Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C ,or D to indicate the correct word for each of the blanks.  

  Ask anyone over forty to make a comparison (51)____ the past and the present and nine (52)____ ten people will tell you that things have been getting (53)____ worse for as long as they can remember. Take the weather for example, which has been behaving rather strangely lately. Everyone remembers that in their childhood the summers were(54)____ hotter, and that winter always included abundant falls of snow just when the school holidays had started. Of course, the food in those days was far superior too, as nothing was imported and everything was fresh. Unemployment was negligible, the pound really was worth something, and you could buy a sizeable house even if your means were limited. And above all, people were (55)____ better in those days, far more friendly, not inclined to crime or violence, and spent their free time making model boats and tending their stamp collections (56)____ than gazing at the television screen for hours on end. As we know that this picture of the past (57)____ cannot be true, and there are plenty of statistics dealing with health and prosperity which prove that it is not true, why is it that we all have a (58)____ to idealize the past ? Is this simply nostalgia? Or is it rather that we need to believe in an image of the world which is (59)____ the opposite of what we see around us? Whichever it is, at least it leaves us with a nagging feeling that the present could be better, and perhaps (60)____ us to be a little more critical about the way we live.

   Ask anyone over forty to make a comparison (51)____ the past and the present and nine (52)____ ten people will tell you that things have been getting