第二节：完型填空（20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）
Many people say their most painful moments are saying goodbye to those they love. After watching Cheryl, my daughter-in-law, through the six long months her mother suffered towards death, I think the most painful 36 can be in the waiting to say goodbye.
Cheryl made the two-hour trip over and over to be with her mother. They spent the long afternoons praying, comforting, and retelling their 37 memories.
As her mother was getting 38, Cheryl always sat for hours 39 watching her mother sleeping. Each time she kissed her mother before leaving, her mother would say in 40, “I’m sorry you drove so far and sat for so long and I didn’t even 41 up to talk with you.”
Cheryl would tell her it didn’t matter, still her mother felt 42 and apologized at each goodbye 43 the day Cheryl found a way to give her mother the same reassurance(安慰) her 44 had given to her so many times.
“Mom, do you 45 when I made the high school basketball team?” Cheryl’s mother nodded. “For every game you’d 46 so far and sit for so long and I never even left the bench to play. Each time I felt 47 and apologized to you for wasting your time.” Cheryl 48 took her mother’s hand.
“Do you remember what you would say to me?”
“I would say I didn’t come to see you 49, I came to see you.”
“And you 50 those words, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I really did.”
“Well, now I say the 51 words to you. I didn’t come to see you 52. I came to see you.”
Her mother understood and smiled as she floated back into sleep.
Their 53 together passed quietly into days, weeks, and months. To the last day they cared each other in the 54, love given and received just by seeing each other.
A love so strong that, 55 in this deepened silence that followed their last goodbye, Cheryl can still hear her mother’s love.
36. A. moments B. business C. consequences D. failures
37. A. lost B. buried C. shared D. frozen
38. A. thinner B. stronger C. better D. worse
39. A. silently B. excitedly C. impatiently D. desperately
40. A. laughter B. tears C. despair D. happiness
41. A. catch B. keep C. wake D. sit
42. A. grateful B. sorry C. optimistic D. nervous
43. A. until B. since C. after D. while
44. A father B. mother C. mother-in-law D husband
45. A. know B. forget C. remember D. doubt
46. A. walk B. run C. ride D. drive
47. A. guilty B. excited C. silly D. sensitive
48. A. quickly B. eagerly C. curiously D. gently
49. A. study B. play C. explain D. cry
50. A. said B. appreciated C. meant D. weighed
51. A. useful B. final C. different D. same
52. A. talk B. sleep C. complain D. weep
53. A. mornings B. afternoons C. evenings D. nights
54. A. carefulness B. sadness C. kindness D. stillness
55. A. thus B. only C. even D. ever