108 關務特考三等 機械工程 英文 考古題詳解

中譯英：請將下列中文句子譯成英文。

正如同被水包圍的魚不知道已全身濕透，被媒體包圍的大眾，他們對世界的看法不知不覺也被影響。

英文作文：

In a composition of no less than 200 words, name the most useful quality with which a millennial can thrive in the 21st century and offer your reasons why you think so.

Doctor Wong is promoted because he has done an excellent job of supervising the medical ____.

Without receiving final approval from its board of trustees, the university has ____ set its budget for the next academic year at NT$200 million.

After being interrogated by the police for two days, the suspect finally ____ to the crime.

It is believed that the ____ have been living on Austonesian (Southern Asian) Islands for thousands of years.

One of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s top officials arrived at the United States where he is expected to help ____ the groundwork for talks between Kim and US President in Singapore.

【題組共用題幹】

In 2010, a South Korean couple was ____ the murder of their daughter through neglect. When their daughter was born, she weighed 2.9 kilograms. Three months later, when she ____ , she weighed 2.4 kilograms. The strangest part was that the parents were playing a game for many hours each day in which they raised a ____ child online. Similarly, in 2014, a young South Korean man who spent much of his time in Internet Cafés was arrested after his two-year-old son starved to death. South Korea has seen exponential growth in computer and Internet use. This has caused many to worry that certain users are ____ unable to control how much time they spend on the Internet. They fear an epidemic of addiction to video game. South Korea is not ____: many other developed countries have also experienced huge growth in video games and Internet addiction.

6. In 2010, a South Korean couple was ____ the murder of their daughter through neglect.

【題組共用題幹】

In 2010, a South Korean couple was ____ the murder of their daughter through neglect. When their daughter was born, she weighed 2.9 kilograms. Three months later, when she ____ , she weighed 2.4 kilograms. The strangest part was that the parents were playing a game for many hours each day in which they raised a ____ child online. Similarly, in 2014, a young South Korean man who spent much of his time in Internet Cafés was arrested after his two-year-old son starved to death. South Korea has seen exponential growth in computer and Internet use. This has caused many to worry that certain users are ____ unable to control how much time they spend on the Internet. They fear an epidemic of addiction to video game. South Korea is not ____: many other developed countries have also experienced huge growth in video games and Internet addiction.

7. Three months later, when she ____ , she weighed 2.4 kilograms.

【題組共用題幹】

In 2010, a South Korean couple was ____ the murder of their daughter through neglect. When their daughter was born, she weighed 2.9 kilograms. Three months later, when she ____ , she weighed 2.4 kilograms. The strangest part was that the parents were playing a game for many hours each day in which they raised a ____ child online. Similarly, in 2014, a young South Korean man who spent much of his time in Internet Cafés was arrested after his two-year-old son starved to death. South Korea has seen exponential growth in computer and Internet use. This has caused many to worry that certain users are ____ unable to control how much time they spend on the Internet. They fear an epidemic of addiction to video game. South Korea is not ____: many other developed countries have also experienced huge growth in video games and Internet addiction.

8. The parents were playing a game for many hours each day in which they raised a ____ child online.

【題組共用題幹】

In 2010, a South Korean couple was ____ the murder of their daughter through neglect. When their daughter was born, she weighed 2.9 kilograms. Three months later, when she ____ , she weighed 2.4 kilograms. The strangest part was that the parents were playing a game for many hours each day in which they raised a ____ child online. Similarly, in 2014, a young South Korean man who spent much of his time in Internet Cafés was arrested after his two-year-old son starved to death. South Korea has seen exponential growth in computer and Internet use. This has caused many to worry that certain users are ____ unable to control how much time they spend on the Internet. They fear an epidemic of addiction to video game. South Korea is not ____: many other developed countries have also experienced huge growth in video games and Internet addiction.

9. This has caused many to worry that certain users are ____ unable to control how much time they spend on the Internet.

【題組共用題幹】

In 2010, a South Korean couple was ____ the murder of their daughter through neglect. When their daughter was born, she weighed 2.9 kilograms. Three months later, when she ____ , she weighed 2.4 kilograms. The strangest part was that the parents were playing a game for many hours each day in which they raised a ____ child online. Similarly, in 2014, a young South Korean man who spent much of his time in Internet Cafés was arrested after his two-year-old son starved to death. South Korea has seen exponential growth in computer and Internet use. This has caused many to worry that certain users are ____ unable to control how much time they spend on the Internet. They fear an epidemic of addiction to video game. South Korea is not ____: many other developed countries have also experienced huge growth in video games and Internet addiction.

10. South Korea is not ____: many other developed countries have also experienced huge growth in video games and Internet addiction.

【題組共用題幹】

Until the late 1700s, the economy of England was tightly controlled by the government, which limited the amount of interest that banks could charge, laid down rules about how employers should treat their workers, and set strict standards for how some products should be made. The government set up trade monopolies, giving certain companies the sole right to trade with certain parts of the world, like the English East India Company. ____ Then in the late 1700s, Adam Smith published a book called The Wealth of Nations, which advocated “laissez-faire,” meaning “to let alone” in French. ____ He said individuals should be let alone to make their own economic decisions—what products to make, how to make them, and what to charge for them. ____ People would be motivated by the opportunity to try new ideas and make more money. Society, as a result, would become wealthier.

After Smith’s book was published, the idea of laissez-faire became more and more popular. ____ The new freedom to invent and invest helped spur the Industrial Revolution, creating, as Adam Smith had predicted, vast new wealth.

But it also created the harsh conditions some employers maintained in the factories. These employers were believers in laissez-faire. ____ They say it was none of the government’s business how much their workers were paid or how many hours a day they worked. For obvious reasons, the idea of laissez-faire was more popular among employers than among their workers.

11. Which of the following sentences best fits the first blank?

【題組共用題幹】

Until the late 1700s, the economy of England was tightly controlled by the government, which limited the amount of interest that banks could charge, laid down rules about how employers should treat their workers, and set strict standards for how some products should be made. The government set up trade monopolies, giving certain companies the sole right to trade with certain parts of the world, like the English East India Company. ____ Then in the late 1700s, Adam Smith published a book called The Wealth of Nations, which advocated “laissez-faire,” meaning “to let alone” in French. ____ He said individuals should be let alone to make their own economic decisions—what products to make, how to make them, and what to charge for them. ____ People would be motivated by the opportunity to try new ideas and make more money. Society, as a result, would become wealthier.

After Smith’s book was published, the idea of laissez-faire became more and more popular. ____ The new freedom to invent and invest helped spur the Industrial Revolution, creating, as Adam Smith had predicted, vast new wealth.

But it also created the harsh conditions some employers maintained in the factories. These employers were believers in laissez-faire. ____ They say it was none of the government’s business how much their workers were paid or how many hours a day they worked. For obvious reasons, the idea of laissez-faire was more popular among employers than among their workers.

12. Which of the following sentences best fits the second blank?

【題組共用題幹】

Until the late 1700s, the economy of England was tightly controlled by the government, which limited the amount of interest that banks could charge, laid down rules about how employers should treat their workers, and set strict standards for how some products should be made. The government set up trade monopolies, giving certain companies the sole right to trade with certain parts of the world, like the English East India Company. ____ Then in the late 1700s, Adam Smith published a book called The Wealth of Nations, which advocated “laissez-faire,” meaning “to let alone” in French. ____ He said individuals should be let alone to make their own economic decisions—what products to make, how to make them, and what to charge for them. ____ People would be motivated by the opportunity to try new ideas and make more money. Society, as a result, would become wealthier.

After Smith’s book was published, the idea of laissez-faire became more and more popular. ____ The new freedom to invent and invest helped spur the Industrial Revolution, creating, as Adam Smith had predicted, vast new wealth.

But it also created the harsh conditions some employers maintained in the factories. These employers were believers in laissez-faire. ____ They say it was none of the government’s business how much their workers were paid or how many hours a day they worked. For obvious reasons, the idea of laissez-faire was more popular among employers than among their workers.

13. Which of the following sentences best fits the third blank?

【題組共用題幹】

Until the late 1700s, the economy of England was tightly controlled by the government, which limited the amount of interest that banks could charge, laid down rules about how employers should treat their workers, and set strict standards for how some products should be made. The government set up trade monopolies, giving certain companies the sole right to trade with certain parts of the world, like the English East India Company. ____ Then in the late 1700s, Adam Smith published a book called The Wealth of Nations, which advocated “laissez-faire,” meaning “to let alone” in French. ____ He said individuals should be let alone to make their own economic decisions—what products to make, how to make them, and what to charge for them. ____ People would be motivated by the opportunity to try new ideas and make more money. Society, as a result, would become wealthier.

After Smith’s book was published, the idea of laissez-faire became more and more popular. ____ The new freedom to invent and invest helped spur the Industrial Revolution, creating, as Adam Smith had predicted, vast new wealth.

But it also created the harsh conditions some employers maintained in the factories. These employers were believers in laissez-faire. ____ They say it was none of the government’s business how much their workers were paid or how many hours a day they worked. For obvious reasons, the idea of laissez-faire was more popular among employers than among their workers.

14. Which of the following sentences best fits the fourth blank?

【題組共用題幹】

Until the late 1700s, the economy of England was tightly controlled by the government, which limited the amount of interest that banks could charge, laid down rules about how employers should treat their workers, and set strict standards for how some products should be made. The government set up trade monopolies, giving certain companies the sole right to trade with certain parts of the world, like the English East India Company. ____ Then in the late 1700s, Adam Smith published a book called The Wealth of Nations, which advocated “laissez-faire,” meaning “to let alone” in French. ____ He said individuals should be let alone to make their own economic decisions—what products to make, how to make them, and what to charge for them. ____ People would be motivated by the opportunity to try new ideas and make more money. Society, as a result, would become wealthier.

After Smith’s book was published, the idea of laissez-faire became more and more popular. ____ The new freedom to invent and invest helped spur the Industrial Revolution, creating, as Adam Smith had predicted, vast new wealth.

But it also created the harsh conditions some employers maintained in the factories. These employers were believers in laissez-faire. ____ They say it was none of the government’s business how much their workers were paid or how many hours a day they worked. For obvious reasons, the idea of laissez-faire was more popular among employers than among their workers.

15. Which of the following sentences best fits the fifth blank?

【題組共用題幹】

Just as a passport represents national sovereignty—it is one of the defining categories of a claim to statehood—so harmonizing passports is a sign of cooperation. That can be a slow process. It took the nine members of the-then European Community (now the 27-strong European Union) years to settle on the color of the passport cover that its member states now share. In 1976, a year after a uniform passport was first proposed, Britain shuddered at the suggested shade of delicate lilac. Diplomats then spent four years dismissing maroon and then purple before reaching a wine-colored consensus in 1981.

America’s first passport cover, in 1918, was beige, going green three years later. It changed to various shades of red in 1926 and back to green in 1941. Only on the bicentennial in 1976 did it turn blue, matching the shade in the American flag.

The common color was supposed to make European passports instantly recognizable. But since colors cannot be patented, nothing stops others with the same idea. Some countries that hoped to join the EU quickly adopted the right color of passport as a branding exercise. In South America the Andean Community, which once had EU-like aspirations, also favors wine-colored passports. Mercosur and Caricom, two other regional groupings, favor an American-style dark blue.

Countries commonly pick colors that reflect their culture or religion, says Claire Burrows of De La Rue, a British company that has been making passports since 1915. Islamic countries often have green passport covers (though Germany’s passport used to be that color, as are those of members of the Economic Community of West African States). According to Bill Waldron of Holliston, a Tennessee-based firm that prints documents for 65 of the world’s 249 passport-issuing entities, darker colors are popular because they show dirt less, heighten the contrast with the crest and look more official—much as police wear dark uniforms.

Interpol—one of a handful of international organizations with passport-issuing powers—provides evidence for that theory: its new travel document is black. The UN’s passport, like the helmets of its peacekeeping force, is a pacific blue.

Fun-colored passports exist too. But they can sometimes seem a punishment: Sweden and the Netherlands issue emergency travel documents for nationals who have lost their passports. They are pink.

16. According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?

【題組共用題幹】

Just as a passport represents national sovereignty—it is one of the defining categories of a claim to statehood—so harmonizing passports is a sign of cooperation. That can be a slow process. It took the nine members of the-then European Community (now the 27-strong European Union) years to settle on the color of the passport cover that its member states now share. In 1976, a year after a uniform passport was first proposed, Britain shuddered at the suggested shade of delicate lilac. Diplomats then spent four years dismissing maroon and then purple before reaching a wine-colored consensus in 1981.

America’s first passport cover, in 1918, was beige, going green three years later. It changed to various shades of red in 1926 and back to green in 1941. Only on the bicentennial in 1976 did it turn blue, matching the shade in the American flag.

The common color was supposed to make European passports instantly recognizable. But since colors cannot be patented, nothing stops others with the same idea. Some countries that hoped to join the EU quickly adopted the right color of passport as a branding exercise. In South America the Andean Community, which once had EU-like aspirations, also favors wine-colored passports. Mercosur and Caricom, two other regional groupings, favor an American-style dark blue.

Countries commonly pick colors that reflect their culture or religion, says Claire Burrows of De La Rue, a British company that has been making passports since 1915. Islamic countries often have green passport covers (though Germany’s passport used to be that color, as are those of members of the Economic Community of West African States). According to Bill Waldron of Holliston, a Tennessee-based firm that prints documents for 65 of the world’s 249 passport-issuing entities, darker colors are popular because they show dirt less, heighten the contrast with the crest and look more official—much as police wear dark uniforms.

Interpol—one of a handful of international organizations with passport-issuing powers—provides evidence for that theory: its new travel document is black. The UN’s passport, like the helmets of its peacekeeping force, is a pacific blue.

Fun-colored passports exist too. But they can sometimes seem a punishment: Sweden and the Netherlands issue emergency travel documents for nationals who have lost their passports. They are pink.

17. Which of the following countries use the same color for their passports?

【題組共用題幹】

Just as a passport represents national sovereignty—it is one of the defining categories of a claim to statehood—so harmonizing passports is a sign of cooperation. That can be a slow process. It took the nine members of the-then European Community (now the 27-strong European Union) years to settle on the color of the passport cover that its member states now share. In 1976, a year after a uniform passport was first proposed, Britain shuddered at the suggested shade of delicate lilac. Diplomats then spent four years dismissing maroon and then purple before reaching a wine-colored consensus in 1981.

America’s first passport cover, in 1918, was beige, going green three years later. It changed to various shades of red in 1926 and back to green in 1941. Only on the bicentennial in 1976 did it turn blue, matching the shade in the American flag.

The common color was supposed to make European passports instantly recognizable. But since colors cannot be patented, nothing stops others with the same idea. Some countries that hoped to join the EU quickly adopted the right color of passport as a branding exercise. In South America the Andean Community, which once had EU-like aspirations, also favors wine-colored passports. Mercosur and Caricom, two other regional groupings, favor an American-style dark blue.

Countries commonly pick colors that reflect their culture or religion, says Claire Burrows of De La Rue, a British company that has been making passports since 1915. Islamic countries often have green passport covers (though Germany’s passport used to be that color, as are those of members of the Economic Community of West African States). According to Bill Waldron of Holliston, a Tennessee-based firm that prints documents for 65 of the world’s 249 passport-issuing entities, darker colors are popular because they show dirt less, heighten the contrast with the crest and look more official—much as police wear dark uniforms.

Interpol—one of a handful of international organizations with passport-issuing powers—provides evidence for that theory: its new travel document is black. The UN’s passport, like the helmets of its peacekeeping force, is a pacific blue.

Fun-colored passports exist too. But they can sometimes seem a punishment: Sweden and the Netherlands issue emergency travel documents for nationals who have lost their passports. They are pink.

18. Which of the following about the meanings of passport colors is NOT mentioned in the passage?

【題組共用題幹】

Just as a passport represents national sovereignty—it is one of the defining categories of a claim to statehood—so harmonizing passports is a sign of cooperation. That can be a slow process. It took the nine members of the-then European Community (now the 27-strong European Union) years to settle on the color of the passport cover that its member states now share. In 1976, a year after a uniform passport was first proposed, Britain shuddered at the suggested shade of delicate lilac. Diplomats then spent four years dismissing maroon and then purple before reaching a wine-colored consensus in 1981.

America’s first passport cover, in 1918, was beige, going green three years later. It changed to various shades of red in 1926 and back to green in 1941. Only on the bicentennial in 1976 did it turn blue, matching the shade in the American flag.

The common color was supposed to make European passports instantly recognizable. But since colors cannot be patented, nothing stops others with the same idea. Some countries that hoped to join the EU quickly adopted the right color of passport as a branding exercise. In South America the Andean Community, which once had EU-like aspirations, also favors wine-colored passports. Mercosur and Caricom, two other regional groupings, favor an American-style dark blue.

Countries commonly pick colors that reflect their culture or religion, says Claire Burrows of De La Rue, a British company that has been making passports since 1915. Islamic countries often have green passport covers (though Germany’s passport used to be that color, as are those of members of the Economic Community of West African States). According to Bill Waldron of Holliston, a Tennessee-based firm that prints documents for 65 of the world’s 249 passport-issuing entities, darker colors are popular because they show dirt less, heighten the contrast with the crest and look more official—much as police wear dark uniforms.

Interpol—one of a handful of international organizations with passport-issuing powers—provides evidence for that theory: its new travel document is black. The UN’s passport, like the helmets of its peacekeeping force, is a pacific blue.

Fun-colored passports exist too. But they can sometimes seem a punishment: Sweden and the Netherlands issue emergency travel documents for nationals who have lost their passports. They are pink.

19. According to the passage, why do passports normally come in dark shades?

【題組共用題幹】

Just as a passport represents national sovereignty—it is one of the defining categories of a claim to statehood—so harmonizing passports is a sign of cooperation. That can be a slow process. It took the nine members of the-then European Community (now the 27-strong European Union) years to settle on the color of the passport cover that its member states now share. In 1976, a year after a uniform passport was first proposed, Britain shuddered at the suggested shade of delicate lilac. Diplomats then spent four years dismissing maroon and then purple before reaching a wine-colored consensus in 1981.

America’s first passport cover, in 1918, was beige, going green three years later. It changed to various shades of red in 1926 and back to green in 1941. Only on the bicentennial in 1976 did it turn blue, matching the shade in the American flag.

The common color was supposed to make European passports instantly recognizable. But since colors cannot be patented, nothing stops others with the same idea. Some countries that hoped to join the EU quickly adopted the right color of passport as a branding exercise. In South America the Andean Community, which once had EU-like aspirations, also favors wine-colored passports. Mercosur and Caricom, two other regional groupings, favor an American-style dark blue.

Countries commonly pick colors that reflect their culture or religion, says Claire Burrows of De La Rue, a British company that has been making passports since 1915. Islamic countries often have green passport covers (though Germany’s passport used to be that color, as are those of members of the Economic Community of West African States). According to Bill Waldron of Holliston, a Tennessee-based firm that prints documents for 65 of the world’s 249 passport-issuing entities, darker colors are popular because they show dirt less, heighten the contrast with the crest and look more official—much as police wear dark uniforms.

Interpol—one of a handful of international organizations with passport-issuing powers—provides evidence for that theory: its new travel document is black. The UN’s passport, like the helmets of its peacekeeping force, is a pacific blue.

Fun-colored passports exist too. But they can sometimes seem a punishment: Sweden and the Netherlands issue emergency travel documents for nationals who have lost their passports. They are pink.

20. What does the word “Interpol” possibly refer to?

【題組共用題幹】

When contemporary women writers write about mother-daughter relationships, they often put an emphasis on forging a connection between them. In their writing, even though mothers and daughters do have ambivalence toward each other, they are often capable of resolving this problem and finally recognizing their bond as mothers and daughters. Yet, when it comes to writing about mother-son relationships, it becomes a completely different story. Most women writers stress the alienation between mothers and sons owing to the fact that they are of different gender. Therefore, when women writers write about their experiences of raising sons, they usually find themselves crossing over into a different territory. Feelings of apprehension and distress arise when mothers discover to their astonishment that their sons have become a total stranger to them especially when the sons have stepped into adulthood. In addition, since mothers are constrained by the society at large to avoid being too close to their sons in fear that they might smother their sons, contemporary women writers have depicted mostly the separation between them but have also unveiled how mothers come to terms with this separation from their sons.

Take the two contemporary novels, Margaret Forster’s Mothers’ Boys and Rosellen Brown’s Before and After, as examples. With a common theme on mother-son relationships, both novels portray a similar incident of a son who is suspected of committing a murder and how this unexpected event has profoundly harmed the mother-son relationships. Coincidently, both novels have an identical scene with a mother-son encounter in a juvenile prison. In this confrontation between mothers and sons, mothers have to their bewilderment come to realize that their sons have become unknown to them. And as these mother-son narratives continue to develop, the mothers and sons in these novels finally separate from each other. The only difference between these novels is their contrast in treating the mother-son relationship. Forster presents the mother as the one who takes up her traditional role by accepting passively this separation from son and waiting patiently until the son returns one day whereas Brown describes a mother who exercises her agency and power to deal with her son’s act of crime. Later, she not only fulfills her social responsibility as a mother but also decides her way of handling the mother-son separation. Despite that the two texts illustrate two conflicting ways of reading and writing mother-son relationships, they also inform us that there exists a powerful reading and writing against the grain.

21. Which field of study is most closely related to this passage?

【題組共用題幹】

When contemporary women writers write about mother-daughter relationships, they often put an emphasis on forging a connection between them. In their writing, even though mothers and daughters do have ambivalence toward each other, they are often capable of resolving this problem and finally recognizing their bond as mothers and daughters. Yet, when it comes to writing about mother-son relationships, it becomes a completely different story. Most women writers stress the alienation between mothers and sons owing to the fact that they are of different gender. Therefore, when women writers write about their experiences of raising sons, they usually find themselves crossing over into a different territory. Feelings of apprehension and distress arise when mothers discover to their astonishment that their sons have become a total stranger to them especially when the sons have stepped into adulthood. In addition, since mothers are constrained by the society at large to avoid being too close to their sons in fear that they might smother their sons, contemporary women writers have depicted mostly the separation between them but have also unveiled how mothers come to terms with this separation from their sons.

Take the two contemporary novels, Margaret Forster’s Mothers’ Boys and Rosellen Brown’s Before and After, as examples. With a common theme on mother-son relationships, both novels portray a similar incident of a son who is suspected of committing a murder and how this unexpected event has profoundly harmed the mother-son relationships. Coincidently, both novels have an identical scene with a mother-son encounter in a juvenile prison. In this confrontation between mothers and sons, mothers have to their bewilderment come to realize that their sons have become unknown to them. And as these mother-son narratives continue to develop, the mothers and sons in these novels finally separate from each other. The only difference between these novels is their contrast in treating the mother-son relationship. Forster presents the mother as the one who takes up her traditional role by accepting passively this separation from son and waiting patiently until the son returns one day whereas Brown describes a mother who exercises her agency and power to deal with her son’s act of crime. Later, she not only fulfills her social responsibility as a mother but also decides her way of handling the mother-son separation. Despite that the two texts illustrate two conflicting ways of reading and writing mother-son relationships, they also inform us that there exists a powerful reading and writing against the grain.

22. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true about the mother-son relationship?

【題組共用題幹】

When contemporary women writers write about mother-daughter relationships, they often put an emphasis on forging a connection between them. In their writing, even though mothers and daughters do have ambivalence toward each other, they are often capable of resolving this problem and finally recognizing their bond as mothers and daughters. Yet, when it comes to writing about mother-son relationships, it becomes a completely different story. Most women writers stress the alienation between mothers and sons owing to the fact that they are of different gender. Therefore, when women writers write about their experiences of raising sons, they usually find themselves crossing over into a different territory. Feelings of apprehension and distress arise when mothers discover to their astonishment that their sons have become a total stranger to them especially when the sons have stepped into adulthood. In addition, since mothers are constrained by the society at large to avoid being too close to their sons in fear that they might smother their sons, contemporary women writers have depicted mostly the separation between them but have also unveiled how mothers come to terms with this separation from their sons.

Take the two contemporary novels, Margaret Forster’s Mothers’ Boys and Rosellen Brown’s Before and After, as examples. With a common theme on mother-son relationships, both novels portray a similar incident of a son who is suspected of committing a murder and how this unexpected event has profoundly harmed the mother-son relationships. Coincidently, both novels have an identical scene with a mother-son encounter in a juvenile prison. In this confrontation between mothers and sons, mothers have to their bewilderment come to realize that their sons have become unknown to them. And as these mother-son narratives continue to develop, the mothers and sons in these novels finally separate from each other. The only difference between these novels is their contrast in treating the mother-son relationship. Forster presents the mother as the one who takes up her traditional role by accepting passively this separation from son and waiting patiently until the son returns one day whereas Brown describes a mother who exercises her agency and power to deal with her son’s act of crime. Later, she not only fulfills her social responsibility as a mother but also decides her way of handling the mother-son separation. Despite that the two texts illustrate two conflicting ways of reading and writing mother-son relationships, they also inform us that there exists a powerful reading and writing against the grain.

23. Why is the mother-son separation a prevailing theme in contemporary women’s writing?

【題組共用題幹】

When contemporary women writers write about mother-daughter relationships, they often put an emphasis on forging a connection between them. In their writing, even though mothers and daughters do have ambivalence toward each other, they are often capable of resolving this problem and finally recognizing their bond as mothers and daughters. Yet, when it comes to writing about mother-son relationships, it becomes a completely different story. Most women writers stress the alienation between mothers and sons owing to the fact that they are of different gender. Therefore, when women writers write about their experiences of raising sons, they usually find themselves crossing over into a different territory. Feelings of apprehension and distress arise when mothers discover to their astonishment that their sons have become a total stranger to them especially when the sons have stepped into adulthood. In addition, since mothers are constrained by the society at large to avoid being too close to their sons in fear that they might smother their sons, contemporary women writers have depicted mostly the separation between them but have also unveiled how mothers come to terms with this separation from their sons.

Take the two contemporary novels, Margaret Forster’s Mothers’ Boys and Rosellen Brown’s Before and After, as examples. With a common theme on mother-son relationships, both novels portray a similar incident of a son who is suspected of committing a murder and how this unexpected event has profoundly harmed the mother-son relationships. Coincidently, both novels have an identical scene with a mother-son encounter in a juvenile prison. In this confrontation between mothers and sons, mothers have to their bewilderment come to realize that their sons have become unknown to them. And as these mother-son narratives continue to develop, the mothers and sons in these novels finally separate from each other. The only difference between these novels is their contrast in treating the mother-son relationship. Forster presents the mother as the one who takes up her traditional role by accepting passively this separation from son and waiting patiently until the son returns one day whereas Brown describes a mother who exercises her agency and power to deal with her son’s act of crime. Later, she not only fulfills her social responsibility as a mother but also decides her way of handling the mother-son separation. Despite that the two texts illustrate two conflicting ways of reading and writing mother-son relationships, they also inform us that there exists a powerful reading and writing against the grain.

24. How does Brown portray a mother who seems to be more compelling than that of Forster?

【題組共用題幹】

When contemporary women writers write about mother-daughter relationships, they often put an emphasis on forging a connection between them. In their writing, even though mothers and daughters do have ambivalence toward each other, they are often capable of resolving this problem and finally recognizing their bond as mothers and daughters. Yet, when it comes to writing about mother-son relationships, it becomes a completely different story. Most women writers stress the alienation between mothers and sons owing to the fact that they are of different gender. Therefore, when women writers write about their experiences of raising sons, they usually find themselves crossing over into a different territory. Feelings of apprehension and distress arise when mothers discover to their astonishment that their sons have become a total stranger to them especially when the sons have stepped into adulthood. In addition, since mothers are constrained by the society at large to avoid being too close to their sons in fear that they might smother their sons, contemporary women writers have depicted mostly the separation between them but have also unveiled how mothers come to terms with this separation from their sons.

Take the two contemporary novels, Margaret Forster’s Mothers’ Boys and Rosellen Brown’s Before and After, as examples. With a common theme on mother-son relationships, both novels portray a similar incident of a son who is suspected of committing a murder and how this unexpected event has profoundly harmed the mother-son relationships. Coincidently, both novels have an identical scene with a mother-son encounter in a juvenile prison. In this confrontation between mothers and sons, mothers have to their bewilderment come to realize that their sons have become unknown to them. And as these mother-son narratives continue to develop, the mothers and sons in these novels finally separate from each other. The only difference between these novels is their contrast in treating the mother-son relationship. Forster presents the mother as the one who takes up her traditional role by accepting passively this separation from son and waiting patiently until the son returns one day whereas Brown describes a mother who exercises her agency and power to deal with her son’s act of crime. Later, she not only fulfills her social responsibility as a mother but also decides her way of handling the mother-son separation. Despite that the two texts illustrate two conflicting ways of reading and writing mother-son relationships, they also inform us that there exists a powerful reading and writing against the grain.

25. What is the actual meaning of the concluding sentence, “there exists a powerful reading and writing against the grain”?