My son Joey was born with club feet. The doctors said that with treatment he would be able to walk, but would never run very well. The first three years of his life was ___1___ in hospital. By the time he was eight, you wouldn’t know he has a problem when you saw him ___2___.

Children in our neighborhood always ran around ___3___ their play, and Joey would jump and ran and play, ___4___. We never told him that he probably wouldn’t be ___5___ to run like the other children. So he didn’t know.

In ___6___ grade he decided to join the school running team. Every day he trained. He ran more than any of the others, ___7___ only the top seven runners would be chosen to run for the ___8___. We didn’t tell him he probably would never make the team, so he didn’t know.

He ran four to five mile every day—even when he had a fever. I was ___9___, so I went to ___10___ him after school. I found him running ___11___. I asked him how he felt. “Okay,” he said. He has two more miles to go. Yet he looked straight ahead and kept ___12___.

Two weeks later, the names of the team ___13___ were out. Joey was number six on the list. Joey had ___14___ the team. He was in seventh grade — the other six team members were all eighth graders. We never told him he couldn’t do it … so he didn’t know. He just ___15___ it.

1. A. spent B. taken C. cost D. paid

2. A. talk B. sit C. study D. walk

3. A. after B. before C. during D. till

4. A. either B. too C. though D. yet

5. A. able B. sorry C. glad D. afraid

6. A. sixth B. seventh C. eighth D. ninth

7. A. so B. if C. then D. because

8. A. neighborhood B. family C. school D. grade

9. A. excited B. tired C. pleased D. worried

10. A. think about B. hear from C. agree with D. look for

11. A. alone B. away C. almost D. already

12. A. riding B. walking C. playing D. running

13. A. jumpers B. runners C. doctors D. teachers

14. A. got B. kept C. made D. found

15. A. made B. played C. had D. took

【答案与解析】文章讲述了Joey一出生便被医生认定不能正常地跑动，但是Joey的父母一直没有把这个情况告诉他。因此Joey就在这种毫不知情的情况下，凭借着自身的努力，终于如愿以偿地入选了校田径队。

1. A。联系此处的语境，再对照选项，可知这里应是“他生命中的头三年是在医院里度过的”。spend有“花时间于……，度过”的意思，并且spend还可做及物动词，所以放在此处，不仅符合此处的语境，而且也符合此句的语法结构。故答案选A。