One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap(包装).
On September 11th. 1958. Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying. "I promised you a gift, and here it is. " What an honor! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories. 1 told it over and over how much I loved it!
One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it. Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as "hopeless", "pitiful", and "dying", which sounded ominous.
Christmas was coming. "Don’t expect any presents this year." Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room. "If your baby brother lives, that'll be Christmas enough.” As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears. I'd never seen him cry before.
The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say. "What? He's all right?" He hung up and shouted upstairs. " The hospital said we can bring Richard home!"
"Thank God.'" I heard Mum cry.
From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I downstairs. My sacks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!
小题1:What happened to the author on September 11 1958 ?
A．He received a doll
B．He got a Christmas gift.
C．He became four years old.
D．He got a baby brother.小题2:What does the underlined word “ominous” in Paragraph 3 probably mean？
A．Fearful.
B．Boring.
C．Difficult.
D．Impossible.小题3:Which word can best describe the feeling of the father when Christmas was coming?
A．Excitement.
B．Happiness.
C．Disappointment.
D．Sadness.小题4:What is the passage mainly about ?
A．A sad Christmas day.
B．A special Christmas gift.
C．Life with a lovely baby.
D．Memories of a happy family.
The Aborigines believed that spirits made people, animals and plants, and that these spirits still live in the earth. For Aborigines, no one can own the earth—the earth belongs to the spirits.