单选题
Chris Hrapko isn"t afraid of tough conversations. As the founder of a nonprofit social-service agency, she battles bureaucracies on behalf of the homeless and the working poor. But there is one conversation Hrapko avoided. When her 92-year-old mother fell and broke her hip earlier this year, Hrapko knew it would affect her independent mother"s living arrangements and health. But Hrapko, 51, was clueless about her mom"s wishes. "We talked about a lot of things," she says, "but we never talked about a future in which my mom faced a problem that could leave her disabled, bedridden or on life support. " A recent survey by AARP found that nearly 70 percent of adult children have not talked to their parents about issues related to aging. Some children avoid this most intimate of conversations because they believe their parents don"t want to talk. Others think they know what their parents want. And some simply don"t want to face the very real truth that if you are lucky enough to have parents who live well into their senior years, chances are good that disease, injury, frailty, even loneliness, will affect a parent"s well-being. While it"s clear that having a conversation with aging parents is important, there is no blueprint on how to do it well. What works for one family may not work for yours. The key is to be flexible, says Mary Anne Ehlert, founder of Chicago-based Protected Tomorrows, an advocacy firm for families with special needs. She has found that one of the best ways to get the conversational ball rolling is to talk about your parents" and what they would do if faced with a situation in which people they loved could no longer care for themselves. " Ask your parents for advice; seek their wisdom in helping you help them," Ehlert says. It"s also important for adults to be honest about what they are prepared to do for their parents. As parents age and become frail, many will need help with personal hygiene. It"s these kinds of issues that can make the most devoted child balk. "Before you agree to be a caregiver, make sure you understand what you may be in for," says Monika White, president-elect of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers. " Adult children need to acknowledge their own limitations and then be prepared to make some type of arrangement for the things they simply can"t do. " Realize that there is no such thing as one conversation about aging. " No one resolves the future in one afternoon of talk," says psychologist Brian Carpenter of Washington University in St. Louis. "It"s a process. " One strategy is to schedule time to talk about a specific subject, such as wills or living arrangements.
单选题
According to the first paragraph, Chris Hrapko______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】解析:推理判断题。文章第一段谈到Hrapko只避免一种谈话,后文开始描述她92岁高龄的母亲骨折的事情,以及之后的“We talked about a lot of things,”she says,“but wenever talked about a future in which my mom faced a problem that could leave her disabled,bedridden or on life support.”从此可以推断出Hrapko并没有和母亲进行过有关衰老的谈话。
单选题
Many adult children have not talked to their parents about aging not because______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】解析:事实细节题。由文章第二段中间的“…because they believe their parents don"t want totalk.Others think they know what their parents want.And some simply don"t want to facethe very real truth that…”可知成年子女只是想避免面对父母晚年会出现各种状况这一事实,而非他们的父母晚年已经出现问题,因此选C。
单选题
We can learn from paragraph 3 that______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】解析:事实细节题。由第三段最后一句“Ask your parents for advice;seek their wisdom in help—ing you help them,”Ehlert says.可知人们就父母晚年生活这个问题,需要询问父母的意见。因此选D.
单选题
The underlined word "balk"(Para. 4)most probably means______.
【答案解析】解析:原文第三段讲到与年迈的父母谈一谈是非常重要的,其中在最后一句“Ask your parents for advice;seek their wisdom in helping you help them”Mary Anne Ehlert表示在照顾年老的父母这一问题上,需要寻求父母的意见,因此选B。