For the past three months, I have been moonlighting (兼职) as a tea lady. A few weeks into lockdown and at the height of the COVID-19 crisis, my father’s care home had become desperately understaffed. So I volunteered my services.

I will admit that I also wanted to keep an eye on my father. Ever since he was diagnosed with dementia (痴呆), I had become concerned about his well-being. So I. turned up, put on a plastic apron and began wheeling a teapot around the ground floor.

It was a peculiar kind of job at first. I saw how the carers were putting themselves on the line every day. And how do you ask a dementia patient who has lost almost all their powers of speech and hearing how many sugars they want in their tea? I would often come away sweating. And saddened. The home lost a lot of patients to COVID-19 in a short span of time and seeing the suddenly empty beds was shocking.

But it was also - surprisingly - good fun. There were jokes shared by carers and the stories the elderly residents told. The place grew on me until it became the highlight of my day. I looked forward to seeing the old lady who would say “Thank you” and blow me a kiss every time I left her a cup of tea. Another said he’d started painting later in life and now his amazing work hung all around his room. And there was a former university lecturer who had researched nursing and never left a crossword unfinished.

The figures I had passed so often taught me that sitting by a sunny window drinking a cup of warm tea held its value. I have read about the meditative (冥想的) effects of running and I found the same absorbing feeling in the ritual of making tea. It is simple, wholesome, and brings calmness. To me, this has been lockdown’s greatest gift.

【小题1】Why did the author choose to volunteer in the care home?

A．Because it was short of workers.	B．Because she was free at that time.
C．Because her father wanted her company.	D．Because she was interested in voluntary work.

【小题2】What made the work of making tea difficult in the care home?

A．The huge needs of tea from the patients.

B．The increasing seriousness of COVID-19.

C．The failure of speaking and hearing of some patients.

D．The lack of natural resources during the lockdown.

【小题3】What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．The knowledge the author learned.	B．The daily life in the care house.
C．The challenges of making tea.	D．The great fun the job brings.

【小题4】What does the author want to tell us through this passage?

A．It is never too late to learn.	B．The parent-child relationship is the most important.
C．Sometimes we should value little things.	D．Where there is a will, there is a way.