After Mom died, I began visiting Dad every morning before I went to work. He was weak and moved slowly, but he always had a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice on the kitchen table for me, along with an unsigned note reading, “Drink your juice.” Such a note, I knew, was as far as Dad had ever been able to go in expressing his love. In fact, I remember, as a kid I had questioned Mom, “Why doesn’t Dad love me?” Mom frowned, “Who said he doesn’t love you?” “Well, he never tells me,” I complained. “He never tells me either,” she said, smiling. “But look how hard he works to take care of us, to buy us food and clothes, and to pay for this house. That’s how your father tells us he loves us.”
I nodded slowly. I understood in my head, but not in my heart. I still wanted my father to put his arms around me and tell me he loved me. Dad owned and operated a small scrap (片)metal business, and after school I often hung around while he worked. Dad handfed scrap steel into a device that chopped (剁碎) it as cleanly as a butcher chops a rack of ribs. The machine looked like a giant pair of scissors, with blades thicker than my father’s body. If he didn’t feed those terrifying blades just right, he risked serious injury. “Why don’t you hire someone to do that for you?” Mom asked Dad one night as she bent over him and rubbed his aching shoulders with a strong smelling liniment. “Why don’t you hire a cook?” Dad asked , giving her one of his rare smiles.
Many years later, during my first daily visit, after drinking the juice my father had squeezed for me, I walked over, hugged him and said, “I love you, Dad.” From then on I did this every morning. My father never told me how he felt about my hugs, and there was never any expression on his face when I gave them.
【小题1】The author’s father always prepared a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice for him because ______.| A．that was the author’s favorite. |
| B．he was sure the author would be thirsty. |
| C．the author was always complaining. |
| D．that was a gesture of love. |
| A．his job was too dangerous. |
| B．his job required high skills. |
| C．he wanted to save money. |
| D．he was not good at communicating with others. |
| A．I Just Couldn’t Understand my Father. |
| B．My Father Never Loved Me. |
| C．Silent Fatherly Love. |
| D．My Hard-working Father. |
