After 22 years of marriage, I have discovered the secret to keep love alive in my relationship with my wife, Peggy. I started dating another woman.
One day Peggy said to me, “Life is too ___41____, you need to spend time with the people you love. You probably won't believe me, but I know you love her and I think that if the two of you spend more time together, it will make us __42______.'
The “other” woman my wife was encouraging me to _____43____is my mother, a 72-year-old widow who has lived alone since my father ____44_____ 20 years ago. Right after his death, I ______45____ 2,500 miles away to California and started my own life and career. When I moved back near my hometown six years ago, I promised myself that I would spend more time with mom. But with the ______46_____of my job and three kids, I never got around to seeing her much ______47_____family get-togethers and holidays.
Mom was _____48____ and suspicious when I called and suggested the two of us go out to dinner and a movie.
We didn't go anywhere 
____49____, just a neighborhood place where we could talk. ___50____ her eyes now see only large shapes and shadows, I had to read the menu for both of us.
“I used to be the _____51____ when you were little,” she said.
“Then it is time for you to relax and let me _____52____the favor,” I said.
We had a nice talk ____53_____dinner, just catching up on each other's lives. We talked for so long that we ____54__
____ the movie.
“___55___was your date?” my wife asked when I got home that evening.
'Nice...nicer than I thought it would be,' I said.
Mom and I get out for____56____a couple of times a month. Sometimes we take in a movie, but _____57____we talk. Through the talks ,I know what it was like for her to work in a factory during the Second World War. I know how she met my father there, and know how they ____58______the difficult times. I can't get enough of these stories. They are ___59____ to me, a part of my history.
Peggy was right. Dating another woman has _____60____my marriage.
41. A. easy B. difficult C. short D hard
42. A. closer B. longer C. happier D. easier
43. A. date B please C. meet D. consult
44. A. passé out B. passed by C. passed down D. passed away
45. A. went B drove C. moved D. removed
46. A. pressure B. development
C. demand D. loss
47. A. beyond B. with C. during D. on
48. A. excited B. annoyed C. delighted D. surprised
49. A. ordinary B. fancy C. plain D. common
50. A. Since B. When C. if D. unless
51. A. worker B. waitress C. reader D. owner
52. A. award B. return C. turn D. answer
53. A. over B. with C. on D. across
54. A. forgot B. refused C. missed D. abandoned
55. A. What B. Who C. where D. How
56. A. talk B. movie C. walk D. d
inner
57. A. finally B. merely C. mostly D. especially
58. A. went though B. got through C. looked through D. saw through
59. A friendly B. kind C. loyal D. important
60. A ruined B damaged C. helped D. affected