Question

On Sundays my father always wore that gray apron(圍裙). After breakfast when he always announced: "Go ahead everyone. I'll wash the dishes!" For the next hour Dad did the dishes, singing songs like I Had a Hat When I Came In.

I suppose it was strange for a boy's father to wear an apron. It was the last Sunday in August. My father seemed happy as we walked home from the supermarket together.

"Tommy," he said, "There comes a time in every boy's life when he must take on responsibilities(責(zé)任). Starting today, I want you to do the dishes on Sunday morning so your mother and I can read the newspaper."

"Wash the dishes!?"

"Anything wrong with taking over the dishes, son?"

I started to say something about a man's job or woman's work, but I knew quickly that my protests(抗議) would be of no use.

I didn't taste a bit of breakfast that morning. Dad seemed excited as he talked about a soccer game on TV and didn’t notice me at all.

Suddenly, everything grew quiet. My sister began to clear the table. My brother was eating the last of the egg from his plate. And then my father said to my mother, "Let's go and read the paper, dear."

So this was what my life had come. I could learn Latin well, I could be good at playing baseball, I could do anything, but I could never do those dishes. There was nothing left but to refuse.

My father came back into the kitchen, and in his right hand was the old apron.

"I want you to have this, Tommy. It'll keep your clothes from getting wet." And before I could say a word, he had put the thing on me. "Thanks, Son."

I looked down at the apron. It had seen better days. I could see my dad reaching for the dishes. Soon I was singing about I Had a Hat When I Came In. The words came out of nowhere. And I knew the kind of man I wanted to be.

1.We can learn the father regarded doing housework as a person’s ________.

A. interest B. responsibility C. task D. entertainment

2.Hearing his father’s suggestion, the writer thought the idea was ________.

A. unacceptable B. impossible C. useless D. boring

3.When the writer was in the kitchen, the father came back to _______.

A. show him how to do the washes B. talk with him

C. check his work D. put the apron on him

4.The result of the story probably is that _________.

A. the writer still thought doing dishes was not his job

B. the writer did nothing but to refuse

C. the writer accepted his father’s idea and did as his father had done

D. the writer wasn’t pleased to do as his father asked at last

5.The reading is mainly about _________.

A. the education of family responsibility B. a united and happy family

C. a story of the father and his son D. a lesson of doing dishes

Answer 1