For 52 years my father got up at 5:30 am every morning, went to work, and returned home at 5:30 pm. I never saw my father stayed home from work ill, nor did I ever see my father lay down to take a nap. He had no hobbies, other than taking care of his family. All he asked from me, his daughter, was to help him while he was repairing something, so we could have some time to talk.
For 22 years, after I left home for college, my father called me at 9:00 am every Sunday. Nine years ago when I bought my first house, my father, 67 years old, spent eight hours a day for three days in the 80-degree Kansas heat, painting my house. He would not allow me to pay someone to have it done. All he asked for was a glass of iced tea. Five years ago, at age 71, my father spent five hours putting together a swing set for my daughter. Four years ago, my father drove all the way from Denver to Topeka, with an eight-foot Colorado Blue Spruce （云杉） in his truck, so that we could have a part of Colorado growing on our land.
On the morning of January 16, 1996, my sister telephoned me; my father was in the hospital with an aneurysm（动脉瘤） in Florida. I got on an airplane immediately, and on the way I realized that I hadn’t communicated with him as much as I’d always wanted to. I vowed（发誓） that when I arrived, I would have a long talk with him. I arrived in Florida at 1 am, only to find that my father, at the age of 76, had passed away at 9:12 pm. This time it was he who did not have time to talk, or time to wait for me.
1. From the first paragraph we can infer that the author’s father ______.
A. was a good driver B. was in good health
C. sometimes fell ill D. had no hobbies
2. The underlined phrase “other than” in the first paragraph can be replaced by “______”.
A. except B. including C. without D. due to
3. According to the last paragraph, we can know that the author’s father was born in ______.
A. 1916 B. 1918 C. 1920 D. 1922
4. The author wrote the article in order to ______.
A. praise her father B. remember her father
C. show her father loved her D. let her father be known
