题目内容：

I owe a young lady a letter. She wrote to me last week asking how I was, saying she was fine and that she was _______ the dress we sent for her birthday. She even drew a picture of herself wearing the dress. Then she wrote, “Please _______.”

I can’t _______ the last time someone asked me to write back. We don’t write letters anymore. The _______ is gone; there’s never anything good in the mail. We know what’s in the mail – advertisements and circulars (印刷信函).

When I was the same age as the young lady writing to me, my father took a new job. We only moved 200 miles, but it felt like we had been _______ from friends, extended family and all things familiar by two continents and an ocean. Long distance phone calls were _______ and expensive then, most often _______ for emergencies or bad news.

But people wrote. Both of my grandmothers, and two of my great-aunts wrote to me. It was special that someone took an interest in a _______ kid. That someone would take the time to put pen to _______ and share their lives and ________ about mine meant a lot. It would mean a lot to anybody, ________.

I spent many a Sunday evening straining (竭力) to ________ thoughtful and well-written letters. “Dear Aunt Mary, How are you? I am fine. I hope you are the same.”

My mother was a great letter writer. I looked forward to her letters when I left home, went to college and then traveled across the country working newspaper jobs. When I married, had children and moved again, still far from home, she wrote ________. Letters were a way of ________ the distance.

She was a natural storyteller. She could make a story about a ________ gathering where everyone sat on metal folding chairs and had nothing but water to drink sound like a wonderful party. Back then, letter writers were storytellers because they were ________ of the world around them.

As phone calls became affordable, then cheap, the flow of letters ________ and eventually stopped.But it is different for me today. What a ________ to get a letter! There were ________ circulars and advertisements in the mailbox. There was something truly special, which takes me to my most delightful task ________, “Dear Audrey .”

By Lori Borgman

1.A. comparing    B. taking    C. enjoying    D. considering

2.A. respond    B. react    C. relax    D. recommend

3.A. forget    B. remember    C. regret    D. resist

4.A. surprise    B. thrill    C. terror    D. disappointment

5.A. prevented    B. divided    C. deserted    D. separated

6.A. convenient    B. sensible    C. rare    D. common

7.A. reserved    B. prepared    C. provided    D. sacrificed

8.A. boring    B. homesick    C. troublesome    D. homeless

9.A. desk    B. envelope    C. paper    D. mail

10.A. doubt    B. talk    C. think    D. enquire

11.A. though    B. really    C. anyway    D. regardless

12.A. compose    B. compile    C. compromise    D. compensate

13.A. carefully    B. thankfully    C. faithfully    D. anxiously

14.A. keeping    B. putting    C. closing    D. finding

15.A. sad    B. dull    C. exciting    D. happy

16.A. creators    B. discoverers    C. admirers    D. observers

17.A. broke down    B. slowed down    C. settled down    D. fell down

18.A. coincidence    B. genius    C. pity    D. treat

19.A. more than    B. no more than    C. other than    D. rather than

20.A. by hand    B. at hand    C. on hand    D. in hand