Nothing stays the same for long. Things and people change, often for the

Nothing stays the same for long. Things and people change, often for the    16   , it seems, but once in a    17   , very much for the better. I grew up on a small farm, living a life that I took for granted. I had a dog and mountains in whichever   18    I looked, and I awoke to the call of birds in the alfalfa (苜蓿) fields. My father worked in the city as a worker. He was quiet and    19   . He was not    20   educated, but he was smart, with an engineer’s way of looking at problems. He was a man made of leather and chewing tobacco who tried to teach my brother and me useful things, including respect. He also had a    21   . I did not like him very much.
One day I came home from school and his car was already there. Once inside, I was told by my mother that he didn’t feel well. His back hurt. My father never missed work; in fact, when he came home, he went to work even more. I remember looking secretly around the corner at him as he    22    on his bed in the middle of the day. I was in    23    school. Multiple myeloma, I learned, is a type of blood cancer. It starts in the   24    that normally make antibodies for the body to use in its immune response against    25   . When those cells become ill, they make abnormal antibodies like crazy,    26    out the useful ones. As the cancer grows, the person who has it   27   . The disease weakens the body’s energy, and the abnormal antibodies cause problems for other cells and   28   . Over time, bones    29    look like Swiss cheese, and when they break, they may never   30   .
For the last year of my father’s life, his entire day consisted of rising from his hospital bed in the living room and walking to his chair to sit and think. He was    31    in that chair when I came home one day during the fifth grade. I do not remember where my mother and brother were, but the two of us were   32   . He asked me to sit down. What followed still moves me these    33    later. He told me about his life, his family growing up, what it was like in the Pacific during World War II, his loves, his heartbreaks. It was as if a pipe had   34   , his inner self rushing out to me in a great flood. He had been speaking for maybe an hour or more when I realized that he was doing more than telling. He was asking to be forgiven. All it took was understanding that that was what he needed, and I   35    everything, immediately.
16．A．wealthier B．worse C．healthier D．familiar
17．A．while B．hour C．day D．week
18．A．time B．village C．valley D．direction
19．A．warm B．noisy C．distant D．considerate
20．A．lowly B．less C．more D．highly
21．A．smile B．weakness C．temper D．friend
22．A．launched B．lay C．laid D．landed
23．A．elementary B．middle C．high D．university
24．A．carriers B．chests C．currents D．cells
25．A．invitations B．investigation C．infections D．inference
26．A．compromising B．crowding C．circulating D．clarifying
27．A．substitutes B．sneezes C．sacrifices D．shrinks
28．A．talents B．tensions C．tissues D．tunnels
29．A．fortunately B．eventually C．ambiguously D．considerately
30．A．heal B．hurt C．hesitate D．handle
31．A．predictably B．psychologically C．primitively D．potentially
32．A．alone B．abnormal C．absent D．absurd
33．A．distances B．decades C．disciplines D．dilemmas
34．A．bounced B．boarded C．burst D．bound
35．A．forget B．finance C．function D．forgave

【答案】