Unit 3 补充阅读 The Gift of Forgiveness – Christmas Story 练习（含答案）

The Gift of Forgiveness – Christmas Story The Christmas of 1949 we didn’t have a tree. My dad had as much pride as anybody, I 1._____, so he wouldn’t just say that we couldn’t 2. _____ one. When I 3. _____ it, my mother said that we weren’t going to have one this year, that we couldn’t afford one, and even if we could – it was stupid to clutter up your house with a dead tree. （5）I wanted a tree 4. _____ though, and I thought – in my naive way – that if we had one, everybody would feel better. About three days before Christmas, I was out collecting for my paper route. It was fairly late – long after dark – it was snowing and very cold. I went to the apartment building to try to 5. _____ a customer who hadn’t paid me for nearly （10）two months – she owed me seven dollars. Much to my 6. _____, she was home. She invited me in and not only did she pay me, but also she gave me a dollar tip! It was a windfall (an amount of money that you get unexpectedly) for me – I now had eight whole dollars. What happened next was totally 7. _____. On the way home, I walked past a Christmas tree （15）lot and the idea 8. _____me. The 9. _____ wasn’t very good because it was so close to the holiday, but there was this one real nice tree. It had been a very expensive tree and no one had bought it; now it was so close to Christmas that the man was afraid no one would. He wanted ten dollars for it, but when I – in my gullible ( easily tricked because they are too trusting) （20）innocence – told him I only had eight, he said he might sell it for that. I really didn’t want to spend the whole eight dollars on the tree, but it was so pretty that I finally agreed. I 10. _____ it all the way home – about a mile, I think – and I tried hard not to damage it or break off any limbs. （25）The snow helped to cushion (reducing the force) it, and it was still in pretty good 11. _____when I got home. You can’t imagine how proud and excited I was. I propped (resting it somewhere) it up against the railing (a metal fence) on our front porch and went in. My heart was 12. _____as I announced that I had a surprise. （30）I got Mom and Dad to come to the front door and then I switched on the porch light. “Where did you get that tree?” my mother exclaimed. But it wasn’t the kind of exclamation that 13. _____ pleasure. “I bought it up on Main Street. Isn’t it just the most perfect tree you ever saw?” I said, trying to maintain (to make something continue) my enthusiasm. （35）“Where did you get the money?” Her tone was accusing and it began to 14. _____ on me that this wasn’t going to 15. _____out as I had planned. “From my paper route.” I explained about the customer who had paid me. “And you spent the whole eight dollars on this tree?” she exclaimed. She went into a tirade ( a long angry speech criticizing someone or something ) about how stupid it （40）was to spend my money on a dumb tree that would be thrown out and burned in a few days. She told me ... ...