In every country there are times to celebrate, weddings, birthdays, religious festivals. Although the U.S.A is a multi-cultural society, where different groups celebrate their own traditional   21   , Christmas is the most popular holiday in the U.S.A. Some of the   22    of Christmas time are old and others are newer.

Already in the late 18th and the 19th centuries, people felt sentimental (眷恋的) about Christmases of the past. The American   23   , Washington Irving, wrote in 1819 about the old-fashioned Christmas he experienced in England. He was taken in a stagecoach (驿站马车) full of happy people, food and presents, to an old house in the   24   . There, he found a crowd of happy farmers, lots of food and drinks, snow, games and ghosts.

The first Christmas card, which was printed in England, showed people eating and drinking   25   . It was sent in 1846, but Christmas cards did not become really   26    until the 1860s, when color printing became possible.

By this time, stagecoaches had   27    running, replaced by the railroad. More and more families   28    the country and were living in towns and cities, but the dream of the   29    Christmas remained. The loaded stagecoach driving along the country road through the snow still   30    on many Christmas cards today.

A. festivals          B. weddings           C. parties               D. birthdays

A. foods             B. traditions           C. cards                 D. decorations

A. writer             B. singer               C. designer            D. farmer

A. city                B. country             C. town                 D. hill

A. dangerously    B. happily             C. equally              D. generously

A. usual              B. famous              C. popular             D. regular

A. started            B. kept                  C. stopped             D. continued

A. left                B. preferred           C. admired            D. reached

A. amazing         B. new                  C. merry               D. old-fashioned

A. turns                     B. appears             C. puts                  D. gets

About once a month I have to go to Bedford for my work. One day I went into a   21   there to have something to   22   . The waiter took my coat and put it in a small room.

    About an hour later I was   23   to go. The waiter   24   me my coat. Something fell out of the pocket onto the floor. It was a small white box. I took a   25   look at the   26   . “Oh, you’ve brought   27   coat,” I said to the waiter. “It looks very much like mine,  28   it is quite new, and this isn’t my box, either.”

    “Oh, then I   29   someone has taken your coat and left his,” said the waiter. “This kind of thing   30   sometimes.”

    I opened the box. There was a beautiful gold   31   in it. The waiter and I   32   to go to the police station.

    “Has anyone lost a ring?” I asked at the station.

    “Yes,” said a policeman. “A young man who came in this morning lost a ring, he lost it in London.”

    He   33   the young man. A few minutes later, the man arrived.

    “Yes, this is my ring,” he said. “How can I   34   you, sir? You see, I paid a lot of money for this ring and   35   I lost it on the train!”

    After I told him the   36   of the coat, he said, “You haven’t been on the train. I haven’t been in the hotel, so how did my ring   37   in the coat?”

    “Did anyone sit or stand next to you on the train?” asked the policeman.

    “Yes,” said the young man. “But I don’t remember his face.”

    “You may remember this   38   ,” said the policeman. “Was it like this one?”

    “Yes, it was,” said the young man. “But my friend here isn’t the thief.”

    The policeman laughed. “No,” he said. “The thief on the train stole your ring, and   39   our friend here, he went into the hotel to get some food. Only he didn’t take the   40   coat away with him.”

A. hotel       B. restaurant      C. company     D. shop

A. do         B. buy           C. eat          D. make

A. asked      B. glad           C. invited       D. ready

A. showed     B. returned       C. brought      D. dressed

A. special     B. close          C. usual        D. near

A. waiter      B. box           C. coat         D. pocket

A. no one else’s B. another’s       C. other’s       D. someone else’s

A. but         B. and           C. instead       D. for

A. know       B. wonder        C. suppose      D. find

A. appears     B. happens        C. meets        D. changes

A. ring        B. coin           C. pen          D. sign

A. realized     B. thought        C. wanted       D. decided

A. searched    B. remembered     C. telephoned   D. asked

A. return       B. thank          C. pay         D. help

A. then         B. so            C. yet         D. however

A. thing        B. price          C. story       D. problem

A. come        B. put           C. set         D. get

A. person       B. ring          C. box        D. coat

A. after         B. before        C. like        D. as

A. right         B. good         C. same       D. other

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