《American short story masterpieces》课件10--The Gift of the Magi.docVIP

Passage Ten The Gift of the Magi O. Henry One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing (threatening) the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until ones cheek burned with the silent imputation (归罪，责怪) of parsimony （小气，吝啬） that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas. There was clearly nothing left to do but flop down （扑通一声倒下）on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it, which instigates （stimulates） the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles (哽咽声) predominating. While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding （平息下来） from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description （这不难描述）, but it certainly had that word on the look-out for the mendicancy squad （乞讨队伍；丐帮）. In the vestibule （门道，门厅） below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax （handle well lightly） a ring. Also appertaining (belonging to) thereunto (there) was a card bearing the name Mr. James Dillingham Young. The Dillingham had been flung to the breeze ( 在微风中飘荡) during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, the letters of Dillingham looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called Jim and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della, which is all very good. Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag （擦粉的破布）. She stood by the window and looked out dully （闷闷不乐地） at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day