In 1956 Phoenix, Arizona, was a city with boundless blue skies. One day as I walked around the house with my sister Kathy’s new parakeet （小鹦鹉）on my finger, I wanted to show Perky 1 the sky looked like. Maybe he could make a little bird 2 out there. I took him into the backyard, and then, to my 3 , Perky flew off. The enormous（巨大的）, blue sky swallowed up my sister’s blue 4 and suddenly he had gone , clipped wings and all.
Kathy managed to 5 me. With fake optimism（乐观）, she even tried to reassure （安慰）me that Perky would find a new 6 . But I was far too clever to 7 that such a thing was possible.
Decades later, I watched my own 8 growing. We shared their activities, spending soccer Saturdays in folding chairs with the 9 of the kids’ friends, the Kissells. The two families went camping around Arizona together. We became the 10 of friends. One evening, the game was to tell Great Pet stories. One person claimed（宣称） to 11 the oldest living goldfish. Someone else had a psychic dog. 12 Barry, the father of the other family, took the floor and 13 that the Greatest Pet of All Time was his blue parakeet, Sweetie Pie.
"The best thing 14 Sweetie Pie," he said, "was the 15 we got him. One day, when I was about eight, out of the clear, blue sky, a little blue parakeet just 16 down and landed on my finger."
When I was finally able to 17 , we examined the amazing evidence（证据）. The dates and the locations and the pictures of the bird all 18 . It seems our two families had been 19 long before we ever met. Forty years later, I ran to my sister and said, "You were 20 ! Perky lived!"
1. A. what B. how C. which D. where
2. A. food B. nest C. friend D. family
3. A. joy B. horror C. disappointment D. satisfaction
4. A. pleasure B. sadness C. treasure D. sense
5. A. forgive B. comfort C. help D. delight
6. A. parent B. home C. master D. life
7. A. imagine B. suppose C. doubt D. believe
8. A. birds B. happiness C. worries D. children
9. A. parents B. birds C. interests D. games
10. A. first B. best C. last D. happiest
11. A. catch B. find C. buy D. have
12. A. Suddenly B. Fortunately C. Then D. However
13. A. announced B. said C. told D. hoped
14. A. in B. about C. of D. on
15. A. day B. place C. way D. story
16. A. floated B. dived C. settled D. went
17. A. think B. speak C. interrupt D. explain
18. A. came up B. turned up C. turned out D. matched up
19. A. known B. fastened C. connected D. introduced
20. A. right B. wrong C. silly D. mad