首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Letty the old lady lived in a "Single Room Occupancy" hotel approved by the New York City welfare department and occupied by old
Letty the old lady lived in a "Single Room Occupancy" hotel approved by the New York City welfare department and occupied by old
admin
2017-04-20
67
问题
Letty the old lady lived in a "Single Room Occupancy" hotel approved by the New York City welfare department and occupied by old losers, junkies, cockroaches and rats. Whenever she left her room—a tiny cubicle with a cot, a chair, a seven-year-old calendar and a window so filthy it blended with the unspeakable walls—she would pack all her valuables in two large shopping bags and carry them with her. If she didn’t, everything would disappear when she left the hotel. Her "things" were also a burden. Everything she managed to possess was portable and had multiple uses. A shawl is more versatile than a sweater, and hats are no good at all, although she used to have lots of nice hats, she told me.
The first day I saw Letty I had left my apartment in search of a "bag lady". I had seen these women round the city frequently, had spoken to a few. Sitting around the parks had taught me more about these city vagabonds. As a group, few were eligible for social security. They had always been flotsam and jetsam, floating from place to place and from job to job—waitress, short order cook, sales clerk, stock boy, maid, mechanic, porter—all those jobs held by faceless people. The "bag ladies" were a special breed. They looked and acted and dressed strangely in some of the most determinedly conformist areas of the city. They frequented Fourteen Street downtown, and the fancy shopping districts. They seemed to like crowds but remained alone. They held long conversations with themselves, with telephone poles, with unexpected cracks in the sidewalk. They hung around lunch counters and cafeterias, and could remain impervious to the rudeness of a determined waitress and sit for hours clutching a coffee cup full of cold memories.
Letty was my representative bag lady. I picked her up on the corner of Fourteenth and Third Avenue. She had the most suspicious face I had encountered; her entire body, in fact, was pulled forward in one large question mark. She was carrying a double plain brown shopping bag and a larger white bag ordering you to vote for some obscure man for some obscure office and we began talking about whether or not she was an unpaid advertisement. I asked her if she would have lunch with me, and let me treat, as a matter of fact. After some hesitation and a few sharp glances over the top of her glasses, Letty the Bag Lady let me come into her life. We had lunch that day, the next, and later the next week.
Being a bag lady was a full-time job. Take the problem of the hotels. You can’t stay to long in any one of those welfare hotels, Letty told me, because the junkies figure out your routine, and when you get your checks, and you’ll be robbed, even killed. So you have to move a lot. And every time you move, you have to make three trips to the welfare office to get them to approve the new place, even if it’s just another cockroach-filled, rat-infested hole in the wall. During the last five years, Letty tried to move every two or three months.
Most of our conversations took place standing in line. New York State had just changed the regulations governing Medicaid cards and Letty had to get a new card. That took two hours in line, one hour sitting in a large dank-smelling room, and two minutes with a social worker who never once looked up. Another time, her case worker at the welfare office sent Letty to try and get food stamps, and after standing in line for three hours she found out she didn’t qualify because she didn’t have cooking facilities in her room. "This is my social life,"she said. "I run around the city and stand in line. You stand in line to see one of them fancy movies and calling it art; I stand in line for medicine, for food, for glasses, for the cards to get pills, for the pills; I stand in line to see people who never see who I am; at the hotel, sometimes I even have to stand in line to go to the John. When I die there’ll probably be a line to get through the gate, and when I get up to the front of the line, somebody will push it closed and say,’ Sorry. Come back after lunch. ’ These agencies, I figure they have to make it as hard for you to get help as they can, so only really strong people or really stubborn people like me can survive. "
Letty would talk and talk; sometimes, she didn’t seem to know I was even there. She never remembered my name, and would give a little start of surprise whenever I said hers, as if it had been a long time since anyone had said "Letty. " I don’t think she thought of herself as a person, anymore; I think she had accepted the view that she was a welfare case, a Mediaid card, a nuisance in the bus depot in the winter time, a victim to any petty criminal, existing on about the same level as cockroaches.
What is the author’s attitude towards Letty?
选项
A、Doubtful.
B、Detached.
C、Sympathetic.
D、Appreciative.
答案
C
解析
态度题。根据文章最后一段“She…would give a little start of surprise whenever I said hers,as if it had been a long time since anyone had said‘Letty.’I don’t think she thought of herself as a person,anymore…”可以推知,作者对Letty的遭遇是关切和同情的,故答案为[C]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/bVzK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
GivetheSenatesomecredit:inshapingthecurrentimmigration-reformbill,ithascomeupwithoneideathatalmosteverybody
Currently,eachcitizencanconfirmothers’personalinformationbypayingfiveyuanandsendingashortmessagetoNationalCit
ThecurrenttitleofTracyis______.
Lettytheoldladylivedina"SingleRoomOccupancy"hotelapprovedbytheNewYorkCitywelfaredepartmentandoccupiedbyold
OnWednesday,theTreasuryDepartmentreleasedmoredetailsofitsplantostress-testthenation’s19largestbankstoseejust
Insociolinguisticstudies,thesocialgroupsingledoutforanyspecialstudyiscalledthe
ThesteakhousemaybeAmerica’sgreatestsingleachievement.Sure,there’sthatConstitutioneveryone’ssoimpressedwith,andb
ThesteakhousemaybeAmerica’sgreatestsingleachievement.Sure,there’sthatConstitutioneveryone’ssoimpressedwith,andb
ThesteakhousemaybeAmerica’sgreatestsingleachievement.Sure,there’sthatConstitutioneveryone’ssoimpressedwith,andb
随机试题
近十余年来,从卵泡液中分离到三个多肽因子,根据其对FSH基因表达的不同作用分别命名为抑制素、激活素和卵泡抑素,对三者的结构与功能已进行了很多研究。关于抑制素表述不正确的是:
二尖瓣狭窄若瓣叶活动度好,无明显钙化,应首选的治疗方法为
一工厂工程师甲于2003年11月以非职务发明名义向中国专利局提出了ML—01型人体信息诊断仪的实用新型专利申请,该专利于2006年2月12日被批准并公告。2007年4月,该工厂就“诊断仪”的专利权归属问题向专利复审委员会请求宣告甲的专利权无效并要求专利局确
下列行为中,构成包庇罪的有哪些?
土钉墙施工时,垫板与喷混凝土面层间的空隙应用()填平。
个人理财中,收入可概括分为( )。
阅读材料,根据要求完成教学设计任务。材料一《义务教育物理课程标准(2011年版)》关于“电阻”的内容要求为:“知道电压、电流和电阻。”材料二义务教育九年级物理某版本教科书“电阻”一节,关于“比较小灯泡的亮度”的演示实验如图所示:材料三教
影响人际吸引和排斥的主要因素有()。
我国教育目的的具体基本层次包括()。
Firefightersaneoftenaskedtospeaktoschoolandcommunitygroupsabouttheimportanceoffinesafety,particularlyfireprev
最新回复
(
0
)