1. (2017·衡阳模拟) 完形填空

    We always celebrated my Dad's November birthday on Thanksgiving Day, even after he entered a nursing home. As years went on, these events took on a(n) 1 meaning – a traditional birthday party for Dad, and a personal 2 for all that he had done for me in my life.

    When we knew that it might be Dad's 3 birthday, the whole family decided to come together for a huge birthday celebration at the nursing home. It was a crowded party 4 all of us sitting around him. Dad was a wonderful 5 , and here was a biggest audience he'd ever had.

    During a quiet moment, I announced that it was now Dad's turn to 6 stories from us. I wanted everyone to tell Dad what we loved about him. 7 , we told stories from our hearts, 8 Dad listened with wet, flashing blue eyes. We 9 all kinds of lost memories – stories about when we were little, stories about when Dad was young and stories that are shared as family 10 . Even the littlest grandchildren couldn't 11 to tell their grandfather why they loved him. For a man who had been kind to so many people in his life, here was our 12 to honor him.

    A few months later, at Dad's memorial service, we fully realized what we had given Dad that night. Those were the stories people normally tell at a 13 . They are told, then, full of tears, with the hope that the departed will somehow hear the outpouring of love. 14  we had given those loving 15 to Dad when he was 16 , told through laughter, accompanied by hugs and joy. I'm sure the stories and memories 17 over in his mind during his last months and days.

    Words do 18 , and they are enough. We need to say them, to speak them 19 to the ones we love, for everyone else to hear. That's the way to 20 love, and our chance to honor a person in life.