Christmas was just a week away and I had five people left to shop for but only three dollars.
"Let's set a price limit on our gifts this year,"I suggested to my best friend Joanie.
"That's a good idea," Joanie agreed. "How about something over five dollars?"
"How about sixty cents?" I felt like the biggest cheapskate in the world.
"I guess this is where I'm supposed to say it's not the gift but the thought that counts," Joanie smiled.
It is almost impossible to buy anything under sixty cents, so it was really going to have to be very
small gifts with very big thoughts.
Finally, Christmas Day arrived. I gave my mother a candle with a note that said, "You are the
brightest light in my life." She almost cried when she read the note.
Igave my brother a wooden ruler. On the back of it I had painted, "No brother in the world could
measure up to you." He gave me a bag of sugar and wrote on it, "You're my sweet sister."
For Joanie, I painted a pair of shoes with a note that said, "No one could ever fill your shoes. "She
thanked me and said I always tickled (使……高兴) her and made her laugh.
To my other two friends, I gave Annie a paper fan and a note on it, "I'm your biggest fan." I gave
Helen a calculator that cost one dollar and I painted a message on the back, "You can always count
on me."
My mother knows she is the most important person in my life. My brother thinks I'm sweet. Joanie
thinks I'm funny and make her laugh, which is important because her dad moved away last year and she
misses him and is sad sometimes...
1. When Christmas neared, the author worried that she________.
A. had few friends to give her gifts
B. had little money to buy gifts for others
C. didn't know what gifts her friends would like
D. didn't have enough time to go shopping
2. The underlined word "cheapskate" in Paragraph 4 probably refers to a person who________.
A. is the poorest in the world
B. buys the cheapest skateboards
C. spends as little money as possible
D. buys the cheapest things in the world
3. The girl gave her mother a candle because it stands for________.
A. the girl's own life
B. her mother's life
C. the girl's role in her mother's life
D. the mother's role in the girl's life
4. What can we learn from the passage?
A. It is an art to choose gifts.
B. It is the thought not the gift that matters.
C. How to choose cheap gifts.
D. Giving gifts improves friendships.
