The jolly, red-suited man who () into your home every year to leave you gifs hasn'

t always been so jolly. The real Saint Nick was a Turkish monk who lived in the 3rd century. He was () for being charitable and selfless, eventually becoming the patron saint of sailors and children. According to legend, he was a rich man thanks to an () from his parents, but he gave it all away in the form. of gifts to the less fortunate. He eventually became the most popular saint in Europe and, through his alter ego. Santa Claus, remains so to this day. But how did a long dead Turkish monk became a big, fat, reindeer. riding pole dweller？

The Dutch got the ball rolling by celebrating the saint- called Sinter Klaas- in New York in the latc-18" century. Our old friend, Washington Irving, included the legend of Saint Nick in his seminal History of New York as well, but at the turn of the 181 century, Saint Nick was still a rather () figure in America.

On December 23, 1823, though, a man named Clement Clarke Moore published a poem he had written for his daughters called “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas," better known now as ‘T’ as the night before Christmas." Nobody knows how much of the poem Moore invented, but we do know that it was the spark that () lit the Santa fire. Many of the things we associated with Santa一a sleigh, reindeer, Christmas Eve visits一came from Moore's poem.

1.

A.hops

B.jumps

C.sneaks

D. skips

2.

A.known

B.observed

C. remarked

D.commented

3.

A.persistance

B.inheritance

C.insistence

D.instance

4.

Awell-known

B.popular

C.obscure

D.famous

5.

A. actually

B. generally

C. eventfully

D. eventually