If I were writing a history of my family, some of the darkest moments recorded would be those surrounding Christmas trees. One would certainly think otherwise; selecting and putting up our trees have always been filled with risk.
For example, one afternoon dangerously close to Christmas Eve my mother bought what she thought to be a bargain, a glorious tree that was so full and tall that we could hardly get it into the house. Once we did, my father immediately realized that we would have to hire a carpenter to build a stand for it.
Another December, perhaps the very next one, we bought a tree earlier than we ever had before. We were happy with its shape and delighted that its size was manageable. We easily placed it in a stand, decorated it from top to bottom, and then self-satisfiedly sat back by the fire in its soft light.
Two or three days passed and the truth could not be hidden; we had bought a tree cut so long ago that its needles were coming off. There was nothing to do but undecorated it, take it down, and begin tree shopping again.
Our most recent Christmas tree offered still another difficult task. When we brought it home, once again it seemed larger than it was in the great outdoors. To complicate matters, we had bought a new stand, one whose nuts(螺帽)and bolts(闩子)worked more mysteriously than those of our old stands. I persuaded two young neighbors to stop playing basketball and to help us get the tree into the house and set it correctly in the stand. Unfortunately, no one noticed the mud on our helpers’ shoes, so only after removing several reddish brown sports from the carpet were we able to discuss the question of where the lights and ornaments(装饰)were stored. Perhaps those who cut their own trees have tales more painful than these. I don’t care to hear them, as my family’s experiences are enough to cause me to make the following suggestion: “Let’s forget the tree next Christmas. Let’s simply hang some flowers on the front door and over the mirror in the hall.”
小题1:The darkest moments in the writer’s family were with the fact that .
A．the family bought big Christmas trees
B．they had problems decorating their Christmas trees
C．they had problems picking suitable Christmas trees
D．they had problems finding carpenters for putting up Christmas trees小题2:We can learn from the passage that the writer would like to .
A．forget about Christmas stories
B．get the neighbors to put up their trees
C．buy a better tree to celebrate Christmas
D．make other decorations rather than Christmas trees小题3:When the writer said “my mother bought what she thought to be a bargain”, he means .
A．she bought the tree at a cheap price
B．she didn’t really want to buy it
C．she had to bargain hard with the salesman
D．she couldn’t afford a more expensive one小题4:Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A．How to Select a Christmas Tree
B．No More Christmas Tree for Us
C．Dark Moments of Life
D．Christmas Without Trees
