請依下文回答第 41 題至第 45 題:
Sherlock Holmes was popular from his first appearance in 1887, in the novelette “A Study in Scarlet.” He was so
popular that soon Conan Doyle began to 41 having created him, since Holmes stories so completely overshadowed
what Conan Doyle considered his serious work, such as his historical novel. Readers lined up at newsstands for The Strand
on publication day 42 a new Holmes story was to appear inside. Because of Holmes, Conan Doyle was, one historian
wrote, “as well-known as Queen Victoria.”
Holmes fans were truly the 43 middle-class, the exact sort of group whose tastes would be denigrated by snooty
critics as populist for more than a century to come. The 44 for Holmes stories seemed endless. The Strand would pay
Conan Doyle nicely for whatever he could give them. But he hadn’t meant to spend the rest of his life inventing and solving
fiction crimes. By 1893, Conan Doyle had had enough. So he had the evil professor Moriarty push Holmes down the falls.
But by 1901, however, public pressure grew so great that Conan Doyle wrote a new story featuring Holmes before his fall.
In 1903, in “The Adventure of the Empty House,” he went one step further, resurrecting Holmes with the explanation that
only Moriarty had died in the fall, while Holmes had 45 his own death. Fans rejoiced.
【題組】45 (A)faked (B)committed (C)reformed (D)realized