阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
The Christmas of 1949 we didn’t have a tree. My dad had as much 1 as anybody, I suppose, so he wouldn’t just say that we couldn’t 2 one.
When I 3 it, my mother said we weren’t going to have one this year, and that even if we could, it was stupid to 4 your house with a dead tree.
I wanted a tree badly 5 , and I thought if we had one, everybody would feel better.
About three days before Christmas, I was out 6 money for my paper route（巡回送报）. It was fairly late, snowing and 7 . I went to the apartment building to try to 8 a customer who hadn’t paid me for nearly two months - she 9 me seven dollars. Much to my surprise, she was home. And she even gave me a dollar tip! It was a 10 for me.
On the way home, I walked past a Christmas tree lot and the idea 11 me. It had been a very expensive tree and no one had bought it. 12 it was so close to Christmas that the man was afraid no one 13 . He wanted ten dollars for it, but when I, in my childlike 14 , told him I only had eight, he Said he might sell it for that. I really didn’t want to spend the 15__ eight dollars on the tree, but it was so pretty that I finally agreed.
I dragged it all the way home and I tried hard not to damage it or 16 any branches. The __17 helped to cushion it, and it was still in pretty good 18 when I got home. You can’t imagine how proud and excited I was. I put it up 19 the fence on our front porch（门廊）and went in.
My heart was 20 as I announced that I had a surprise. Then, that night, my family, especially I, enjoyed a happy and complete Christmas eve together.
