(3)
I grew up deprived of hugs. Neither of my parents was the cuddly type. Greetings involving kissing caused me to wince, and hugging generally just made me feel awkward.
Then one hug changed all that. One month before my 40th birthday my dad had heart surgery. As he came round, days later, he grabbed me and hugged me so hard I had to push with all my might to keep my head from pressing down on his newly stitched torso.
It was a hug to make up for all those we had never had. Days later as he slowly started to gain strength he told me for the first time ever that he loved me, and through my tears I told him I loved him too.
I began planning how to bake him better — with carrot cakes, Victoria sponges, jelly and ice cream. My maternal streak kicked in and I fantasized about wheeling him through the park and feeding him home-made goodies. Then he died.
I felt cheated. All my life I had wondered whether my dad cared for me and loved me — I doubted it. Just as I got proof that he did, he passed away.
My parents split up when I was two years old and, while I had monthly contact with my dad, my bitter stepmother and my father’s old-fashioned stiff upper lip meant we never became close. In fact, I used to dread the visits to see him and count the hours until I could go home again.
When I was very little the weekends at my father’s house felt cold and unfriendly. During my teens the trips to a hostile house became a dread on the horizon for weeks beforehand. Each stay culminated in an uncomfortable peck on the cheek from Dad as he said goodbye — a moment I cringed about for hours in advance.
Losing a father whom you have no recollection of ever living with is difficult. Grieving is tricky; I didn’t have any obvious close father-daughter memories to cling to and think and cry over. Most of my memories were of stilted meetings and uncomfortable times together. But I desperately missed him being alive.
As time moved on my grief and anger at his untimely death began to recede. I realized that his affirmation of me from his deathbed had filled a gaping hole of insecurity I had constantly carried around.
To a child a hug says so many things. It tells you that the person hugging you loves you, cares for you. A hug also confirms that you are a lovable being. Months after Dad’s death, I realized with a jolt that his lack of hugs said more about him than me. My father was not a demonstrative man and I was, therefore, perhaps, a lovable being.
71. The word “wince” in Paragraph 1 means ______.( )
A. withdraw B. shudder
C. cry D. worry
72. We can infer from the passage that ______.( )
A. the father loved his daughter more than the mother did
B. the father wasn’t good at expressing his inner feelings
C. the father regretted not having hugged his daughter earlier
D. the father’s last wish was to tell his daughter he loved her
73. Which of the following statements about the author is NOT true?( )
A. She was reluctant to go to visit her father but she had to.
B. She wasn’t intimate with her father partly because of his wife.
C. She was awkward when her father felt uneasy during her stay.
D. She disliked having to meet with her stepmother and her children.
74. According to the passage, the author’s background ______.( )
A. made her feel sad and depressed
B. gave her a sense of insecurity
C. enabled her to make great achievements
D. induced her to be far away from her father
75. In the end, the author seemed to gain ______.( )
A. understanding B. popularity
C. confidence D. recognition
(4)
For the past few years, it’s been open season on Generation Y — also known as the millennials, echo boomers or, less flatteringly, Generation Me. Once described by the trend-watchers Neil Howe and William Strauss as “the next great generation” — optimistic, idealistic and destined to do good — millennials, born between 1982 and 2002, have been depicted more recently by employers, professors and earnestly concerned mental-health experts as entitled whiners who have been spoiled by parents who overstoked their self-esteem, teachers who granted undeserved A’s and sports coaches who bestowed trophies on any player who showed up.
As they’ve entered adulthood, they have inspired a number of books on how unmanageable they are in the workplace, with their iPods, flip-flops and inability to take criticism. Stories abound about them as college students, requiring 24/7 e-mail access to professors and running to Mom and Dad for help with papers or to contest a bad grade. A consensus has emerged that, psychologically, they’re a generation of basket cases: profoundly self-adoring and deprived of a sense of agency by their anxiously overinvolved parents.
The behavior of many of this year’s college seniors might further fuel this story line. They are graduating into a labor market destroyed by the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The unemployment rate for early 20-somethings is close to 20 percent. Increased applications to grad school have turned that option of sitting out the recession into a reach. Even going into teaching — hyped a year ago as the most acceptable Plan B for high achievers turned off by (or turned away from) Wall Street — has become much tougher, as school districts have been ruined by budget cuts. Yet despite the fact that the new graduates are in no position to pose conditions for employers, many are increasingly declaring themselves unwilling to work more than 40 hours a week. Graduates are turning down job offers in high numbers — essentially opting to move back home with their parents if the work offered doesn’t match their self-assessed market value.
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which every year surveys thousands of college graduates about their job prospects and work attitudes, fully 41 percent of job seekers this year turned down offers — the exact percentage that did so in 2007, when the economy was booming. And though less than a quarter of seniors who applied for work had post-graduation job offers in hand by late April (compared with 52 percent in 2007), many are still approaching work with attitudes suited for a full-employment economy.
“Almost universally they want to find a job that’s not just a job but an expression of their identity, a form of self-fulfillment,” says Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a Clark University psychology professor who interviewed hundreds of young people.
76. Today millennials are considered ______.( )
A. not to be what they seem to be B. to enjoy a good reputation
C. as a quite promising generation D. worthy of the honors bestowed
77. Which of the following is NOT true of Generation Y? ( )
A. They often lean on others for help.
B. They have psychological problems.
C. They think highly of themselves.
D. They are obedient in the workplace.
78. It seems that this year’s college graduates may ______. ( )
A. receive positive reviews B. be under heavier criticism
C. suffer from more illnesses D. behave as badly as previous ones
79. It can be inferred that graduates’ expectation of job is ______. ( )
A. raised by their parents B. out of touch with reality
C. lowered by the reality D. rising all the time
80. Generation Y gives an impression of being ______. ( )
A. overrated B. shrewd
C. conceited D. prospective
