Data show an increase in anti-Asian hate during the pandemic. But the numbers are likely a small fraction of actual incidents.
The event that allowed Collins to pursue her career dreams was
Soon before she finished college, the Air Force started training female pilots.
Explanation:
The space exploration program had been going on for a long time and the man had been to the moon before the NASA thought of training and sending women to the space too.
This changed by the time that Collins graduated which was lucky for her as if it did not happen she would have had to choose a career different from her dreams.
She was chosen for the training program recently started after she graduated and then became one of the contenders for the mission.
The speaker seems to not be too pleased with the characteristics of the woman he is describing. He's saying her eyes are dull compared to the brightness of the sun, her lips are drab and have no color compared to red coral, her breasts are dun, her hair looks like wires coming out of her head, her breath stinks and that her cheeks have no color and are plain. I suppose in spite of all that he finds unpleasant about her, he still loves her and thinks she is rare and valuable.
I think it is because personification is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.