I was part of a typical black family. My parents were strict with us. The traditional and most important essence of life was obtaining a good education, which to the black immigrants was the key to success, a way out of the ruck. Most parents dreamed of their offspring becoming lawyers, doctors, teachers - professions they thought that schooling could provide. It was a perfectly natural point of view. My parents, like thousands of other black people, had scrimped and scraped and saved for years to ensure that we had a better life. The jobs they had when they came to Britain were menial, jobs that nobody else would deign to do. They did all that so that we would have better opportunities, and they expected us to grab them when they came along. Dad always said that he wanted me to seize all the opportunities he had missed. I suppose that I shall say the same thing to my family when the time comes. Even over ten generations, the same story will be repeated.
Sport didn’t have any priority at all in this kind of philosophy; with Mum and Dad it was way down low on the list. One day I came home from training and Mum asked, “How much do they pay you for all this running?”
I laughed. “You go because you enjoy it,” I replied.
“You mean to say that you go out in all weathers - hail, rain, snow, sunshine - and run up and down for nothing?”
I said, “That’s how it goes, Mum.”
She was totally nonplussed.
3. The writer implies that his parents’ attitude to education
A is a bit less common now than it was then.
B was something that put pressure on him.
C was unique to black people in Britain.
D resulted from mistakes they felt they had made.
4.Which of these words suggests criticism on the part of the writer?