Unit 8 Paraphrase Flashcards
She gazed at this improbably overgrown figure out of an inconceivable future and promptly dismissed it.
She could not conceive of the future when here little Russell would be that tall and big. Therefore she immediately put that thought out of her mind.
That day she was a young country wife in the backyard with a view of hazy blue Virginia mountains behind the apple orchard, and I was a stranger old enough to be her father.
That day she was a young country wife in the backyard behind the apple orchard, from which she could see the hazy blue Virginia mountains. She could not associate this stranger old enough to be father with her son who was only as tall as two feet from the floor at that time.
Life was combat, and victory was not to the lazy, the timid, the drugstore cowboy, the mush-mouth afraid to tell people exactly what was on his mind.
In the days of the author’s mother, the Puritan work ethic was still very strong. Life was a struggle, a fight. Work had its moral value. People worked hard for salvation and the glory of God. Therefore the lazy, the loafers, and those who lack courage and those who afraid to speak their mind don’t deserve the taste of victory.
As I sat by her bed, my impulse was to argue her back to reality
As I sat by her bed, I suddenly had a strong urge to talk some sense into her, so she would stop imagining things and face the fact that I had already grown up.
For ten years or more the ferocity with which she had once attacked life had been turning to a rage against the weakness, the boredom, and the absence of love that too much age had brought her.
Throughout her life, Russell Baker’s mother had fiercely fought numerous difficulties she encountered. About ten years or more ago, she began to suffer physical and psychological problems of aging, which she couldn’t tackle, and she became angry with this situation.
This one was written out of a childish faith in the eternal strength of parents, a naïve belief that age and wear could be overcome by an effort of will, that all she needed was a good pep talk to recharge a flagging spirit.
I wrote this letter naïvely believing that parents’ strength would never drain away, and aging as well as declining health could be overcome by a strong will, and that words of encouragement would fill a tired and weak person with strength and energy again.]
If a parent does lift the curtain a bit, it is often only to stun the young with some exemplary tale of how much harder life was in the old days.
If a parent does tell his children a little bit about the past, he/she will usually just say how much harder life was in the old days.
There had always been a fierceness in her. It showed in that angry challenging thrust of the chin when she issues an opinion, and a great one she had always been for issuing opinions.
She had always been doing things determinedly and with great effort. This character trait was shown when she expressed an opinion. She would stick out her chin angrily and aggressively. She was also a person who had always been never afraid of speaking her mind.
