My mother asked me what I wanted as a birthday present recently, and I struggled to come up with an answer. “What do I want, that is reasonably priced and small enough to post?” I thought. “Ummm… socks?”
It isn’t easy to pick gifts. Pity the poor civil servants who have to prepare presents for Donald Trump. It is customary for world leaders to receive gifts when they visit foreign nations. What do you buy a man who has everything, and who believes he deserves even more?
How about a gold crown? That’s what South Korea gave to Trump this week. It is easy to see why they thought he would like it.
A 400 million Dollar jet? Qatar gifted a plane to the American president, who promised to donate it to his presidential library when he leaves office.
It can also be embarrassing if the gift that you give another person doesn’t match the value of the one that they have given you.
When Obama was the president and he visited the U.K. to meet our prime minister, Gordon Brown, they exchanged gifts. Brown gave Obama a specially made pen holder crafted from the wood of a famous anti-slavery ship, as well as a biography of Winston Churchill. Obama gave Brown a box set of dvds of Hollywood movies.
He probably would have been better with a pair of nice socks.
Vocabulary:
to knock
someone’s socks off – to amaze or impress someone
[eg., You
must try this tiramisu. It will knock
your socks off!]
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