried to be understanding of his adolescent moodiness(喜怒無常)．We begged, reasoned, punished, and left heartfelt notes on his bed about how his behavior was hurting our family．His response was a shrug and“I say it because it’s true．”
I even tried telling the girls to fight back．Bad idea．Now I had three kids at war．At wit’s end．I poured my heart out to my sister in an e-mail．She wrote back,“Don’t e-mail me．E-mail him．”
Our son was online every day, mailing and instant messaging his friends．So what if I was within shouting distance?Maybe he would actually hear me this way．There’d be no yelling or door slamming．Zack wouldn’t feel under attack．And with a few simple keystrokes, he could respond．Or not．Zack didn’t reply for days．When he finally did, his entire message was four measly(少得可憐的)words．I expected the worst, but then smiled when I read them：“You’re right．I’m sorry,”The kids still fought, of course, but Zack scaled back the abuse．Best of all, I now have an effective way to communicate with not one but three easily annoyed teens．I like that they don’t tune me out as much．They like not having to listen to me nag(指責(zé)，嘮叨)．Or as Alex says,“You’re so much nicer online．”
All I know is that the house is quiet, but we’re talking, in fact, Taryn just instant-messaged me from upstairs．It’s time to take her to softball practice．
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