My dad and I

江西贛州三中 賴麗霞

在她心中，父親一直是無所不能的“超人”。 偶然一次，父親邀請她一起做一個家庭裝修項目，這給她帶來了新的改變。

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難詞探意

1. gutter /?ɡΛt?(r)/ n. 排水溝

2. renovate /?ren?ve?t/ v. 翻新

3. dock /d?k/ n. 碼頭

4. mallet /?m?l?t/ n. 木槌

5. blade /ble?d/ n. 刀片

6. gig /ɡ?ɡ/ n. （尤指臨時的）工作

Growing up, I understood one thing about my dad: he knows everything. In my teen years, he taught me things I'd need to know to survive in the real world.

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 aboutguttercleaning, water heaters and nondestructive insect removal. I love my dad, of course, but I wondered at times if maybe he had already shared everything I needed to know. Maybe I'd heard all his stories. Maybe, after knowing a man for 40 years, there's nothing left to say.

Then, this past summer, my husband, our four kids, and I moved in with my parents for three weeks while our house was beingrenovated.They own a lake house, and Dad asked me to help him rebuild the bulkhead at theirdock.It was not an easy job. We got wet and sandy. But as we put the new bulkhead together piece by piece, my dad knew exactly what went where. I looked at him and asked, “How do you know how to build a bulkhead?” The heavymallethe was swinging paused in midair. “I spent a summer in college building bulkheads on the Jersey Shore.” “You did?” I thought I knew everything about my dad—all his random jobs. But I never knew this. “Yep. Now come up here and let me teach you how to use this circular saw.”

As he explained the importance of not setting the blade too deep, 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. A few weeks later, after my family and I moved back into our renovated house, I called my parents. Dad answered. “Hi, my sweet,” he said, “Here's Mom.” “Wait, Dad, how are you?” I said.We ended up talking about the consultinggighe was working on and a new battery he'd bought for his sailboat. To anyone else, it would sound like a normal conversation between a dad and his daughter. But to me, it was novel and it was a new beginning. I spent the first part of my life needing to talk to my dad. Now I talk to him because I want to.

Reading

Check

1. Why did the author need her father less according to paragraph 2?

A. She had learned everything from her father.B. She could turn to her husband for help.

C. She wanted to be more independent.

D. She was bored with her father.

2. What does the underlined word “It” refer to in paragraph 3?

A. Learning to build a house in a college.

B. Repairing the author's house.

C. Moving into a lake house.

D. Rebuilding the bulkhead.

3. Which of the following words can best describe the author's father?

A. Aggressive. B. Proud. C. Humorous. D. Creative.

Language

Study

Difficult sentence

As he explained the importance of not setting the blade too deep, I realized that maybe it's not that there's nothing left to say.

【翻譯】___________________________________

【點石成金】本句為一個主從復合句，as 引導的是一個時間狀語從句，主句為I realized...nothing left to say,主句中第一個that引導的是一個賓語從句，第二個that引導的是一個表語從句。