One year our family decided to have a special celebration of Mother’s Day, as a token of appreciations for all the sacrifices that Mother had made for us. After breakfast we had arranged, as a surprise, to hire a car and take her for a beautiful drive in the country. Mother was rarely able to have a treat like that, because she was busy in the house nearly all the time.
But on the very morning of the day, we changed the plan a little, because it occurred to Father that it would be even better to take Mother fishing. As the car was hired and paid for, we might as well use it to drive up into the hills where the streams are. As Father said, if you just go driving without object, you have a sense of aimlessness, but if you are going to fish there is a definite purpose that heightens the enjoyment.
So we all felt it would be nicer for Mother to have a definite purpose. Father had just got a fishing rod the day before, which he said mother could use if she wanted to. Only Mother said she would much rather watch him fish than try to fish herself.
So we got her to make up a sandwich lunch in case we got hungry, though we were to come home again to a big festive dinner.
Well, when the car came to the door, it turned out that there was not as much space in it as we had supposed. It was plain that we couldn’t all get in.
Father said that he could just stay home and put in the time working in the garden. He said that there was a lot of rough dirty work that he could do, like digging a trench for the garbage, which would save hiring a man, and so he said that he’d stay home; he said that we were not to let the fact that he had not had a real holiday for three years stand in our way. He wanted us to go right ahead and not to mind him.
But of course we all felt that it would never do to let Father stay home, especially as we knew he would make trouble if he did. The two girls, Anne and Mary, would have stayed and helped the maid get dinner, only it seemed such a pity, for the two girls were eager to show their new hats on a lovely day like this. But they said that Mother had only to say the word and they’d gladly stay home and work. Will and I would have dropped out, but unfortunately we wouldn’t have been any use in preparing the dinner.
36. The author’s family decided to celebrate Mother’s Day specially to _____.
A. show love for their mother
B. show gratitude to their mother
C. show respect for their mother
D. to make up for a previous appointment
37. According to Paragraph 2, we know that the plan was changed because_______.
A. Father proposed to go fishing out
B. we thought that driving out is boring
C. we failed to hire a car to go out
D. the car was not big enough
38. What problem did we find when the car arrived?
A. The car was too old to drive on mountain roads.
B. The car was larger than we expected.
C. The car was too small to accommodate us all.
D. The car was too plain looking.
39. Why didn’t the author drop out of the activity?
A. Because his sisters didn’t join in.
B. Because he needed to have dinner.
C. Because he couldn’t cook the dinner.
D. Because he hadn’t had a real holiday for three years.
40. Which of the following proverbs describes the text best?
A. Everything comes to him who waits.
B. Changes always go beyond plans.
C. Better late than never.
D. Once on shore, one prays no more.