Passage one
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
Too many vulnerable child-free adults are being ruthlessly(无情的) manipulated into parenthood by their parents, who think that happiness among older people depends on having a grandchild to spoil. We need an organization to help beat down the persistent campaigns of grandchildless parents. It‘s time to establish Planned Grandparenthood, which would have many global and local benefits.
Part of its mission would be to promote the risks and realities associated with being a grandparent. The staff would include depressed grandparents who would explain how grandkids break lamps, bite, scream and kick. Others would detail how an hour of baby-sitting often turns into a crying marathon. More grandparents would testify that they had to pay for their grandchild‘s expensive college education.
Planned grandparenthood‘s carefully written literature would detail all the joys of life grandchild-free: a calm living room, extra money for luxuries during the golden years, etc. Potential grandparents would be reminded that, without grandchildren around, it’s possible to have a conversation with your kids, who — incidentally — would have more time for their own parents.
Meanwhile, most children are vulnerable to the enormous influence exerted by grandchildless parents aiming to persuade their kids to produce children . They will take a call from a persistent parent, even if they‘re loaded with work. In addition, some parents make handsome money offers payable upon the grandchild’s birth. Sometimes these gifts not only cover expenses associated with the infant‘s birth, but extras, too, like a vacation. In any case, cash gifts can weaken the resolve of even the noblest person.
At Planned Grandparenthood, children targeted by their parents to reproduce could obtain non-biased information about the insanity of having their own kids. The catastrophic psychological and economic costs of childbearing would be emphasized. The symptoms of morning sickness would be listed and horrors of childbirth pictured. A monthly newsletter would contain stories about overwhelmed parents and offer guidance on how childless adults can respond to the different lobbying tactics that would-be grandparents employ.
When I think about all the problems of our overpopulated world and look at our boy grabbing at the lamp by the sofa, I wish I could have turned to Planned Grandparenthood when my parents were putting the grandchild squeeze on me.
If I could have, I might not be in this parenthood predicament(窘境). But here‘s the crazy irony, I don’t want my child-free life back. Dylan‘s too much fun.
文章的出处：
BY ALL ACCOUNTS, high-paid Washington lobbyists are tough and sneaky, but they‘re nothing compared with aging parents whose mission in life is to become grandparents. I know. I’ve got a 1-year-old son destroying our living room to prove it. Dylan was born after our parents‘ unrelenting campaign to have grandchildren eclipsed our better judgment not to have kids at all. Lobbying pressure from Mom and Dad tipped our scales toward reproduction—and away from a child-free future.
Too many vulnerable child-free adults are being ruthlessly manipulated into parenthood by their parents, who think that happiness among older people depends on having a grandchild to spoil. We need an organization to help beat down the persistent campaigns of grandchildless parents. It‘s time to establish Planned Grandparenthood. Such an organization would have many global and local benefits.
Part of its mission would be to promote the risks and realities associated with being a grandparent. The staff would include depressed grandparents who would explain how grandkids break lamps, pee in light sockets, punch, bite, scream and kick. Others would detail how an hour of baby-sitting often turns into a crying marathon. More grandparents would testify that, due to their children‘s foolish investment schemes, they had to pay for their grandchild’s pricey college education, destroying plans for a fantasy cruise in the South Pacific.
Planned Grandparenthood would publicize statistics on the average number of diapers changed by grandparents, the number of carpet stains grandchildren cause and the little ones‘ average decibel noise level. Lengthy fact sheets would outline the viruses grandchildren pass on to grandparents—sicknesses that could cause severe complications for older people—and the health benefits from avoiding direct contact with children, who constantly contract disease from sc
上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] ... 下一页 >>