翻译考试历年中级口译真题(16)_第6页

Questions 16～20
      When my first  child was born, my mother-in-law said to me：“Motherhood is wonderful just  as long as you remember that A Mother’s Place is in the Wrong. No matter what you do, your children will blame you.

      Since  that  time,  almost  nine  years  ago,  I  have  carefully   monitored  mothers  and  their growing offspring to verify this maxim, and found that indeed it contains much truth.

      For  example, if a mother  stints herself to the point  of starvation to send her  darling to a good boarding school, the darling will turn round years later and accuse her of being a snob who deprived her of everyday family life. 

      If, on the other hand, a mother sends her little lamb to the local neighbourhood school; the little lamb will grumble years later that his parents didn’t give a fig for education and that is why he is illiterate and on the dole. 

      If  a  women  has  a  job,  her  children  will  speak  mournfully  of  the  experience  of  being latchkey  kids who never  knew  what  it  was to  come  home to the j oy  and  security  of  a  mum baking bread in the kitchen.

      If  a  women   does  not  work,  her   daughter   will  afterwards  describe  her   old  mum    as  a
“suburban cabbage” who never “fulfilled herself”.

      If a women endures a painful and difficult marriage for the sake of the children, she will be told by those children, when grow-up, that she was an absolute fool to put up with it and should have walked out years ago.

      If  she  considers  it  to be best  to  end the  marriage, they  will  accuse her  of  causing them “paternal deprivation syndrome ”and obliging them to grow up in “a one-parent situation”.

      If you try to shield your  children from the weary realities of life, they will  say you were absurdly overprotective. 

      If you try to share your troubles with them, they will say that you overburdened them with responsibilities and cheated them of their childhood.

      If you have but a single child, the child will say afterwards that you selfishly deprived it of siblings, and will tell sad stories about the loneliness of its childhood.

      If you have two children, they will describe their family background as typical, stereotyped, neurotic, introverted-a nuclear  family. Truly, a mother’s place is in the wrong-and, yea, it goes on even unto the third generation.

      When your children encounter trouble or difficulties as adults, in their own marriages or in their personalities, whom do they blame? You’ve got it in one: mother!

16. Having thought about her mother-in-law’s advice, the author_________.
   A. was inclined to doubt the advice
   B. interviewed women whose children had grown up
   C. decided to put the advice to the test
   D. asked adults about their childhood
17. The passage suggests that local schools______________.
   A. make children feel insecure
   B. have a poor educational record
   C. allow children too much freedom
   D. are for the children of “suburban cabbages
18.According to the passage, a women who divorces her husband will___________.
   A. be backed by her children
   B. be blamed by her children
   C. usually blame her husband
   D. soon lose the children’s affection
19. It can be concluded from the passage that mother________.
   A. are willing to take the blame
   B. are blamed unfairly
   C. can not be blameless
   D. cannot avoid blame
20. What would be the best title for this passage?
   A. A Great Mother Should Fulfill Herself
   B. A Typical And Stereotyped Family
   C. The Generation Gap
   D. Motherhood Is A No-Win Situation