Never mind the money, enjoy the sale
by moll flowers
last weekend, my husband and i moved from our two-bedroom apartment to a new house. before moving, we held a yard sale. we owned clothing we hadn't worn in years, furniture that had been relegated to the attic, and a bunch of outmoded electronic devices. we figured it didn't make sense to move these things to our new house. they had no remaining value to us. so why not get rid of them and have fun doing it?
while the decision to host a yard sale might have been easy, the preparation was anything but. first off, my husband hurt his back while carrying a shelf down the front steps of the apartment. second, it started raining on saturday morning, and we didn't have a tarp or anything to cover our possessions to keep them dry. third, my husband and i spent most of the first day arguing about the value of our belongings-and these were things we hadn't used in years!
the truth is that we'd gotten distracted by irrelevant details. the moment we stopped worrying about pricing and profits, we were able to relax. from that point forward, the yard sale was actually fun. almost every one of our neighbors stopped by to chat with us about the things we were selling. these were people who had lived on our street for years, and yet in all that time we'd never really gotten to know them. in fact, by the end of the weekend, i think we'd befriended more neighbors in two days than we had in years.
depending on how you look at it, our yard sale was both a success and a failure. we probably made less than a 100 dollars, and my husband's back injury prevented him from much with the move. and yet, despite these setbacks, it was one of the more enjoyable weekends of the summer. in fact, we've decided not to have a housewarming party when we move into our new place. we figure it makes more sense to have a yard sale.
5
select the correct answer.
the main purpose of the second paragraph of this passage is to
a.
introduce the idea that the author relies heavily upon her husband.
b.
suggest that the narrator is not fully prepared for a yard sale.
c.
question the practice of holding yard sales outdoors during winter.
d.
criticize anyone who is simple enough to try to profit from a yard sale.