Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end, in your own words.
My father was back in work within days of his return home. He had a spell in the shipyard, where the last of the great Belfast liners, the CANBERRA, was under construction, and then moved to an electronics firm in the east of the city. (These were the days when computers were the size of small houses and were built by sheet metal workers). A short time after he started in this job, one of his colleagues was sacked for taking off time to get married. The workforce went on strike to get the colleague reinstated. The dispute, dubbed the Honeymoon Strike, made the Belfast papers. My mother told me not long ago that she and my father, with four young sons, were hit so hard by that strike, that for years afterwards they were financially speaking, running to stand still. I don't know how the strike ended, but whether or not the colleague got his old job back, he was soon in another, better one. I remember visiting him and his wife when I was still quite young, in their new bungalow in Belfast northern suburbs. I believe they left Belfast soon after the Troubles began.
My father then was thirty-seven, the age I am today. My Father and I are father and son, which is to say we are close without knowing very much about one another. We talk about events, rather than emotions. We keep from each other certain of our hopes and fears and doubts. I have never for instance asked my father whether he has dwelt on the direction his life might have taken if at certain moments he had made certain other choices. Whatever, he found himself, with a million and a half of his fellows, living in what was in all but name a civil war. As a grown up I try often to imagine what it must be like to be faced with such a situation. What, in the previous course of your life, prepares you for arriving, as my father did, at the scene of a bomb blast close to your brother's place of work and seeing what you suppose, from the colour of the hair, to be your brother lying in the road, only to find that you are cradling the remains of a woman?

1. From your reading of the passage what do you infer about the nature of the 'Troubles" the writer mentions.
From the passage, it is inferred that the "Troubles" were a period of civil unrest or war in Belfast, the city where the writer's family lived.

2. What according to the writer were the working conditions in the Electronics firm where his father worked?
The working conditions in the Electronics firm, where his father worked, were very harsh. Leaves for employees, even for genuine reasons, were out of the question. The computers at that time were built manually by the workers. So, presence of each worker was mandatory to ensure the smooth production of Belfast liners.

3. Why was his father's colleague sacked?
The writer's father's colleague was sacked for taking time off to get married.

4. How does the writer show that as father and son they do not know much about each other?
The writer shows that he and his father are close but don't know much about each other by saying that they talk about events rather than emotions and that they keep certain hopes, fears, and doubts from each other.

5. Explain the underlined words/phrases in the passage:

• Made the Belfast papers - means that the strike was reported in the local news.
• had a spell - means that the father worked for a period of time.
• dubbed - means that the dispute was given a nickname, in this case, the "Honeymoon Strike."
• was sacked - means that the colleague was fired from his job.
• hit hard - means that the strike had a significant negative impact on the writer's family's finances.