One evening, sitting at the window sewing, my mother called me, “Come here, ”she said. “ 36 . ”She held my head against her 37 , and after a puzzled moment I felt a 38 foot drumming on my cheek. “You see ? ”she said, “It’s alive. You can 39 it, can’t you?” I accepted it, as I accepted everything, without 40 . It was as good a place for the baby to be as any other and I never 41 about why it got in nor how it would finally get out.
A baby would come? I 42 noticed. That there were soon to be 43 of us would not make any difference to me. I had my place, star-like in my small universe. 44 , certainly not a baby, could 45 that.
I was 46 , however. I soon found that things had 47 a great deal. I had never been the 48 . Now I was no longer the youngest. I was simply the one in the 49 . My sister had certain 50 because she was the oldest, and my brother was the baby, the son, the much 51 boy. More than that, he had all sorts of things that never came to me.
As he grew, it became 52 that my brother had been the center of everything. People smiled when they saw him. He made them happy 53 by being there. And he had the sort of childish beauty that always turns heads and draws a second 54 . He was so charming that he was immediately loveable. Later he also turned out to be 55 , although perhaps not quite as clever as I was.
36．A．Look B．See C．Listen D．Stop
37．A．stomach B．back C．side D．shoulder
38．A．strong B．hard C．soft D．tiny
39．A．believe B．feel C．notice D．touch
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41．A．worried B．argued C．regretted D．doubted
42．A．hardly B．certainly C．possibly D．willingly
43．A．two B．three C．four D．five
44．A．Anything B．Something C．Nothing D．Everything
45．A．improve B．threaten C．compare D．prevent
46．A．curious B．careless C．wrong D．anxious
47．A．improved B．changed C．increased D．disturbed
48．A．oldest B．youngest C．cleverest D．dearest
49．A．family B．house C．middle D．trouble
50．A．manners B．knowledge C．opinions D．rights
51．A．admired B．blamed C．respected D．favored
52．A．strange B．obvious C．serious D．special
53．A．usually B．curiously C．gradually D．simply
54．A．look B．smile C．care D．comfort
55．A．ordinary B．perfect C．clever D．similar