Topic：What is gumption? Give examples to show that Russell lacked it while Doris had too much.
【正确答案】：Gumption is a common sense or ability to do things actively and bravely. Absolutely Russell Baker, when he was as young as 8 years old, didn't show any signs of gumption.
Being a quiet and reserved boy. he liked to shut himself in his room and rehd stories. His mother didn't like that. In order to make something of him and prevent him from becoming a good-for-nothing or a laborer like his father, she decided to start him on the road toward success. She invited home a man from a publishing company and introduced little Russell to him. The man encourage Russell to sell the Post after school. The man asked him many questions to which his mother answered for him. On the first day of his selling the Post, he didn't sell one copy.
Contrast to him, Doris, his younger sister, had much more gumption. When she was only seven years old, she was able to carry short-weighted cheese back to the store and threaten the manager with legal action, and come back triumphantly with the full amount and a few ounces extra thrown in for forgiveness. One rainy day when Russell Baker came back home from the street without one copy sold, Doris was entrusted to help. She successfully disposed of all the thirty copies before the traffic light changed half a dozen times.
Being in the business of selling magazines for three years,he was a failure. Mrs. Backer concluded that her son should shift to a job which was less competitive.
