Mr. White is seventy years old. He has been staying at home since he retired. Last year his wife 41 .He was very sad. He has four children, but they all have their own families. Now he lives in an old house  42. Sometimes he feels lonely. One day, one of his children bought a parrot for him. It could  43 and usually gave it nice  44. But one afternoon, a cat ate the parrot. He was very sad and  45 to buy another one. He also bought a strong and beautiful cage for it and began to  46 it to speak. Every morning, as soon as he got up, he said“Good morning”  47 the bird. The bird had a look at him but said  48 . He kept on teaching it but the parrot didn’t learn anything. He felt sorry for it and lost his patience(耐心).
One evening his  49  called and told him that his granddaughter was  50  in hospital. He went to see her  51 . When he got there, she was being operated(手术) on and he didn’t see her. The doctors asked him to go home. He was so worried about her that he couldn’t  52  the whole night. The next morning, when he was passing by the parrot, he  53  to say “Good morning” to the bird.
Suddenly(突然地) he  54  someone saying,“What happened to you this morning?” He looked  55 . There was nobody except himself in the room. It was the bird.

An ant(蚂蚁)was drinking at a small river and fell in. She tried her best to reach the side, but she couldn’t move at all. The poor ant got too tired but was still doing her best when a big bird saw her. What a luck! The bird threw a piece of wood in the water. With it the ant reached the bank again. While she was resting and drying herself in the grass, she heard a man coming up. He was walking without shoes on his feet and with a gun(枪)in his hand. As soon as he saw the bird, he wanted to kill her, and he would certainly do so, but the ant bite(咬)him on one of his feet and at the moment the bird flew away at once.
【小题1】What happened to the ant?

— Look at the bird over there! It’s so beautiful!

— Wow! It’s a rare crane. It          appears in this area.

A．always            B．usually            C．seldom           D．often