This is from a high school English test in South Korea [closed]

Question

My dad worked very late hours as a musician ― until about three in the morning ― so he slept late on weekends. As a result, we didn’t have much of a relationship when I was young other than him constantly nagging me to take care of chores like mowing the lawn and cutting the hedges, which I hated. He was a responsible man dealing with an irresponsible kid. Memories of how we interacted seem funny to me today. For example, one time he told me to cut the grass and I decided to do just the front yard and postpone doing the back, but then it rained for a couple days and the backyard grass became so high I had to cut it with a sickle. That took so long that by the time I was finished, the front yard was too high to mow, and so on.

The question is “What is the writer’s feeling?”

I’m a Korean English private tutor. I want to get a lot of opinions about the correct answer from native speakers.

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

It seems to start out as resentful, as the author seems to be upset that his father did not spend a lot of "quality time" with him as a child. But the close of the paragraph seems more at nostalgic, where the author is neutrally reminiscing on his childhood.

resent verb re·sent | \ ri-ˈzent \ - to feel or express annoyance or ill will at

nostalgic adjective nos·tal·gic | \ nä-ˈstal-jik ,- longing for or thinking fondly of a past time or condition

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-- EDIT -- I know that I didn't choose any of the options, as I do not think they are any good T_T ! One could subjectively argue for any one of them, and while some are obviously not good choices (4), it isn't clear which one is good:

1- funny - the author is lamely chasing down grass as a mopey teenager (cue music)

2- gloomy - chasing down overgrown weeds could be an eerie parallel to the father chasing down his ambition, leaving two generations perpetually bound chasing their tails

3 - jealous - this one is less convincing, but jealous, more at: resentful

4 - nervous - this one really doesn't fit

5 - ashamed - the author is embarrassed at his seeming lack of competence/reassurance/validation during his youth

Answer 2

I will agree that none of the answers are especially good or bad, but my personal answer would go towards 5: Ashamed.

The primary reason is the sentence in the middle of the passage:

He was a responsible man dealing with an irresponsible kid.

The portion of the passage before this describes the speaker's reason for their lack of understanding their parent. The portion of the passage after this sentence describes a situation in which the speaker's lack of responsibility created a shameful situation (by virtue of it becoming unmanageable).

Again, and unfortunately, this is an opinion, because the truth is that it's completely subjective and the passage can be interpreted in many ways.

Answer 3

The key sentence is: "He was a responsible man dealing with an irresponsible kid." Then the writer tells a story when he didn't do what he should have. The right answer is #5-ashamed.