Growing up, I understood one thing about my dad: He knew everything. I asked him questions and he told me the answers. In my teen years, he taught me things I’d need to know to survive in the real world. How to drive a stick shift. How to check your car tire’s pressure. When I moved out on my own, I called him at least once a week, usually when something broke in my apartment and I needed to know how to fix it.
But then, eventually, I needed him less. I got married, and my husband had most of the knowledge I lacked. For everything else, we had Google. I don’t know when it happened, but our conversations devolved into six words.
Me: “Hi, Dad.” Him: “Hi, sweets. Here’s Mom.”
I loved my dad, but I wondered at times if maybe he had already shared everything I needed to know. Maybe I’d heard all his stories.
Then, this past summer, my husband, our four kids, and I moved in with my parents for three weeks while our house was being renovated (翻新). Dad asked me to help him rebuild the bulkhead (舱壁) at their dock. I didn’t hesitate, but I was dreading it. It was hard, manual labor. We got wet and sand. But as we put the new bulkhead together piece by piece, my dad knowing exactly what went where, I looked at him.
“How do you know how to build a bulkhead?”
“I spent a summer in college building them on the Jersey Shore.”
I thought I knew everything about my dad. But I never knew this. I realized that maybe it’s not that there’s nothing left to say. Maybe it’s just that I’ve spent my life asking him the wrong questions.
Weeks later, after my family and I moved back into our renovated house, I called my parents. Dad answered. “Hi, sweets,” he said. “Here’s Mom.” “Wait, Dad,” I said. “How are you?” We ended up talking about the consulting he was working on.
To anyone else, it would sound like a normal conversation between a dad and his daughter. But to me, it was novel. Now I talk to him because I want to.
4. After marriage, who did the author turn to for help when she meet problems?
A.The neighbours | B.Her mother | C.Her father | D.Her husband |
5. What does the underlined word “dreading” mean in paragraph 5?
A.Interest | B.Fear | C.Thrill | D.Satisfy |
6. What can be learned from paragraph 8?
A.The author asked her father silly questions. |
B.The author thought her father knew nothing. |
C.The author didn’t care enough about her father’s life. |
D.The author fully know her father. |
7. What issues might the author not discuss with her father afterwards?
A.The method of fixing a refrigerator. |
B.My father’s college experience. |
C.Something interesting about my father’s current job. |
D.The furniture of my renovated home. |