1.the expressions that show the author s attitude toward life before the rainy day .
2.the expressions that show the author s attitude toward the old blind man at first .
3.the expressions that indicate the change of the author s attitude toward the old blind man after he heard something from the little girl .
4.the expressions that show the author s attitude toward life after the rainy day .
Text B
Biological Stress
No part of life is without its conflicts and shifting dependencies.But in our culture, certain stages of life have been singled out as being particularly stressful: adolescence, middle age and old age .
Each stage of a person s life has its peculiar demands.The extent to which we are capable of meeting those demands determines how stressful that period of life might be.Some people can meet the demands of adolescence very well;others struggle.For some, young adulthood is a terrible time; for others,middle age is the problem .
Adolescence is the time of creating one s self.Adults play a major role in making children s life choices and directing their actions.As adolescents,individuals assume many of those roles for themselves.When the adolescent searches within and without for a personal identity, filial loyalty must necessarily come into conflict with the growing sense of self .
In the more industrialized nations, where preparing for the adult role also entails preparing for an occupation, this conflict is prolonged .This preparation delays the adolescent s entry into the adult world of work and, consequently,postpones the time of self-support for the adolescent , whose self-esteem depends on this autonomy .
Middle age is no less a time of stress and strain .
For the adolescent , many of the stressors are biological .Hormones begin to flow that physically change the person.For the middle-aged person , on the other hand, the stresses,primarily psychological and situational .
Biology is a less potent stressor than psychology in middle age .When it becomes impossible to deny mortality, many of the habitual, psychological defenses begin to crumble.The result is emotional distress - the stress of arriving at a realistic acceptance of human chronology .
Middle age is also a time of intense economic pressure, especially for people with growing families.Yet while the economic demands are growing,resources are constricting.Middle-aged persons have reached the peak of their earning powers .They have a harder time finding new employment than young people .
Social pressures increase, too.The middle-aged person is expected to take on a wide range of social and community responsibilities .Social roles become relatively fixed.Vocation is already chosen, living arrangements are firmly established, talents and personal resources,already well-explored and exploited .
Middle age is often seen as a time of diminishing options .
