20.A.happy
B. active
C. alive
D. safe
(8)
In the year 1818 the people of the Missouri asked the Congress(国会) of the United States that Missouri be admitted as a state to the Union.
This 1 a discussion in Congress. The Northern
states did not want 2
extended to another state. The Southern states 3 the slaveholders who were
already in Missouri. After long discussion a 4 was finally made. Congress agreed to
admit Missouri as a slave state, 5 by the admission of Maine as a 6 state. As part of the agreement, 7 slave states were to be admitted north of
the southern border of Kansas, Calorado and Utah.
Before a vote could be taken in the House, Representative(代表) Felix Walker, from Buncombe County, North Carolina, rose and asked 8 to speak.
Representative Walker gave a 9 speech. It had nothing to do with the
question, and it seemed to 10 nothing to do with anything else.
At first the other Representatives were 11 . But as the speech went
12 , the tired audience kept crying for him to stop.
Walker paid no attention. He went on calmly 13 he had finished his speech and then,
pleased with himself, sat down.
Later Walker was asked 14
he had made a speech
that had nothing to do with the discussion. Walker smiled. The 15 at home, he said, expected him to make a
speech of some 16 . Since it was expected, he had
carefully 17 a speech. He was not speaking so much for
18 ---he “was only talking for the
people back home in Buncombe."
The word “buncombe” was 19 by the press. Frequently it was
misspelled
“bunkum”, and later shortened to “bunk”. It meant
any kind of 20 talk, or any untrue statement.
