1 . On the Father's Day before my father entered a nursing home, I gave him an Elmo doll. Like the colored pencils and sketchbook I bought him a year earlier, this was a desperate attempt to bring some joy to my increasingly bedridden father. Years ago, my father suffered a stroke which left him in bed for the rest of his life.
At the sight of Elmo, my three elder sisters shook their heads, certain that our father who was anything but childish would not like it. Sure enough, my father, 76, broke into that unpleasant smile that barely concealed his dislike.
“What on earth is this?” shouted my sisters, bursting into laughter.
“Daddy knows why I give him this,” I said, thinking that they had no idea what Elmo meant to my father. To my disappointment, my father shrugged. How could he not remember? Years earlier, I had been in the kitchen and heard something rare from the living room: laughter. I ran downstairs and saw that Elmo was on the PBS cooking show “The Frugal Gourmet”. “I don’t know what it is about him that gets to me,” my father choked out between laughter and tears. “He's just so funny!”
As my father lay in the nursing home, I would visit him in the evenings. We watched old movies with the lights off. Even though he never asked for it, I brought Elmo from home and put him where my father could see him. Before leaving, I would take Elmo from the dresser and place him in my father’s immobile arm. A slight smile would appear on his face. It never looked softer.
1. What’s the problem with the author’s father?| A．He lost the ability to feel joy. | B．He became childish after the stroke. |
| C．He was disappointed with his children. | D．He was bound to stay in bed due to an illness. |
| A．Hid. | B．Showed. | C．Explained. | D．Expressed. |
| A．His father asked for one. | B．An Elmo doll once amused his father. |
| C．Nothing but a doll made his father smile. | D．His father mentioned one on the cooking show. |
| A．The trouble a stroke can cause. | B．The difficulty to make a father happy. |
| C．How a simple gift brings joy to a father. | D．How to choose a proper toy for old people. |
