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My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. While the other coats drooped (低垂), this one looked as if it were 1 . 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, bearing (具 有) that 4 of classic elegance. John tried it on and the fit was perfect.
John5the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big smile “Did the kids like your coat?” I asked. “They loved it,” he said, 6folding 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 8 . He became more mannerly and9 , eager to please. He would generously lend his younger sister his tapes and lecture her10 her behavior.
When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and11what caused the changes, she said laughing. “It12be his coat!” Another teacher told him she was giving him a good 13 not only because he had earned 14 but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend. “Could this be John?” he asked surprisingly, 15 John's new height, assessing(评估) the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never 16a person's clothes for the real person within them. 17there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for 18what 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 approaches to 19as it is to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast landscape 20 all the doors are open. And he could picture himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.
