1、Valentine’s Day was the time my father chose to show his love for the special people in his life. Over the years I fondly (天真地) thought    21     him as my “Valentine man”.

My first memory of the    22      he could bring to Valentine’s Day came when I was six. That morning at the breakfast table I found a card and a gift-wrapped package at my chair. The card was    23   “Love, Dad” and the gift was a ring with a small piece of red glass to    24    my birthstone, a ruby (红宝石). There is     25     difference between red glass and rubies to a child of six, and I remember    26   that ring with pride that all the cards in the world     27     not surpass (超越).

28   I grew older, the gifts gave    29   to heart-shaped boxes filled with my    30    chocolate and always included a     31    card signed “Love, Dad”. In those years my “thank-you” became   32    of a perfunctory (敷衍) response. The cards seemed less    33    , and I took for granted that the Valentine would     34    be there. I had    35     my hopes and dreams in receiving cards and gifts from “significant others” and “Love Dad” just didn’t seem quite    36    .

His final card remains on my desk today. It’s a     37    of how special fathers can be and how important it has been to me to know that I had a father who continued a  tradition of    38     with simple acts of understanding of the people in his life.

Those things never    39     , nor does the memory of a man who never     40    being my Valentine man.

21. A. of

B. about

C. up

D. over

22. A. hope

B. magic

C. puzzle

D. present

23. A. read

B. written

C. shown

D. signed

24. A. recover

B. return

C. represent

D. remain

25. A. much

B. little

C. great

D. less

26. A. filling

B. keeping

C. wearing

D. staring

27. A. could

B. needed

C. must

D. should

28. A. Because

B. Since

C. Though

D. As

29. A. room

B. way

C. honour

D. seat

30. A. favorite

B. lovely

C. dear

D. precious

31. A. usual

B. common

C. strange

D. special

32. A. less

B. little

C. none

D. much

33. A. important

B. beautiful

C. familiar

D. standard

34. A. hardly

B. always

C. regularly

D. often

35. A. lost

B. kept

C. placed

D. shared

36. A. suitable

B. enough

C. effective

D. timely

37. A. method

B. certificate

C. consequence

D. reminder

38. A. love

B. pride

C. home

D. silence

39. A. lose

B. die

C. cost

D. appear

40. A. risked

B. imagined

C. tried

D. stopped