I had just won a bidding for a 1950s cookie tin full of memories at an estate sale. Delighted at my victory, I took the box and gave it a shake. The contents rattled. Inside were hundreds of buttons, pins, and other items, all glittering in the sunlight. As a girl, I'd always enjoyed digging through my mom's box, just as my daughters enjoyed looking through mine.
My eye caught the movement of a swing on the front porch of the house. An old woman watched the happenings in her yard. As I carried my purchases to my car, I stopped to chat with her. She told me she was selling almost all her possessions because she was moving to a nursing home.
Her eyes fell to the button box, and when she looked up, they were glistening with tears. I took the lid off the tin, and her rough hands lifted a handful of buttons and then slowly dropped them back into the container. Her fist closed around a delicate pearl button, now yellow with age. "It was from my first husband's uniform," she said. "It's one of the few things that remind me of him when he didn't return home alive." They had been married seven months before he left to serve his country in World War II.
As we sifted through the box together, we found hairpins ranging from black to brown to shades of gray and even white; a key to a music box that played a special love song; garter clips, wooden nickels, ruby buttons; all took her further down memory lane. I learned about her wedding, the birth of her children, and much more of the life she'd led for 89 years.
After our chat, I set the woman's box of memories down on the swing and slid my hands into hers. I knew we would talk again, when I went to visit her at her new home. And I knew that when l reached my own home, my heart would pull me to my sewing room, where I would rediscover my own lifetime of memories in my own button box.
4. How did the author feel when she got the tin?
A.Curious. | B.Regretful. |
C.Joyful. | D.Embarrassed. |
5. What can we infer about the old woman from the text?
A.She was to sell her house and move to a new one. |
B.She had to sell many things to make ends meet. |
C.She didn't marry again after her husband died. |
D.She was the former owner of the cookie tin. |
6. What does the underlined phrase "sifted through" in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A.Examined. | B.Picked. |
C.Carried. | D.Decorated. |
7. What does the button box represent?
A.Antiques that add history to a place. |
B.Memories of unpleasant experiences. |
C.Objects that bring moments to mind. |
D.Expressions of kindness from strangers. |