14
第6問 次の文章を読み、下の問いに答えよ。
標準解答時間 9分
depressed. It was not the exam that made her feel that
Christine came out of her last examination, feeling
way, but the fact that it was the last one; it meant the
end of the school year. She dropped in at the coffee
5 as usual, then went home early because there didn't
10
seem to be anything else to do.
shop
"Is that you, dear?" her mother called from the living
room. She must have heard the front door close. Christine
went in and sat on the sofa.
"How was your exam, dear?" her mother asked.
"Fine," said Christine flatly. It had been fine; she had
passed. She was not a brilliant student, she knew, but she
was hard-working. Her professors always wrote things
like "A serious attempt" and "Well thought out but
15 perhaps lacking in energy" on her term papers; they
gave her Bs, the occasional B*. She was taking Political
Science and Economics, and hoped to get a job with the
government after she graduated; with her father's
connections she had a good chance.
20 "That's nice."
Christine felt, bitterly, that her mother had only a
vague idea of what an exam was. She was arranging
roses in a vase; she had rubber gloves on to protect her
hands as she always did when engaged in what she
25 called 'housework.' As far as Christine could tell, her
housework consisted of arranging flowers in vases.
Sometimes she cooked elegantly, but she thought of it as
a hobby. It was hard, anyway, to argue with her mother.
She was so easily upset that it was better to avoid
30 arguing with her.
