申論題

 (A) Instructions: Fill in each blank with a proper word to make the article meaningful and fluent. 10%        When aunt Judith asked me to do her a favor by stopping by her old house, which had been locked up for a year, to get her old travelling-clock, I could only (1) __________. The old house was a medium-sized red-brick house, (2) __________ by itself in a high-walled garden bounded by a narrow lane. As soon as I got in, I looked hurriedly for the clock. The (3) __________ in the house was carefully covered with white dust-sheets. After I went upstairs, I made a search in the bedrooms. There was no sign of the clock. The impression that the house gave me was neither pleasing nor displeasing, but it was stuffy due to the (4) __________ of fresh air. The last door that I unlocked contained the object of my (5) __________. Aunt Judith’s travelling-clock was on the mantelpiece, ticking away merrily. 

    That was what I thought in the beginning, and then for the first time I realized that there was something wrong. It had no (6) b s to be ticking. The house had been shut up for a year. No one had come in to (7) a it or to light fires, and yet the clock was going. I wondered if some vibration had set the mechanism in (8) __________, and pulled out my watch to check the time. It was the correct time. By this time I was really frightened. The thought of being in that empty house was almost too much for me. However, I made an attempt to (9) __________ myself together. I took it out of its case and began to wind since I could roughly find out how long the clock had been going by winding it up. I had (10) s__________ turned the winding screw twice when it stopped. The clock definitely was not running down. I felt cold and faint. Could someone be living in the house? Was someone else in the house now? Then, I heard a faint scratching noise coming slowly down the corridor…