【美国故事】圣诞礼物 (1/7)

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美国故事是一档标准美音慢速英语听力节目，故事情节幽默风趣、语言生动，适合想要提高英语听力和口语的童鞋~~速来围观吧~~^_^

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Della
JimOne dollar and eighty-seven cents, that was all. And sixty cents of it in the smallest pieces of money---pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by negotiating with the man at the market who sold vegetables and meat. Negotiating until one's face burned with the silent knowledge of being poor. Three times Della counted it, one dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but sit down and cry. So Della cried, which led to the thought that life is made up of little cries and smiles, with more little cries than smiles.
Della finished her crying and dried her face. She stood by the window and looked out unhappily at a gray cat walking along a gray fence in a gray back yard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy her husband Jim a gift. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result.
Jim earned twenty dollars a week, which does not go far. Expenses had been greater than she had expected. They always are. Many a happy hour she had spent planning to buy something nice for him, something fine and rare, something close to being worthy of the honor of belonging to Jim.