My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. While the other coats drooped(低垂), this one looked as if it were__21__. The coat had beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and a(an)__22__ price of $28, which was popular just then with__23__ , but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better, bearing that __24__ of classic elegance. John tried it on and the fit was perfect.
John __25__ the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big smile "Did the kids like your coat?" I asked. "They loved it," he said, __26__ folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, a __27__ came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness(作对)and reasoned discussion replaced fierce __28__. He became more mannerly and __29__, eager to please. He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him __30__his behavior.
When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and __31__ what caused the changes, she said laughing. "It __32__ be his coat!" Another teacher told him she was giving him a good__33__ not only because he
had earned __34__but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend “Could this be John?" he asked surprisingly, __35__John's new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never __36__a person's clothes for the real person within them. __37__ there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for __38__what is on the inside to what is on the outside.
For John it is a time when it is as easy to try on different approaches to __39__ as it is to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast landscape__40__ all the doors are open. And he could picture himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.
21. A. turning itself up B. holding itself up C. showing itself up D. hanging itself up
22. A. unreasonable B. expected C. unbelievable D. acceptable
23. A. teenagers B. adults C. women D. strangers
24. A. color B. price C. style D. size
25. A. sent B. carried C. lent D. wore
26. A. casually B. comfortably C. carefully D. quickly
27. A. happiness B. change C. smile D. matter
28. A. doubt B. fight C. argument D. war
29. A. thoughtful B. handsome C. hopeful D. curious
30. A. of B. on C. with D. at
31. A. wondered B. confirmed C. concluded D. discovered
32. A. can B. must C. will D. should
33. A. present B. mark C. word D. result
34. A. this B. them C. it D. one
35.A. looking up at B. looking down to C. checking up D. taking up
36. A. trust B. mistake C. exchange D. regard
37. A. But B. Though C. Since D. So
38. A. attaching B. connecting C. relating D. matching
39. A. career B. life C. study D. success
40. A. where B. why C. how D. when