Question 19 is based on the passage you have just heard.

Passage Two

听力原文

    When I turned 12, I worked summers at my father’s small brick-cleaning business. I remember the harsh acid smell of the cleaning solution, and the scraping sound of stiff iron brushes against rough brick. It was tempting to hurry a job—just to finish. But (19) [anybody who worked for Thomas Kahoon had to meet his standards, and that included me. If I messed up, he made me stay late until I got it right. My father wasn’t being mean. He demanded the same of himself.] Every brick he cleaned on a house stood out like a red jewel in a white setting. It was his signature.

    In 1970, when I was 20, I got married and moved out my parents’ modest place into a housing project. (20) [Drugs and gang violence were just beginning to plague the projects.] Some of my friends went to jail. Some were killed. My wife Verllen was 18, and nobody gave our marriage a chance. But we believed in each other, and our faith made us strong. (21) [When we married, I worked as a stock clerk at Southwest Super Foods. It was hard, tedious work.] Each Friday night a truck came, with cases of food that had to be unloaded, priced and placed on shelves. Most of stock clerks tried to get Friday night off, but I was always ready to work. By Saturday morning, all the cans and jars in my aisle were placed with labels facing smartly out, like a line of soldiers on review. That was my signature. I took pride in a job nobody wanted.

19. What do we learn about the speaker’s father?

解析：C。录音中讲话者提到，为父亲工作的人都要达到他的标准，他并非刻薄（mean），他对自己的要求同样严格（demanded the same of himself），接着举了一个例子：自己的父亲清理过的房子上，每一块砖都像镶嵌在白墙上的红宝石一样夺目，由此可以看出，父亲在工作上十分严苛，因此C选项符合题意。

错项排除：录音开头虽然提到了harsh，但这里说的是清洗液的味道刺鼻，而且录音中表达的是父亲对待工作很严苛，并不是说他本人是一个严厉的人，故排除A选项。录音中说讲话者的父亲并非待人刻薄，因此B选项错误。录音中提到，如果讲话者把工作搞砸了，父亲会把他留到很晚（made me stay late），并没有说父亲会工作到很晚，故排除D项。