第三节完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）
When I was 6 years old, my parents got me a used __21____ for Christmas.
A year or so later, I badly wanted a Sting-Ray, a tricked-out bike that was __22__in the 1960s. So my father took my old bike, slapped a new coat of paint on it, and _23____ it with a banana seat, monkey handlebars and a sissy bar（保护杠）. ___24___didn't matter to me that some friends had new Sting-Rays straight from the Schwinn factory. Or even that my dad put the sissy bar on backward, _25____ exposed me to some teasing（嘲笑） before we _26____ it. I loved that bike.
So it was for my __27___. We weren't poor. But we always had modest Christmases. And I _28____ to do the same when I got married 27 years ago.
My wife, Clarissa, had different _29____. She, too, had some __30___Christmases growing up. She vividly remembers when she was 14 or 15 years old and her father lost his __31__in the construction industry. She overheard her __32___ talking about how _33___ they were.
So when her parents asked her what she wanted that year, she said, 'Nothing.' When her mother insisted she had to get ___34__, Clarissa asked for socks. 'I felt very good about myself afterward,' she recalls.
But as her family's finances _35_____, Christmas went back to being a __36__ bigger production. By the time I arrived on the scene, the __37__ family -- more than 20 people -- would gather at her grandmother's house in Mexicali, Mexico, on Christmas Eve. Around 10 p.m., Santa (my future brother-in-law in a costume) showed up with an enormous bag of _38____ and stepped into a roomful of children crying with __39____
'It was all about the children,' says Clarissa, who thought the experience was _40___ .And she has spent hundreds of dollars on presents every year to duplicate(重温 )it.
21．A．car B．bike C．book D．coat
22．A．popular B．common C．ordinary D．regular
23．A．add B．equipped C．placed D．supplied
24．A．That B．This C．It D．What
25．A．so B．thus C．Which D．it
26．A．bought B．placed C．fixed D．changed
27．A．childhood B．life C．children D．youth
28．A．imagined B．expected C．suggested D．supposed
29．A．ideas B．life C．childhood D．Christmas
30．A．unforgettable B．modest C．happy D．wonderful
31．A．life B．job C．interest D．present
32．A．friends B．mother C．father D．parents
33．A．broke B．rich C．wealthy D．well-off
34．A．nothing B．something C．everything D．anything
35．A．improved B．caught C．reduced D．decreased
36．A．very B．more C．less D．much
37．A．all B．big C．small D．entire
38．A．bikes B．food C．presents D．books
39．A．surprise B．joy C．fear D．satisfaction
40．A．wasteful B．valueless C．priceless D．useful
