They left us without _________ good-bye.

   A. saying                 B. say               C. being said              D. to say

There was a time when I thought my dad didn’t know a thing about being a good father. I couldn’t remember him  __21__ saying the words “I love you.” It seemed to me his only purpose in life was to say “__22__” to anywhere I wanted to go and anything I wanted to do, including getting a __23__. Some parents bought their kids cars when they got their driver’s licenses. __24__ my dad---he said that I’d have to get a job and buy my own.

That’s __25__ I did. I got a job at a very nice restaurant and __26__every penny I could. And when I had enough to buy my car, I __27__! The day I brought that car home, my dad was the first one I wanted to show it__28__  to. “Look, dad, a car of my own. If you ever want a ride, I’ll only __29__ you five dollars.” I offered with a smile.

  “I see,” was all he said.

    One day, there was something wrong with my father’s truck. So he needed a ride to work. The sun wasn’t even up when we left the house, __30__ it was already getting warm out. It was going to be a __31__ day. As I dropped my dad off, I __32__ him, dressed in his work clothes, getting his tools from the __33__ of my car. Watching his sun-weather-red face, and even from a distance I could tell there were __34__lines than I ever remembered being there before. I realized how hard my dad works for his family. My father is a cement finisher(水泥休整工).

  In that instant, it __35__ to me that he actually got down on his hands and knees to sweat over hot concrete to make a living for his family. And he did this __36__, no matter how hot it got. Never, not once, had I heard him __37__ about it. To him we were “worth” it. And never once did he “charge” us for it.

  When he closed the trunk, his tools set off to the side, he walked over to my window to __38__ me five dollars. I rolled down the window and said “Good-bye, dad. Keep your five dollars. It’s on me. Don’t work too hard. I love you.”

    His eyes met mine, then glanced away in the direction of his waiting tools, he cleared his __39__ and said, “Oh, and …__40__, too.”