第二节语法填空（共10小题；每小题1.5分，满分15分）

阅读下面短文，根据上下文填入适当的词语，或使用括号中的词语的适当形式填空，并将答案填写在答题卡上标号为31—40的相应位置。

About six years ago I was eating lunch in a restaurant in New York City        31          a woman and a young boy sat down __32_       _ the next table. I couldn’t help __33_       _ (overhear) parts of their conversation. At one point        34         woman asked, “So, how have you been?” And the boy, __35_       _ could not have been more than seven or eight years old, replied, “Frankly, I’ve been feeling a little depressed __36_       _ (late).”

This incident __37_       _ (stick) in my mind because it confirmed my growing belief that children are changing. As far as I can remember, my friends and I didn’t find out we were “depressed” until we were in high school. The evidence of a change in children __38_       _ (increase) steadily in recent years. Children don’t seem childlike anymore. Children speak more like adults __39_       _ they used to.        40_       _ this is good or bad is difficult to say, but it certainly is different. Childhood as it once was no longer exists, why?