Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Four people describe the same classmate who spends very little money: thrifty, careful, cheap, stingy. Rank the words from the kindest to the harshest. Then answer: if a friend said your new jacket 'looks like a million dollars,' is the statement true? What does it mean?"

   Collect rankings and point out that all four words have about the same dictionary meaning, the denotation, but carry different feelings, the connotation. The jacket line is figurative: it is not literally true, but it means the jacket looks expensive and great. Tell students that authors choose each word for its connotation and use figures of speech on purpose, and that RL.8.4 asks them to explain what those choices do.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Terms to know:

   • Denotation: the dictionary meaning of a word. Connotation: the feelings and ideas a word carries beyond that meaning. "Stingy" and "thrifty" have similar denotations and opposite connotations.
   • Figurative language: words used to mean more than they literally say. A simile compares with "like" or "as"; a metaphor says one thing is another; personification gives human actions to things.
   • Context clues: nearby words that help you work out what a word means as it is used.
   • Tone: the writer's attitude toward the subject, such as playful, tender or mocking. Word choice creates tone.
   • Analogy: a comparison that explains one thing by showing how it is like another.
   • Allusion: a short reference to a well-known text, person or event, such as a story from the Bible or a play by Shakespeare. The writer expects the reader to know the source and borrows its meaning.

   Introduce the text: O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter, an American writer known for short stories with surprise endings. The Gift of the Magi takes place in a small rented apartment in New York the day before Christmas, in the early 1900s. Words to know: imputation (a suggestion that someone did something wrong), instigates (starts, causes), predominating (making up the largest part), subsiding (calming down), flat (apartment), vestibule (entrance hall), appertaining thereunto (belonging to it; a very formal phrase), prosperity (a time of having money), sterling (of high quality; sterling silver is solid silver), pier-glass (a tall, narrow mirror), longitudinal strips (long, thin slices), conception (idea), airshaft (a narrow open space between buildings), depreciate (make something seem less valuable), Her Majesty (a title for a queen), faltered (hesitated) and Mme. (Madame). Read the first two passages aloud while students follow the numbered paragraphs. Paragraph numbers restart in each passage.

   1One 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 the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

   2There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

   3While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding 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, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

   4In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James Dillingham Young.” The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze 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.

   5Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling—something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim.

   1There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

   2Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colour within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

   3Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

   4So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

   5On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

   6Where she stopped the sign read: “Mme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.” One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the “Sofronie.”

   7“Will you buy my hair?” asked Della.

   8“I buy hair,” said Madame. “Take yer hat off and let’s have a sight at the looks of it.”

   9Down rippled the brown cascade. “Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

   10“Give it to me quick,” said Della.

   • Meaning from context

     Della saved pennies "by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied" (first passage, paragraph 1). What does "the silent imputation of parsimony" mean?

     Result: Context clues: she argues over every penny, and her cheeks burn, so she feels ashamed. "Close dealing" means bargaining hard. An imputation is a suggestion that someone did wrong, and parsimony is stinginess. The phrase means that the shopkeepers never said so, but their looks accused her of being cheap. O. Henry uses a grand, formal phrase for a small, painful moment, which makes it funny and sad at once.

   • Connotation

     O. Henry writes that Della saved "by bulldozing the grocer" (first passage, paragraph 1) and that there was "nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl" (paragraph 2). Why these words and not plainer ones?

     Result: "Bargaining with" would have about the same denotation, but "bulldozing" connotes pushing hard, like a machine flattening everything in its way. "Flop down ... and howl" connotes a dramatic, almost childish collapse; "sit and cry" would be sad and nothing more. The narrator then turns it into a joke: life is "sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating" (paragraph 2). The connotations make the tone gently comic, so the reader feels sympathy without despair (Diagram 1).

   • Word play and tone

     The flat "did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad" (first passage, paragraph 3). How does the word play work, and what tone does it create?

     Result: "To beggar description" is an idiom: to be too amazing to describe. O. Henry pretends to take "beggar" literally. A mendicant is a beggar, and the "mendicancy squad" was the police unit that picked up beggars. So the flat is not quite so poor that the police would come for it, but close. The joke tells the reader the flat is very poor while keeping the tone light and witty instead of pitying.

   • Figurative meaning: simile and metaphor

     "So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her" (second passage, paragraph 4). What do the two comparisons mean?

     Result: The simile compares the hair to a cascade, a waterfall: long, flowing, shining and full of movement. The metaphor "almost a garment" says the hair is so long it nearly clothes her. Together they show how rich and beautiful her one treasure is, which makes the reader feel how much she gives up when she sells it a few paragraphs later.

   • Allusion and analogy

     "Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts" (second passage, paragraph 3). King Solomon appears in the next sentence. What do the allusions add?

     Result: In the Bible (1 Kings 10), the Queen of Sheba visits King Solomon with gold, spices and precious stones, and Solomon is famous for his riches. O. Henry imagines both of them as neighbors: Della's hair would make the queen's jewels look cheap, and Jim's watch would make Solomon "pluck at his beard from envy." The comparison is a deliberate exaggeration. It shows that to this poor couple the hair and the watch are worth more than a king's treasure, and the tone is playful and proud (Diagram 2).

   Meaning, choice, effect. Model the three moves with each example: state what the word or phrase means here, using context clues; explain the choice, by naming the figure of speech or comparing the word with a plainer one; and describe the effect on meaning and tone. Give two sentence frames: "In paragraph __, '___' means ___; a plainer word would be ___, but O. Henry's word suggests ___." and "The allusion to ___ reminds readers of ___, which shows ___ and makes the tone ___."

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Read the third passage aloud. Words to know: ransacking (searching roughly), platinum (a precious silver-white metal), fob chain (a chain for a pocket watch), proclaiming (announcing), on the sly (secretly), prudence (good sense and caution), curling irons (heated tools for curling hair), truant (skipping school) and chops (cuts of meat).

   1Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim’s present.

   2She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation—as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and value—the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

   3When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends—a mammoth task.

   4Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

   5“If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself, “before he takes a second look at me, he’ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do—oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?”

   6At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

   7Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: “Please God, make him think I am still pretty.”

   8The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two—and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

   Pairs work through four phrases, one at a time. Ask each question before revealing the teacher note.

   1. "Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor." (paragraph 1). What does the first sentence mean, and why does the narrator add the second? Teacher note: the hours are given feet that trip along and wings that fly, a mix of two figures of speech that means the time passed quickly and happily. "Hashed" means chopped up and mixed, like hash; the narrator admits his metaphor is a jumble and jokes about it, which keeps the tone playful and friendly.
   2. "a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation" (paragraph 2). Use context to find the meaning of "chaste" and "meretricious." Teacher note: the contrast gives the clue. "Chaste" here means pure and plain, and "meretricious" means showy but cheap. The words praise quiet quality over flash, and the next lines apply them to Jim: "Quietness and value" and "the description applied to both" are O. Henry's way of describing a person through a thing.
   3. "went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends" (paragraph 3). What tone do these words create? Teacher note: "ravages" means terrible damage, the kind left by war or a storm, and here it means a short haircut. The huge word for a small problem, plus "dear friends," makes the tone mock-serious: the narrator is teasing Della gently and inviting the reader to smile with him.
   4. "he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl" (paragraph 5). What does the reference mean? Teacher note: Coney Island was a famous New York amusement area, and its chorus girls danced in its shows. The reference is to a place and its performers, not to a text, but it works like an allusion: Della fears that her short curls make her look flashy rather than pretty and respectable.

   Show Diagram 1 and have pairs add one row from the third passage: a word of their choice, a plainer word, and what O. Henry's word adds. Each pair then writes a two-sentence answer about one of the four phrases: what it means, and how it affects the tone.

4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes

   Students read the last two passages on their own. Words to know: setter (a kind of hunting dog), quail (a small game bird), sentiments (feelings), laboriously (slowly, with great effort), idiocy (foolishness), enfolded (wrapped in his arms), scrutiny (a close look), assertion (statement), nimble (quick), ecstatic (overjoyed), tortoise shell (a hard, mottled brown material from a turtle's shell, once used for combs), singed (slightly burned), dandy (old slang for something excellent) and chronicle (a record of events told in order).

   1Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

   2Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

   3“Jim, darling,” she cried, “don’t look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It’ll grow out again—you won’t mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say ‘Merry Christmas!’ Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for you.”

   4“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.

   5“Cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, ain’t I?”

   6Jim looked about the room curiously.

   7“You say your hair is gone?” he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

   8“You needn’t look for it,” said Della. “It’s sold, I tell you—sold and gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,” she went on with sudden serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?”

   9Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year—what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

   10Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

   11“Don’t make any mistake, Dell,” he said, “about me. I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first.”

   1White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

   2For there lay The Combs—the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims—just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

   3But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim!”

   4And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, “Oh, oh!”

   5Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

   6“Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll 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.”

   7Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

   8“Dell,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ’em a while. They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.”

   9The magi, as you know, were wise men—wonderfully wise men—who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed 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 wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

   On the handout, students fill in a chart with four columns (Word or phrase, Meaning here, Figurative or connotative, Effect on tone) for five phrases of their choice, at least two from each passage. Then they answer in three or four sentences: what does the last paragraph of the story add by comparing Jim and Della to the magi? The quiz uses both passages; its answers are not discussed until students have finished the chart.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) In one sentence, explain the difference between the denotation and the connotation of a word, with an example from the story. (2) Choose one simile, metaphor or allusion from any passage, quote it with its passage and paragraph number, and explain what it adds to the tone.

   Teacher note on language: O. Henry wrote in 1906, and some of his phrases reflect ideas of the time. In the fifth passage he describes Della's reaction as "a quick feminine change to hysterical tears"; discuss this as a dated view of women. The story's allusions come from the Bible (the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon, the magi and the saying that the hairs of one's head are numbered). Treat them as literary references that readers of the time would have known, and give students the background they need. Spellings such as "colour" and "honour" and slang such as "dandy" are O. Henry's and are kept exactly.

   For homework: students read the opening of another O. Henry story from the same book, The Cop and the Anthem, printed below. Soapy is a homeless man in New York who, as winter comes, plans to get himself sent to jail on Blackwell's Island, where he will have a bed and meals until spring. Words to know: denizens (people who live in a place), pasteboard (here, a calling card), footman (a servant who opens doors and delivers messages), cognisant (aware), Committee of Ways and Means (the committee of Congress that plans how to raise money), rigour (harshness), soporific (sleepy), the Vesuvian Bay (the Bay of Naples in Italy), congenial (friendly), Boreas (the north wind in Greek myth), bluecoats (police officers, who wore blue coats), Blackwell's (Blackwell's Island in New York's East River, with a jail and a workhouse), Palm Beach and the Riviera (warm places where rich people spent the winter), hegira (a journey to escape), repulse (drive back), philanthropy (giving to help others), eleemosynary (supported by charity), encumbered (weighed down), inquisition (a harsh questioning) and Caesar and Brutus (the Roman ruler Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of senators that included his friend Brutus; the story is best known from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, and "Caesar had his Brutus" was also a famous line in a 1765 speech by Patrick Henry).

   1On his bench in Madison Square Soapy moved uneasily. When wild geese honk high of nights, and when women without sealskin coats grow kind to their husbands, and when Soapy moves uneasily on his bench in the park, you may know that winter is near at hand.

   2A dead leaf fell in Soapy’s lap. That was Jack Frost’s card. Jack is kind to the regular denizens of Madison Square, and gives fair warning of his annual call. At the corners of four streets he hands his pasteboard to the North Wind, footman of the mansion of All Outdoors, so that the inhabitants thereof may make ready.

   3Soapy’s mind became cognisant of the fact that the time had come for him to resolve himself into a singular Committee of Ways and Means to provide against the coming rigour. And therefore he moved uneasily on his bench.

   4The hibernatorial ambitions of Soapy were not of the highest. In them there were no considerations of Mediterranean cruises, of soporific Southern skies drifting in the Vesuvian Bay. Three months on the Island was what his soul craved. Three months of assured board and bed and congenial company, safe from Boreas and bluecoats, seemed to Soapy the essence of things desirable.

   5For years the hospitable Blackwell’s had been his winter quarters. Just as his more fortunate fellow New Yorkers had bought their tickets to Palm Beach and the Riviera each winter, so Soapy had made his humble arrangements for his annual hegira to the Island. And now the time was come. On the previous night three Sabbath newspapers, distributed beneath his coat, about his ankles and over his lap, had failed to repulse the cold as he slept on his bench near the spurting fountain in the ancient square. So the Island loomed big and timely in Soapy’s mind. He scorned the provisions made in the name of charity for the city’s dependents. In Soapy’s opinion the Law was more benign than Philanthropy. There was an endless round of institutions, municipal and eleemosynary, on which he might set out and receive lodging and food accordant with the simple life. But to one of Soapy’s proud spirit the gifts of charity are encumbered. If not in coin you must pay in humiliation of spirit for every benefit received at the hands of philanthropy. As Caesar had his Brutus, every bed of charity must have its toll of a bath, every loaf of bread its compensation of a private and personal inquisition. Wherefore it is better to be a guest of the law, which though conducted by rules, does not meddle unduly with a gentleman’s private affairs.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which pair of words has nearly the same denotation but very different connotations?

   Atall and short, which name opposite heights Bthrifty and stingy, which both mean careful with money Chappy and glad, which feel about the same Driver and waterfall, which name different things

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail" (fourth passage, paragraph 1). What does the simile suggest?

   AJim is angry and ready to attack Della BJim wants to go out hunting instead of staying home CJim is frozen in place, every bit of his attention fixed on Della DJim is worn out and too cold to move after his long walk home from work

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The narrator says Jim's expression "was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for" (fourth passage, paragraph 1). What is the effect of this list?

   AIt builds suspense: neither Della nor the reader can tell what Jim feels BIt proves that Jim feels all four of these emotions at the very same moment CIt shows that Della does not care how Jim reacts to her haircut DIt makes the scene funny by showing Jim making silly faces

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Jim asks about the hair "laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor" (fourth passage, paragraph 4). What does "patent" mean here?

   AProtected by law, like a new invention BShiny and smooth, like patent leather CHidden, so that no one can easily see it DObvious, plain for anyone to see

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Della says, "Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," and then, "but nobody could ever count my love for you" (fourth passage, paragraph 8). Her words allude to a Bible saying that the very hairs of your head are all numbered. What does the allusion add?

   AIt shows that Della is angry at Jim for asking so many questions about her hair BIt turns a saying about counted hairs into a claim that her love is countless CIt proves that Della has read the whole Bible and wants Jim to know DIt makes the scene more comic by comparing hair to money

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction" (fourth passage, paragraph 9). What is the narrator asking readers to do?

   AExamine the flat closely for clues about the ending BCount to ten while Jim decides what to say to Della CLook politely away from the couple's private moment DIgnore the story's ending, because it is unimportant

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "This dark assertion will be illuminated later on" (fourth passage, paragraph 9). What does the sentence mean?

   AThis puzzling statement will be explained later in the story BThis sad statement will be forgotten by the end of the story CThe flat will grow darker until someone lights the gas DThis false statement will be proved wrong in the end

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "Della wriggled off the table and went for him" (fourth passage, paragraph 2). What does the word "wriggled" suggest that "stepped" would not?

   ADella is calm and dignified as she walks across the room to Jim BDella moves in a quick, squirming, childlike way, full of nerves CDella is hurt and can hardly move from the table DDella is trying to hide from Jim behind the table

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone" (fifth passage, paragraph 2). What does this phrase mean?

   AThe long hair that should have worn the combs she longed for was gone BThe combs she had wanted were broken when Jim threw the package on the table CThe jewels on the combs were fake and would soon fall off DThe hair she sold would grow back in time to wear the combs

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The combs are ones "that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window" (fifth passage, paragraph 2). What is the connotation of "worshipped" here?

    ADella prayed in a church near the store every week BDella thought the combs were too expensive to be worth buying CDella admired the combs with deep, almost religious longing DDella disliked the combs but pretended to like them

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, 'Oh, oh!'" (fifth passage, paragraph 4). What does the simile show?

    ADella has burned her hand on the stove while cooking the chops BDella is angry at Jim and wants to scratch him like a cat CDella is scared of Jim and wants to run out of the room DShe jumps up suddenly because she has remembered her own gift

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit" (fifth passage, paragraph 5). What does the sentence mean?

    AThe chain is so shiny in the gaslight that it hurts Jim's eyes to look at it BDella's eager, loving excitement seems to make even the dull chain shine CThe chain is fake metal that only looks precious in bright light DDella is angry, and her face turns bright red with it

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to the last paragraph of the story, who were the magi?

    ATwo foolish children who lived in a flat in New York BKings who were jealous of Solomon's treasure and wealth CShopkeepers who first sold Christmas presents on Broadway DWise men who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In the last paragraph, the narrator first calls Jim and Della "two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed" their treasures, then says "these two were the wisest." What is the effect of this change?

    AIt shows the narrator cannot decide what he thinks of the couple BIt proves the couple were foolish, since both gifts are now useless CIt turns from gentle teasing to admiration: giving from love is the wisest gift DIt makes fun of the magi for giving gifts that could be exchanged

15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The narrator says the magi's gifts were "possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication" (fifth passage, paragraph 9). Why is this phrase funny?

    AIt gives the ancient wise men a modern store's return policy BIt suggests that the magi stole the gifts they brought and had to return them CIt means that Jim and Della will return the combs and the chain to the store DIt shows that the magi forgot what gifts they were bringing to the manger

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    "Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled" (fifth passage, paragraph 7). What is the connotation of "tumbled," and what does the whole sentence suggest about how Jim takes the news he is about to share?

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17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Jim says, "I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less" (fourth passage, paragraph 11). What tone do these everyday words create, and why might O. Henry have Jim speak so plainly?

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18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    When Della bursts into tears over the combs, the narrator says this required "the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat" (fifth passage, paragraph 1). What does the phrase mean in plain words, and what tone do the grand, formal words create?

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19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    "The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them" (fourth passage, paragraph 9). The sentence before it asks what difference there is between "Eight dollars a week or a million a year." What does "that" refer to, and what does the narrator suggest about the value of gifts?

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write 4-6 sentences: O. Henry's tone in this story is both humorous and tender. Choose one word choice from the fourth or fifth passage that makes the tone humorous and one that makes it tender. Quote both, explain what each means, and explain how each shapes the tone.

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These standards connect to RL.8.4: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.