My memories of my father are divided into parts and shares. Alive, and then dead. Healthy, and then helpless. And further back in time, the first and most division: Present and then absent; loving, and then indifferent.
He used to be a good writer and loving father. When I was a 16-year-old girl, he was fired from his company, a public, gossip-based dismissal that he would spend decades refusing responsibility for. This was the first crack that divided my relationship with him into poles of before and after. To escape his shame, he pushed away those who reminded him of it, first divorcing my mother, then alienating my sister and I.
As an adult, my relationship with my father was one of low expectations and high boundaries. He spent most of his time travelling. But when he died of heart failure in August, I was knocked off balance by the weight of the blow. I thought, after years of setting up delicate fences around our relationship, that I had already begun letting go. His death delivered a realization: despite years of analyzing his complicated love for me, there were pieces of my father I never understood—until I found my father’s notebooks in his cupboard.
In the notebooks, he often collected documentation: train tickets from Rome or a photograph of San Francisco’s Prescott Hotel. But what he was also doing was offering fatherly guidance, the kind I could only receive after he died. His life, in which what he had was never quite enough, was eventually exposed. In his final decade, he realized he had built a castle for himself upon sand and regret. Now in his entries, I hear his voice. “Debaleh,” I hear him say, using his pet name for me, “learn from my mistakes.”
I read these pages among my dad’s clothes, and wept. I hadn’t known that my father, too, lived with that familiar ache for new horizons in his heart, the one that can only be comforted by traveling.
1. Why did the author’s father keep away from his family?| A．They weren’t responsible members. | B．He didn’t get on well with his wife. |
| C．Their presence recalled his sad experience. | D．They talked behind others’ backs everywhere. |
| A．Writing a journal carefully. | B．Travelling more for relaxation. |
| C．Avoiding following in his footsteps. | D．Obeying father’s guidance thoroughly. |
| A．Finding her father’s clothes. | B．Getting to know her late father. |
| C．Failing to look for new horizons. | D．Knowing her father’s heart disease. |
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【推荐1】Sugar Goldtree was my Grandma. I loved her. Everyone called my grandma “Sugar”. Every time I heard it, I would smile a huge smile.Grandma Sugar had a small house with a large garden. She worked all year long preparing that garden. She would always tidy the garden carefully. She would till the soil until it was like fine sand.
Grandma Sugar would tell me that if we plant the corn in one place this year, then the next year we would need to plant it in another spot. She would always say,“Fill your garden with flowers, The bees will buzz (嗡嗡地飞) around your head when you are picking those nice little cucumbers (黄瓜). After all, they helped to make our plants so beautiful.”
“We are about ready to plant some sunflowers,” Grandma Sugar said, handing me a packet of seeds. I carefully placed the seeds in rows, and covered them with soil, stepping on top of the soil to pack it down. Grandma Sugar sat at the edge of the garden making signs to put at the end of each row, with a date on it. Each year we would keep those signs in a book with photos of me and Grandma Sugar in our garden.
Grandma Sugar had a whole basket of seeds to plant. One by one,we planted rows of corn, beans, cucumbers, onions, lettuce and tomatoes. In the middle of summer, I would run down to the garden with a basket. Grandma Sugar would yell (大赋),“Pick a salad from the bed, little sugar!”
Growing up in the garden was wonderful. I remember Grandma Sugar and her garden. I learned a lot of lessons in that garden.
1. Why did people call Grandma“Sugar”?| A．Because she liked sweet things. |
| B．Because she was kind and helpful. |
| C．Because her garden was attractive. |
| D．Because her name went that way. |
| A．She fed bees around the corn. |
| B．She planted the corn with flowers. |
| C．She planted the corn every two years. |
| D．She changed the corn spot every year. |
| A．Dig up. | B．Look for. | C．Give up. | D．Take away. |
| A．She didn’t like bees buzzing. |
| B．She knew much about gardening. |
| C．She preferred vegetables to flowers. |
| D．She was strict with her grandchildren. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Challenging. | C．Memorable. | D．Encouraging. |
【推荐2】My Grandpa Forgets Who I Am
A few days ago I visited my grandfather in hospital. He has Alzhemier’s-a degenerative disease that usually starts slowly and gets worse over time. I thought I was prepared to see him. I knew chances were slim that he’d actually recognize me.
He didn’t. As a matter of fact, he had no idea that he even had grandchildren. But he was excited that somebody came to visit him. I tried to explain to him who I was. But after he told me multiple times that he didn’t have grandchildren, I gave up. And my heart broke into a million little pieces.
I was tired of explaining things to him. So I just smiled. He smiled back. It’s a genuine smile. Like a long time ago, when he’d take me by the hand and made this big world a little bit less scary for me. Now I have to take his hand.
We sat in silence for a little while, before he told me to call my grandma. This was the first time I had tried so hard to hold back tears. My grandma died four years ago and he didn’t remember. He thought she was stuck on her way to pick him up.
My grandpa used to be a strong, hard-working man. He was the person you turned to when you needed your car fixed, your tires changed or something heavy to be carried. Sadly, that man left this world a long time ago, and left behind a man that is lost and scared.
I want to help him. I want to make him feel better. I want to tell him about his old life, and how great it was. So I sat with him and I held his hand, and every once in a while I told him how good he looked and how much I liked the color of his shirt and how it brought out the blue in his eyes. I told him that my grandma was on her way whenever he asked about her, and I made sure the glass in his hand was always filled with water.
I can’t take away his pain. I can’t help him remember. I can’t make the disease go away. All I can do is hold on to the memories-hold on for both of us.
1. When the author first saw her grandpa in hospital, ________________.| A．she gave up on him | B．they were both excited |
| C．he didn’t recognize her | D．they talked about the past |
| A．grandma died about four years ago |
| B．grandpa needed to be taken care of |
| C．grandma didn’t make it to the hospital |
| D．grandpa believed grandma was still alive |
| A．Tolerant and merciful. | B．Considerate and patient. |
| C．Warm-hearted and grateful. | D．Strong-minded and generous. |
| A．show pity towards her grandpa | B．record memories of her grandpa |
| C．express deep love for her grandpa | D．call on further study on Alzheimer’s |
【推荐3】The men of influence in our lives are our fathers, brothers, grandfathers, uncles, and friends and they play an important role in our lives. They lead by example, teaching us how to move physically through our world, how to be strong in the face of adversity, how to be wise, and how to provide for ourselves and our families.
My dad taught me how to have natural fun, playing baseball in the middle of the street, in his stocking feet. Today my dad continues to influence me in positive ways. He has faced a challenging health problem over the past few months and has carried on with his life in much the same way as he did before his illness, going about his daily business a bit slower and needing to take more rests but still living his life the way he wishes to.
My grandfather taught me the value of being trusted. My father-in-law influenced my life in a different way. He was quiet, loving and a man of power. When he spoke, I listened, as he did not speak unless he had something to say.
My loving husband has encouraged me to be strong and independent, to think for myself, and not to look to him for permission. My husband has also taught me to adapt with him to the ever-changing reality of his journey with illness, and he has met each one with courage and dignity. I have learned much from the men who have had an influence on my life. For all that I have learned and for the role they played and continue to play in my life I am forever thankful.
1. What can be learned about the author’s father?| A．His life has completely changed. | B．His business has faced difficulties. |
| C．He needs to rest most of the day. | D．Something is wrong with his body. |
| A．Her brother. | B．Her husband. | C．Her grandfather. | D．Her father-in-law. |
| A．Lonely. | B．Brave. | C．Talkative. | D．Quiet. |
| A．The influence of men. | B．The advantages of men. |
| C．Holiday greetings. | D．Women’s source of support. |
【推荐1】I grew up in the 1950s with very practical parents. My mother washed aluminum foil (铝箔纸) after she cooked in it, and then she reused it.She was the earliest recycle (回收利用) queen before people had a name for it.
My father was no different.He preferred getting old shoes fixed to buying new ones.Their marriage was good and their dreams were focused (集中).Their best friends lived just a wave away.Though my parents have passed away,I can see them now-Dad in trousers,a T-shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress,lawnmower (割草机) in one hand and dishtowel in the other.
It was the time to fix things-a curtain rod (挂帘杆) the kitchen radio, the screen door, the oven door, and so on. They fixed all things we had.It was a way of life,and sometimes it made me crazy.All that re-fixing and renewing made me want to scream.I wanted just once to be wasteful.Waste meant being rich.Throwing things away meant you knew there’d always be more.I often thought like that.
But then my mother died,and on that clear summer night,in the warmth of the hospital room,I learnt that sometimes there isn’t any more.Sometimes,what we care about most gets all used up and goes away and it will never return. So, while we have it, it is the best that we love it,care for it,fix it when it’s broken and cure it when it’s sick.
This is true for marriage,old cars,children with bad report cards,dogs with bad hips and aging parents and grandparents.We keep them because they are worth it and because we are worth it.
1. We can learn that when the writer was young, she________.| A．thought highly of her parents’ habits |
| B．often helped her parents fix old things |
| C．often threw things away without being noticed |
| D．at times hated it when her parents fixed old things |
| A．Her mother truly loved her. |
| B．She had wasted a lot of money. |
| C．Things may never return once they are gone. |
| D．She had hurt her parents for many times. |
| A．To advise us to love what we have. |
| B．To encourage us to recycle old things. |
| C．To explain why her parents recycled. |
| D．To help us know about life in the past. |
【推荐2】One night Peter received a call from his social worker asking, “Can you take in an 11-year-old boy just for the weekend?” It was just a few days after he had said goodbye to two brothers he was fostering (代养), so he told the social worker that his heart was deeply saddened by the loss of the two boys that had just been reunited with their birth parents. Peter thought he didn’t have enough energy left to care for another child at the moment. But the worker convinced him.
The social worker arrived at his home with the boy at 3:00 a.m. after driving two hours from another county. There is a huge shortage of foster families in Oklahoma so when a child enters the foster care system, social workers are often forced to place the children outside of the county of origin, often removing the child from the only place he or she has ever known. Additionally, older children are much more difficult to place.
Peter decided to ask why Anthony, the boy, was in foster care. Then he knew that the boy had been abandoned (抛弃) by his mother when he was 2. He was then placed with a family. But almost ten years later, the same family abandoned him at the hospital. Peter was shocked，“It’s like my life!”
The two have been together ever since. And on the 12th of November, Anthony finally got to share Peter's last name officially. However, Peter didn’t stop fostering kids. “It’s hard to be a single foster dad but it’s worth every minute of it. We are about to have another child next month and we are excited.”
1. What can we infer about Peter from the first paragraph?| A．He is rich. | B．He is kind. |
| C．He is busy. | D．He is indifferent. |
| A．In the morning. | B．At noon. |
| C．In the afternoon. | D．At night. |
| A．He did not like the boy. | B．He worked at the hospital. |
| C．He wanted to have a family. | D．He also had an unlucky childhood. |
| A．Adopt another child. | B．Find Anthony's birth parents. |
| C．Help more children go to school. | D．Take Anthony to visit the social worker. |
【推荐3】There was a boy and his family was very rich. One day his father took him on a trip to a place. He wanted to show his son how poor people were there. They spent several days on a farm. There were many poor families living on the farm.
On their way home, the father asked the son, “How was the trip?” “It was great, Dad,” the son answered. “Did you notice how poor people were there?” asked his father. “Oh, yes,” said the son. “So, tell me,” said his father. The son said, “Well, we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool in our garden, while they have a river that has no end. We have expensive lanterns, but they have stars above their heads at night. We have only a small piece of land to live on ,while they have the endless fields. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have high walls around our houses to protect us, but they don’t need walls, because their friends will protect them.”
The father had nothing to say. Then the boy added, “Thank you, Dad, for letting me see how poor we are.”
1. The father wanted to show his son _______ .| A．how people on the farm worked |
| B．how poor people were on the farm |
| C．how beautiful the farm was |
| D．how far it was from the city to the farm |
| A．great | B．tiring | C．terrible | D．boring |
| A．expensive lanterns | B．a lot of cars |
| C．stars above their heads | D．many horses |
| A．The boy was from a very poor family. |
| B．The father and the son spent several weeks on a farm. |
| C．People on the farm have high walls around their houses. |
| D．The boy thought that people on the farm lived a happy life. |
| A．A rich farm | B．A great experience |
| C．A poor family | D．A boring trip |
