7、O．Henry was an American short-story writer, a master of surprising endings, who wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York City．A twist of plot, which turns on an ironic or coincidental circumstance, is typical of O．Henry’s stories．

William Sydney Porter （O．Henry） was born in North Carolina．His father was a physician．When William was three, his mother died, and he was raised by his grandmother and aunt．At the age of fifteen he left school, and then worked in a drug store．He moved to Houston, where he had a number of jobs, including that of a bank clerk．After moving to Austin, Texas, in 1882, he married．

In 1884 he started a humorous weekly The Rolling Stone．When the weekly failed, he joined the Houston Post as a reporter and columnist．In 1897 he was convicted of embezzling money, although there has been much debate over his actual guilt．

While in prison O．Henry started to write short stories to earn money to support his daughter Margaret．His first work, Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking （1899）, appeared in McClure’s Magazine．After doing three years of the five-year sentence, Porter emerged from the prison in 1901 and changed his name to O．Henry．

O．Henry moved to New York City in 1902 and from December 1903 to January 1906 he wrote a story a week for the New York World, also was published in other magazines．Henry’s first collection, Cabbages and Kings appeared in 1904．The second, The Four Million, was published two years later and included his well-known stories The Gift of the Magi and The Furnished Room．O．Henry published 10 collections and over 600 short stories during his lifetime．

O．Henry’s last years were shadowed by ill health and financial problems．He married Sara Lindsay Coleman in 1907, but the marriage was not happy, and they separated one year later．O．Henry died on June 5, 1910, in New York．

1．The following statements are the characteristics of O．Henry’s stories except ______．

       A．the stories often end with surprising endings

       B．there are a lot of coincidences in his stories

       C．the stories are mainly about common people

       D．his own experiences are main subjects in his stories

2．We can infer from the text that ______．

A．O．Henry’s mother’s death resulted in his leaving school
B．O．Henry earned much money by starting the Weekly

      C．some people believed O．Henry was put in prison for no good reason
D．his daughter asked O．Henry to write short stories

3．One of O．Henry’s most famous stories The Gift of the Magi came out in ______．

       A．1902                 B．1904                  C．1906                  D．1907

4．What do you think of O．Henry’s life?

       A．Rough．            B．Smooth．           C．Rich．              D．Happy．