1 . Our family moved to Texas in 1996, when my husband Jerry got a job in a factory as a pipe-fitter. We lived in a small mobile home. When the job in Texas ended, he was out of _________. Months went by. Rent was _________ on the mobile home.
“At least we would have a nice _________,” I thought as I drove the girls to the supermarket on Christmas Eve to buy some food. Amanda was two years old and Kimberly was five years old. In the supermarket, I was _________ by different items. The _________ wrapped with shiny paper looked especially beautiful. I wished the girls weren’t _________ by them. Kimberly _________ alongside the cart with excitement. “Maybe she forgets this Christmas,” I thought.
_________, we got to the checkout counter. When we wheeled the cart out, we saw a wall of Christmas trees, each waiting to be _________ so its branches could __________ in a special spot at home. “Look, Mom!” said Kimberly. “Sweetie, we can’t get a tree this year,” I replied. Amanda was too young to have any __________, and Kimberly seemed to be calm, but I felt terrible. We pushed our cart through the parking lot. Halfway to the car, Kimberly stopped and pointed, “Look, Mom! That can be our tree!” At first, I wasn’t sure what she was pointing at. Then I saw a pine __________ lying on the ground. I couldn’t say no again. “Okay.”
I said. “We will bring it home.”
Back home, I found a coffee can to __________ it in. Kimberly collected some rocks and filled the can. While I made dinner, the girls colored some stars and bells. Jerry __________ their artwork for the tree. We set the display on the table in our tiny kitchen. “That branch was a lucky find,” Jerry said when we sat down for dinner.
__________, it was luck. My family and I celebrated many other Christmas holidays with real trees later, but it is the Christmas in the mobile home that we all remember most.
1. A.control | B.mind | C.breath | D.work |
2. A.due | B.low | C.limited | D.enough |
3. A.style | B.dinner | C.table | D.pet |
4. A.burdened | B.surrounded | C.confused | D.cheated |
5. A.shelves | B.ceilings | C.decorations | D.walls |
6. A.misled | B.defeated | C.threatened | D.attracted |
7. A.skipped | B.lay | C.hid | D.slept |
8. A.Amazingly | B.Desperately | C.Proudly | D.Eventually |
9. A.painted | B.untied | C.unloaded | D.replaced |
10. A.turn up | B.fan out | C.grow up | D.look out |
11. A.talents | B.imaginations | C.expectations | D.hobbies |
12. A.seed | B.box | C.branch | D.root |
13. 14. A.cut up | B.tore down | C.cut out | D.tore up |
15. A.Indeed | B.Roughly | C.Otherwise | D.Narrowly |