Read the following passage and choose the most likely answer to each of the following questions.
It was one of those days, an ordinary October day. I woke up weary and all of the routines of life were chores, the people in it irritants. I wasn't feeling any sense of gratitude for comfortable home or lovely family. I dropped my two older children at school with a sense of relief and reluctantly headed to the supermarket to buy groceries with my youngest.
I was feeling resentful at having to go in the first place (why do they have to eat?) and my son, just four years old at the time and responding to my mood, was being difficult. I raced around with the trolley, thoughtlessly tossing items in with no regard to cost, while trying to control my naughty child whose behavior had now become completely unacceptable. Yet, I was that mother, shouting, threatening, and despairing at a small child. The kind of behavior you see in others before you have children and think, I will never be one of those people.
We eventually made it to the checkout, and stood in the queue waiting our turn. After a short time, I noticed that someone had joined the line behind us. I turned around and saw an old man. He was stooped (驼背) over and wore a dirty overcoat, tied around the middle with rope. His shoes were split and his trousers flapped around sockless ankles on this cold, wet day. In his hands he carried a small carton of long-life milk.
As I had trolley full of groceries, I asked him if he'd like to go ahead of me. It wasn't an act of kindness on my part, rather an automatic reaction, deeply rooted in me since childhood from the times I went shopping with my mother. Perhaps I just did it out of a sense of obligation or guilt. Perhaps I just wanted him gone. After all, his presence made me uncomfortable, in the same way I feel uncomfortable and turn away my eyes when passing a homeless person.
He looked shocked and uncertain. "No, I couldn't possibly, are you sure? How kind of you,"he stuttered. Reluctantly he went ahead, paid for his milk, and took his change.
Then, to my amazement, he turned to my little boy and gently pressed the change into his hand. I protested that it wasn't necessary but he was insistent. And my son, who had up to this minute been a thorn in my side, smiled his most beautiful smile, looked at this stranger frankly, and without judgment or hesitation, bear-hugged him around his dirty legs. The man gave a sheepish, gummy smile, then walked off, turning again to say thank you and wave.
I wondered at his life and at his reaction. Was he so rarely shown any humanity? Did he feel he needed to pay for being acknowledged?
I felt shame at my earlier self-pity. This humble, kind stranger had made me resolve to be more thankful—and made my little angel skip out of the supermarket with joy.
I never saw the man again but I think about him often.
What did the writer mean by "my son...a thorn in my side" in Paragraph 6? ( )
A、
The boy was a rude child.
B、
The boy was a selfish kid.
C、
The boy was annoying her.
D、
The boy was threatening her.
【正确答案】：C
【题目解析】：
本题考查对划线短语的理解。
定位到第六段“And my son, who had up to this minute been a thorn in my side, smiled his most beautiful smile, looked at this stranger frankly, and without judgment or hesitation, bear-hugged him around his dirty legs.我那几分钟前还…的儿子，以最美的笑容直率地看着这位陌生人，毫不犹豫地抱住了他那脏兮兮的双腿。”此处对小儿子的刻画与前面作者对他大喊大叫、发脾气的场景形成对比，说明之前小儿子是把她惹恼了，故C选项“小男孩惹恼了她”符合题意。a thorn in one's side是固定搭配意为“某人的肉中刺”。