The friendship between us never fades. Mary Allen was my best friend—like a sister I never had. We did everything together: piano lessons, movies, swimming, horseback riding, and so on.
When I was 13, my family moved. Mary and I   36  in touch through letters, and we saw each other on special  37  — like my wedding and Mary’s. Soon we were  38  with children and moving to new homes, and we wrote less. One day a card that I sent came back,  39  “Address Unknown.” I had no idea how to   40   Mary.
Over the years, I thought of Mary often. I wanted to  41  stories of my children and then grandchildren. I need to share my   42 when my brother and then my mother died. There was an empty place in my heart that only a friend like Mary could  43 .
One day I was reading a newspaper   44  I notice a picture of a young woman who looked a lot like Mary and whose last name was Wagman— Mary’s married name. “There must be thousands of Wagmans,” I thought,  45 I wrote to her anyway.
She called as soon as she got my letter. “Mrs. Tobin!” she said excitedly, “Mary Allen Wagman is my mother”. Minutes later I heard a voice that I  46   at once, even after 40 years. We laughed and cried and asked about each other’s   47  .
Now the empty place in my heart is filled, and there is one thing that Mary and I know for sure: We won’t lose each other again!

完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）

    请认真阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Childhood curiosity（好奇） can last a lifetime and I learned this from my son, Bill. When he was very young, I often took him to the   36 . He loved to read and often needed to   37   the books he’d read in order to borrow more books. One unintended   38   of his nonstop reading habits was that he even   39   at the dinner table. His mother, Mary, and I did our best to   40   him that, on certain social   41 , reading while dining with others was not a good thing.

Every summer the teachers at his school   42   give the students a reading list, and there was a contest to see who could read the most books. He was so   43  , and he always wanted to win. And he often   44 . But the main reason why he read so obsessively (着迷地) was that he was so   45 . He didn’t just want to learn about   46   things. He wanted to learn about everything.

We helped   47   his curiosity in every way.   48   an unfamiliar word came up in conversation, we’d turn to the   49  , looking up the word, and reading the definition aloud. Thus my son came to realize that if you have a question, the   50   exists somewhere. All you have to do is   51   it.

Bill remains as much of a   52   today as when he was a child, and he seems to   53   everything he reads. He’s often   54   to share what he’s learned with the next person he meets. He   55   reads at the dinner table, though — which is a good thing because the books he’s attracted to now are increasingly unappetizing (引不起食欲的): The Eradication of Infectious Diseases, Mosquitoes, Malaria & Man, and Rats, Lice, and History.

1. A. school        B. office            C. library             D. museum

2. A. return        B. store             C. talk                D. pick

3.A. advantage      B. discovery     C. explanation         D. consequence

4.A. play           B. read          C. study               D. laugh

5.A. convince       B. promise       C. warn                D. advise

6.A. issues         B. services     C. occasions           D. duties

7. A. could         B. would         C. should          D. might

8. A. sincere       B. crazy             C. positive            D. competitive

9.A. went           B. failed            C. did             D. proved

10.A. curious       B. confident    C. diligent            D. excellent

11. A. simple       B. past          C. any             D. some

12. A. protect          B. develop       C. examine         D. follow

13.A. Until         B. If                C. Though          D. Because

14. A. teacher      B. newspaper     C. partner             D. dictionary

15. A. person       B. book          C. answer          D. matter

16. A. find         B. use           C. tell                D. ask

17. A. speaker      B. reader        C. maker           D. user

18.A. imagine       B. believe       C. create          D. remember

19. A. eager        B. afraid            C. careful         D. sure

20. A. now and again    B. at all time      C. no longer           D. just now

The friendship between us never fades. Mary Allen was my best friend—like a sister I never had. We did everything together: piano lessons, movies, swimming, horseback riding, and so on.

When I was 13, my family moved. Mary and I   36  in touch through letters, and we saw each other on special  37  — like my wedding and Mary’s. Soon we were  38  with children and moving to new homes, and we wrote less. One day a card that I sent came back,  39  “Address Unknown.” I had no idea how to   40   Mary.

Over the years, I thought of Mary often. I wanted to  41  stories of my children and then grandchildren. I need to share my   42 when my brother and then my mother died. There was an empty place in my heart that only a friend like Mary could  43 .

One day I was reading a newspaper   44  I notice a picture of a young woman who looked a lot like Mary and whose last name was Wagman— Mary’s married name. “There must be thousands of Wagmans,” I thought,  45 I wrote to her anyway.

She called as soon as she got my letter. “Mrs. Tobin!” she said excitedly, “Mary Allen Wagman is my mother”. Minutes later I heard a voice that I  46   at once, even after 40 years. We laughed and cried and asked about each other’s   47  .

Now the empty place in my heart is filled, and there is one thing that Mary and I know for sure: We won’t lose each other again!