(06·辽宁)

It was a bright spring afternoon when Freda told me she wouldn’t need me any more. I had just finished my four-hour work －___36___ up and down the stairs of her three-storey home, cleaning the floor and washing the dished. She was___37___ jeans and a sweater. Sitting at the table I had just 38_______. a pile of papers spread around her. Her husband’s___39___ was going to be reduced by thirty percent. And they were trying to live as if it had___40___ happened. I felt sorry for her. but I also felt a sense of___41___.

I had been cleaning Freda’s house for five years and had___42___ an unexpected relationship with the family. It was not just___43___ I had become an expert at scraping（刮掉）dirt stuck to their wooden floor.___44___ that I had learned exactly how to place toys on the girls’ beds. It was___45___ than that. For I felt I had become a part of their___46___.

Freda stayed at home with the kids,___47___ I would often see her in the morning___48___ them to school. And I’d be there when they___49___ home at lunch for sandwiches and piano practice. I had___50___ them grow up. Now I was fired, but the ___51___thing was that I still wanted to keep scraping away the dirt and dust for the family.

I left Freda’s house that day, wondering about the___52___ relationship with my clients（主顾）. Who am I___53___ them? As a matter of fact, I’m ___54___ an employee － the lowest kind of employee. But I’m also a trusted___55___ of the family. I can’t help worrying about what happens around me.

36. A. stepping              B. coming              C. jumping             D. moving

37. A. hanging                     B. making              C. wearing             D. changing

38. A. cleaned               B. washed             C. swept               D. brushed

39. A. duty                   B. money               C. work                D. pay

40. A. already               B. seldom              C. never                D. yet

41. A. regret                 B. surprise             C. fear                  D. loss

42. A. started                B. developed          C. improved           D. broken

43. A. why                   B. what                 C. that                   D. which

44. A. but                     B. and                   C. or                     D. for

45. A. less                    B. least                  C. more                 D. most

46. A. life                     B. story                 C. activity              D. experience

47. A. as                      B. so                     C. since                 D. however

48. A. taking                 B. bringing             C. meeting             D. calling

49. A. left                     B. returned            C. went                 D. marched

50. A. found                 B.noticed            C.watched       D.realised

51. A. possible              B.great                C.prople             D.strange

52. A. meaning              B.nature                C.result               D.important

53. A. for                            B.to                      C.with            D. at

54. A. hardly                 B.certainly             C.probably             D.merely

55. A. member                     B.person                C.relative               D.impanion