My 14-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. All the other coats drooped(低垂)1 this one looked as if it were holding itself up. The coat had beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and a (an) 2 price of$28, which was popular just then with 3 , but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better with that 4 of classic elegance(优雅). John tried it on and it was perfect.
John wore the coat to school the next day and came home 5 a broad smile."Did the kids like your coat?"I asked."They loved it,"he said, 6 folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, a 7 came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness(作对) and reasoned discussion replaced fierce(激烈的) 8 . He became more mannerly and 9 , eager to please. He would generously lend his younger brother his bike,which he 10 wouldn't.
When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and 11 what caused the changes, she said laughing,"It 12 be his coat!"Another teacher told him she was giving him a good mark not only because he had earned 13 but because she liked his coat. At the library, we 14 a friend."Could this be John?"he asked surprisingly, 15 John's new height, assessing(评估)the cut of his coat and extending(伸出) his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never 16 a person's clothes for the real person within them. 17 there is something to be said for wearing a standard(标准) of excellence for the world to see and for 18 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 ways to life as it is to try on a19 . The whole world, the whole future is right ahead, a vast landscape(风景) where all the doors are open. And he could 20 himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful,magical coat.
