My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. While the other coats drooped(低垂), this one looked as if it were   36  itself up. The coat had beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and a(an)   37  price of $28, which was popular just then with   38 , but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better, bearing that   39  of classic elegance(优雅). John tried it on and the fit was perfect.
John   40  the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big smile. “Did the kids like your coat?” I asked. “They loved it,” he said,   41  folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, a   42  came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness (作对) and reasoned discussion replaced fierce   43 . He became more mannerly and   44 , eager to please. He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him   45  his behavior.
When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and   46  what caused the changes, she said laughing. “It   47  be his coat!” Another teacher told him she was giving him a good   48  not only because he had earned   49  but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend “Could this be John?” he asked surprisingly,   50  John’s new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never   51  a person’s clothes for the real person within them.   52  there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for   53  what is on the inside to what is on the outside.
For John it is a time when it is as easy to try on different approaches to   54  as it is to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast landscape   55  all the doors are open. And he could picture himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.

【小题1】
A.turning B.showing C.holdingD.hanging
【小题2】
A.unreasonableB.expected C.acceptableD.unbelievable
【小题3】
A.adultsB.teenagersC.womenD.strangers
【小题4】
A.colorB.styleC.priceD.size
【小题5】
A.woreB.carriedC.lentD.sent
【小题6】
A.carefullyB.comfortablyC.casuallyD.quickly
【小题7】
A.happinessB.matterC.smileD.change
【小题8】
A.doubtB.argument C.fightD.war
【小题9】
A.thoughtfulB.handsomeC.hopefulD.curious
【小题10】
A.of B.withC.onD.at
【小题11】
A.discovered B.confirmedC.concluded D.wondered
【小题12】
A.canB.shouldC.willD.must
【小题13】
A.presentB.markC.wordD.result
【小题14】
A.itB.themC.thisD.one
【小题15】
A.taking upB.looking down toC.checking upD.looking up at
【小题16】
A.trustB.exchangeC.mistakeD.regard
【小题17】
A.Though B.ButC.SinceD.So
【小题18】
A.matchingB.attachingC.relatingD.connecting
【小题19】
A.careerB.lifeC.studyD.success
【小题20】
A.howB.whyC.whereD.when

How old was I? I can’t recall. Maybe I was only 10, about to turn 11, making it the first Christmas after my father left, and left me to fill that sad, shattered place in my mother’s heart. Whenever it was, it was the Christmas the magic changed: the year I stopped being a wide-eyed child and tried eagerly to play Father Christmas myself. It was the Christmas of the coat.

Mom first saw the coat at Tobias, one of the nicer women’s stores in our town’s little mall. It was a deep forest green. A long, heavy, wool dress coat with side pockets. Mom pulled it out from the rack(架) and held it up. “Long enough,”she murmured and slipped it on.

“I need a new coat,” Mom smiled before the three-way mirror. She made any clothing look good, and this coat hugged her just right. She glanced at the price tag, then hung the coat back on the rack, pausing once more to feel the smooth brush of wool.

Eighty-seven dollars. But I didn’t think twice. As we moved on through the mall, I found some excuse to come back and ask one of the Tobias ladies to hold the coat.

At last I had the coat. The store ladies wrapped it in their biggest box with bright blue paper and a thick silver ribbon. I don’t remember how I got it home, but I can still feel the bursting excitement and pride that filled me each time I glimpsed at the beautifully wrapped gift hiding under my sweater. I would occasionally dig it out just to hold the box, to imagine the big space it would take up under our tree. Here it was ─ joy, peace, and love ─ all wrapped up, waiting for Mom’s loving gratitude.

36. That the writer’s mother felt the coat before they left the store showed that ____.

A. the coat was of good quality                 B. the coat was too expensive

C. she liked the coat very much                D. she’d get it in the end

37. The writer tried to act as Father Christmas in order to ____.

A. show he grew up                                               B. show he missed his father

C. bring his mother a surprise                            D. enjoy himself

38. The writer hid the coat under his sweater in order to ____.

A. imagine the space taken up under the Christmas tree

B. feel the strong feeling to his mother on Christmas

C. give his mother a big surprise on Christmas Day

D. keep the new coat tidy and orderly in the box

39. What can be the best title of this passage?

A. A Merry Christmas                                  B. Christmas of the Coat

C. A Deep Green Coat                                 D. Mother’s Merry Christmas

 

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