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Chris Baildon, tall and lean, was in his early thirties, and the end-product of an old decayed island family.
Chris shared the too large house with his father, an arthritic and difficult man, anda wasp-tongued aunt, whose complaints ended only when she slept.
The father and his sister, Chris's Aunt Agatha, engaged in shrill-voiced arguments over nothing. The continuous exchanges further confused their foolish wits, and yet held off an unendurable loneliness. They held a common grievance against Chris, openly holding him to blame for their miserable existence. He should long ago have lifted them from poverty, for had they not sacrificed everything to send him to England and Oxford University?
Driven by creditors or pressing desires, earlier Baildons had long ago cheaply disposed of valuable properties. Brother and sister never ceased to remind each other of the depressing fact that their ancestors had wasted their inheritance. This, in fact, was their only other point of agreement.
A few years earlier Agatha had announced that she intended doing something about repairing the family fortunes. The many empty rooms could be rented to selected guests. She would establish, not a boarding-house, but a home for ladies and gentlemen, and make a tidy profit. She threw herself into the venture with a noisy fury. Old furniture was polished; rugs and carpets were beaten, floors painted, long-stored mattresses, pillows and bed-linen aired and sweetened in the sun.
Agatha, with a fine air of defiance, took the copy for a modest advertisement to the press. Two guests were lured by the promise of beautiful gourmet meals, a home atmosphere in an historic mansion, the company of well-brought-up ladies and gentlemen. The two, one a bank clerk and the other a maiden lady employed in a bookshop, arrived simultaneously, whereupon Agatha condescended to show them to their rooms, and promptly forgot about them. There was no hot water. Dinner time found Baildon and Agatha sharing half a cold chicken and a few boiled potatoes in the dining room's gloomy vastness.
When the guests came timidly to inquire about the dining-hours, and to point out that there were no sheets on the beds, no water in the pitchers, no towels on their racks, Agatha reminded them that the Baildons were not inn-keepers, and then treated them to an account of the family's past glories.
His father and aunt blamed Chris for______

A. not restoring their prosperity
B. not succeeding at Oxford University
C. neglecting the family property
D. having no interest in family history

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One of medicine's fundamental beliefs about pregnancy and the development of the human fetus has been challenged. Until recently, it was thought that the fetus was a parasite capable of extracting all the nutrients it needed from the mother. It is now realized that adequate nutrition during the entire course of the pregnancy is necessary for proper fetal development.
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According to the passage, which of the following is required for lactation?

A. Fat storage.
B. Iron and calcium.
C. Increased blood supply.
D. A well-nourished placenta.

Her short stay in Kentucky in the mid-nineteen hundreds was very important to author Mary

A. it was
B. for it
C. much of
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Maggie tiptoed over and took the clock away because she hated to hear it _______ when she

A. sounding
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C. ticking
D. ringing

It is commonly supposed that when a man seeks literary power he goes to his room and prepares an article for the press. But this is to begin literary culture【C1】______ the wrong end. We speak a hundred times for every【C2】______ we write. The busiest writer produces 【C3】______ more than a volume a year, not so much as his talk would【C4】______ in a week.【C5】______ through speech it is usually decided whether a man is to have【C6】______ of his language or not. If he is slovenly in his ninety-nine cases of talking, he can【C7】______ pull himself【C8】______ to strength and exactitude (精确) in the hundredth ease of writing. A person is made in one piece, and the same being runs through a 【C9】______ of performances. Whether words are uttered on paper or to the air, the effect【C10】______ the utterer is the same. Vigor or feebleness is【C11】______ accordingly as energy or slackness has been in command. I know that certain【C12】______ to a new field are often necessary. A good speaker may find awkwardness in himself, when he【C13】______ write; a good writer, when he speaks. And certainly eases occur【C14】______ a man exhibits【C15】______ strength in one of the two, speaking or writing, and not in the other. But such eases are rare.【C16】______ , language once【C17】______ our control can be employed for oral or for written【C18】______ And【C19】______ the opportunities for oral practice enormously outbalance those for written, it is the oral which are chiefly significant in the【C20】______ of literary power.
【C1】

A. on
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