Hillbilly Elegy - Jan 31

Some version of Gail’s story often ________(出现) where I grew up.

You watch as teenagers find themselves in dire straits, sometimes ________(咎由自取) and sometimes not.

It means that unless you have a Mamaw and Papaw to make sure you ________(坚持到底), you might never make it out.

So I wasn’t surprised that Mormon Utah — with its strong church, integrated communities, and intact families — ________(彻底击败) Rust Belt Ohio.

That hope ________(to develop in a particular way or in a successful way) — Mom didn’t go to jail, and I got to stay with Mamaw.

Child services are, for many kids, ________(安全网的最后一环) ; if they fall through, precious little remains to catch them.

Child services often ________(将它们[这些因素]排除在考虑范围之外), as they did in my case.

Not everyone can rely on ________(可取之处) of a crazy hillbilly.

Recently, I sat down with a group of teachers from my alma mater, Middletown High.

All of them expressed the worry, in one form or another, that society devoted too many resources ________(到来得太晚).

When you have a large base of Section 8 parents and kids supported by fewer middle-class taxpayers, it’s ________(倒立的三角形).

Some scales aren’t that amenable to the proverbial thumb.

When, later in life, Usha and I ________(合并财产), she was shocked to learn that I had multiple bank accounts and ________(一些过期未还款的余额记录) on credit cards.

A couple of years ago, I was driving in Cincinnati with Usha, when somebody ________(穿插进来). I honked, the guy ________(对我做了个下流的手势), and when we stopped at a red light ( with this guy in front of me ), I unbuckled my seat belt and opened the car door.

For the first eighteen or so years of my life, ________(withdraw or resign from a position or office 退缩) would have earned me ________(口头侮辱) as a “pussy” or a “wimp” or a “girl.”

To this day, I find the very notion of pajamas an unnecessary ________(精英的享受品), like caviar or electric ice cube makers.

Now I live in one where opportunities abound for the wealthy and privileged to ________(豪洒他们的慷慨) on the community’s poor.

And there’s always ________(美国的一个慈善项目，给孩子的玩具).

As ________(已经远离贫穷的生活，转而走向富有) in my own life, these moments of retail reflection force me to consider just how lucky I am.

Every year the parents in my neighborhood would begin ________(一年一度的庆祝/大事) very different from the one I’ve become accustomed to in my new material comfort.

Mom somehow ________(知道了一个消息) about a stranger who was willing to part with one of his Ruxpins ________(大幅加价).

It was the holiday season that taught me about tax refunds, which I gathered were free bits of money sent to the poor in the new year to save them from the financial indiscretions of the old one.

Income tax refunds were the ultimate ________(后备方案).

“We can definitely afford this; we’ll just pay for it with the refund check” became a Christmas mantra.

My cousin Bonnie, at the age of eleven, asked her parents to donate her Christmas gifts to Middletown’s ________(穷人).

And uneasy though I am about my new life, I cannot whine about it: The life I lead now was the stuff of fantasy during my childhood.