Hillbilly Elegy - Jan 27

Mamaw knew little of how this arrangement affected me, partly ________(特意安排的).

Mom’s demand ________(一副理所应得的样子).

I refused. Sensing my resistance, Mom ________(改变了态度).

She survived successive ________(触犯法律). And now she was doing everything she could to survive ________(护士协会的突击).

I told Mamaw that enabling Mom made it worse and that if she had ________(运用自己的威严让她停止[吸毒]) thirty years earlier, then maybe Mom wouldn’t be begging her son for clean piss.

________(外婆的脸都气白了), and she refused to even look me in the eye. What I had said had clearly ________(触到了她的痛处).

First, Mamaw assuaged my fears. ________(吸几次大麻) over three weeks wouldn’t show up ________(在筛选中表现出来), she told me.

“You didn’t ________(吸入[毒品]), even if you tried.” Then she addressed the morality of it.

________(外婆的一生，诠释了如何对人失去信任), but Mamaw always found a way to believe in the people she loved.

Though I ________(按外婆说的照做了), ________(我心里某些东西却破碎了) that morning.

________(尿检的事情) ________(对于外婆来说也是压垮骆驼的最后一根稻草) too.

I didn’t even have to pack, because much of what I owned remained at Mamaw’s as I ________(流转于不同的地方).

I still harbored the insecurity that ________(我对她来说是一个负担).

More important, she was a hard woman to live with, quick-witted and ________(牙尖嘴利).

“Mamaw was really ________(对你很严厉).

Get good grades, get a job, and “________(挪一挪你的屁股来帮我干点活)” There was no ________(任务列表); I just had to help her with whatever she was doing.

Mamaw ________(刀子嘴豆腐心), at least with me.

The best part about living with Mamaw was that I began to understand ________(是什么在驱动她).

Living with Mamaw, I learned that she and her sister, Rose—a woman of uncommon kindness—________(翻脸了) after their mother died.

In her old age, ________(活动能力有限), Mamaw loved to watch TV. She preferred raunchy humor and ________(史诗剧), so she had a lot of options. But her favorite show by far was the HBO ________(黑帮故事)The Sopranos.

Though he murdered countless enemies and drank excessively, the only criticism she ever ________(imposed on) him involved his infidelity.

She ________(住进了护理院) for a few months to recover, forcing me to live alone, an experience that happily didn’t last long.

Now that I’m a lawyer, I marvel that we never considered ________(一起医疗事故诉讼) against the doctor who operated unnecessarily on her back.

Perhaps she felt that I would never appreciate that she loved me unless she offered ________(一叠钱).

And we were poor, ________(这种[穷困的]状态外婆却奉为荣耀的勋章) but one I’d hardly ________(需要经过努力才能接受).

According to Middletown High School legend, a student ________(打电话过来威胁有炸弹) during one of Selby’s exams, hiding the explosive device in a bag in his locker.