Lesson 7
The Gift of the Magi (Ⅱ)

O. Henry

(adapted by Karen Leggett)

Guidance

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread. —Mother Tere

人们对爱的渴望，比饥饿的人对面包的渴望更加强烈。——特蕾莎修女

Th door opened and Jim stepped in. He looked thin and very serious. Poor man, he was only twenty-two and he had to care for a wife. He needed a new coat and gloves to keep his hands warm.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a dog smelling a bird. His eyes were fixe upon Della. Ther was an expression in them that she could not read, and it frightened her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor fear, nor any of the feelings that she had been prepared for. He simply looked at her with a strange expression on his face. Della went to him.

“Jim, my love,” she cried, “do not look at me that way. I had my hair cut and sold because I could not have lived through Christmas without giving you a gift My hair will grow out again.I just had to do it. My hair grows very fast. Say ‘Merry Christmas!’ Jim, and let us be happy. You

do not know what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gif I have for you.①”

“You have cut of your hair?” asked Jim, slowly, as if he had not accepted the information even afte his mind worked very hard.

“Cut it of and sold it,” said Della. “Do you not like me just as well? I am the same person without my hair, right?”

Jim looked about the room as if he were looking for something.

“You say your hair is gone?” he asked.

“You need not look for it,” said Della. “It is sold, I tell you—sold and gone, too. It is Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it was cut for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,” she went on with sudden serious sweetness②, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the meat on, Jim?”

Jim seemed to awaken quickly and put his arms around Della. The he took a package from his coat and threw it on the table.

“Do not make any mistake about me, Dell,” he said. “I do not think there is any haircut that could make me like my girl any less. But if you will open that package you may see why you had me frightened at first.

White finger quickly tore at the string and paper. Ther was a scream of joy; and then,alas! A change to tears and cries, requiring the man of the house to use all his skill to calm his wife.

For there were the combs—the special set of objects to hold her hair that Della had wanted ever since she saw them in a shop window. Beautiful combs, made of shells, with jewels at the edge—just the color to wear in the beautiful hair that was no longer hers. The cost a lot of money, she knew, and her heart had wanted them without ever hoping to have them. And now,the beautiful combs were hers, but the hair that should have touched them was gone.

But she held the combs to herself, and soon she was able to look up with a smile and say,“My hair grows so fast, Jim!”③

The Della jumped up like a little burned cat and cried, “Oh, oh!”

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful gift She happily held it out to him in her open hands.Th silver chain seemed so bright.

“Isn’t it wonderful, Jim? I looked all over town to fin it. You will have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it.”

Instead of obeying, Jim fell on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

“Della,” said he, “let us put our Christmas gift away and keep them a while. The are too nice to use just right now. I sold my gold watch to get the money to buy the set of combs for your hair. And now, why not put the meat on.”

Th magi were wise men—wonderfully wise men—who brought gift to the Baby Jesus.They invented the art of giving Christmas gifts. Being wise, their gifts were wise ones. And here I have told you the story of two young people who most unwisely gave for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days, let it be said that of all who give gifts, these two were the wises. Everywhere they are wisest. The are the magi.

(772 words)

Notes

① You do not know what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gif I have for you. 你肯定猜不着我给你买了一件多么好的——多么美丽精致的礼物啊！德拉急于向吉姆解释自己剪掉长发的原因，着意强调礼物的美好和重要性，因而在nice一词的基础上又赶紧用beautiful来进行修饰，也意在试图转移吉姆的注意力。

②...she went on with sudden serious sweetness...突然她特别温柔地接下去……

sudden意为“突然”，德拉已经解释了好几遍，但她发现吉姆一直没回过神来，所以她马上在话语中让自己的爱意流露得更为直白和明显，serious一词也体现了sweetness在一定程度上的刻意性。此外，从写作技巧的角度来看，作者使用了押头韵的艺术手法，sudden serious sweetness的第一个音素均为摩擦清辅音/s/，与人们日常生活中耳语时的声音相近，从而触发读者的形象感和画面感，从语音和语义两个层面增强了文本的表现力。

③ “My hair grows so fast, Jim!” “我的头发长得飞快，吉姆！”德拉在这一刻悲喜交加，但她依然极力地表现自己的喜悦，给这件礼物赋予希望。于是她再一次强调自己的头发长得很快，马上就可以佩戴这把梳子，试图以此来掩盖内心的悲伤难过，但这美好的未来也因此与惨淡的现实形成了愈加强烈的对比，更加使人心酸。

Practice

Ⅰ. Reading comprehension

1. What was Jim possibly thinking when he firs saw Della with short hair?

A. He was totally shocked and couldn’t believe his eyes.

B. He suddenly realized that he sold his golden watch for nothing.

C. He sensed that there was a serious reason behind and was terrifie a little.

D. All of the above.

2. Th underlined word “awaken” in Paragraph 9 can be replaced by.

A. regain consciousness B. breathe again C. come back D. become active 3. Why did Dalla let out a scream of joy when she saw the combs?

A. Because the combs were very beautiful.

B. Because the combs were exactly what she had wanted.

C. Because she liked the color of the combs.

D. Because the combs were inexpensive.

4. Translate the underlined sentence in Paragraph 19 into Chinese.

5. Jim and Della gave each other the greatest treasures of their own as Christmas gifts which are highly valued in the western culture. Are they as wise as recognized by the author? Why?

Ⅲ. Writing practice