Hillbilly Elegy - Jan 31

Even excessive shouting can damage a kid’s sense of security and contribute to mental health and behavioral issues ________(at a future point or end).

The doctors found that constant stress can actually change ________(孩子大脑的构造).

This is the classic ________(“战或逃”反应) that we learn about in grade school.

We are constantly ready to fight or flee, because there is ________(一直都要面临.../一直都暴露在...) the bear, whether that bear is an alcoholic dad or ________(一个精神错乱的妈妈). We ________(变得和争吵总是息息相关).

It’s how my mom, the salutatorian of her high school class, had both a baby and a divorce, but not a single college credit ________(学习到了对未来有帮助的东西) before her teenage years were over.

The answer is that, in our home, it was often difficult to ________(分辨朋友和敌人).

I continue to struggle with conflict, to fight the statistical odds that sometimes seem to ________(逼近) on me.

I convince myself that there is no exit, and no matter how much I ________(与曾经的恶魔抗争), they are as much ________(与生俱来的特质) as my blue eyes and brown hair.

These bailouts were common, and they always ________(有一些理论上的附加条件).

Uncle Jimmy reacts viscerally to the idea that any of the blame for Mom’s choices can ________(归咎到外公身上).

While Aunt Wee would plead with her parents to calm down, or provoke her father in order to ________(让妈妈压力小点)…

In some ways, Mom is the Vance child who ________(输掉了统计学的游戏 (成为统计学中代表失败阵营的一员)).

So I shouldn’t have been surprised or all that bothered, but “ heroin ” just ________(也是应有之事) ; it’s like the Kentucky Derby of drugs.

When I learned of Mom’s newest substance of choice, I ________(感觉我被一层乌云笼罩了) for weeks.

I was a recent graduate of Yale Law School, a former editor of the prestigious Yale Law Journal, and ________(一员注册律师).

I was ________(正处于步步高升中).

Or at least that’s how it looked to an outsider. But upward mobility is never clean-cut, and the world I left always finds a way to ________(把我拉回去).

So when I discovered that Mom was ________(在困境中), I didn’t mutter insults under my breath and hang up the phone. I offered to help her.

I’d give Mom enough money to help her ________(重新振作).

But maybe you can ________(让天平倾向自己) a little for ________(边缘人士).

Gail’s life is ________(具化了的美国梦) : a beautiful house, three great kids, a happy marriage, and a saintly demeanor.

But ________(有一个难题): “Mom told me I couldn’t go to college unless I broke up with my boyfriend.

Almost immediately, ________(她的生活开始破裂). Racial prejudice ________(浮上水面) when she announced that a black baby was joining the family.

So here’s Gail: teenage single mom, no family, little support. A lot of people would wilt in those circumstances, but the hillbilly ________(to assume control or possession / to be dominant).

She got a job with a local telephone company, ________(通过工作一步步向上爬), and even returned to college.

By the time she remarried, she had ________(迈了一大步). ________(教科书一样的婚姻) to her second husband, Allan, is just ________(锦上添花).