Beyond question, Clinton was supposed to close up, stay out of sight, and avoid second- guessing his wife’s boss. After his ego blustered into oncoming traffic during Hillary’s heated primary race (1) Obama, the nation suffered from yet another turn of Clinton fatigue.
(2) this week Bill Clinton showed an instinct for robust, inclusive leadership that the (3) White House occupant could make good use of right for the time being. With President Obama struggling to (4) the political damage from the Gulf oil spill, Clinton not only can’t help himself—he’s worth being listened.
The conventional-wisdom (5) on President Obama’s early reaction to the spill was (6) he didn’t emote enough. He didn’t feel the (7) of all those people in the crisis whose livelihood would be destroyed, whose clean waters and wildlife would be (8) in black gunk.
Clinton considers this is an unfair (9) but offers a different—and more pointed— lesson to his young successor. "I think we ought to (10) in the same boat for a while... Let’s just (11) the problem, and then we can hold everybody responsible and emote or not emote, " Clinton conversed (12) CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer.
Obama’s first (13) after the oil spill was to "feel the blame" rather than "feel the pain, " which are pretty sarcastic words as it were. No one intends to let British Petroleum (BP) management (14) the hook—for dangerously cutting corners, and for a (15) safety record. However, the President’s (16) focus on scolding BP consumed (17) White House energy while the oil gushed.
Great leaders don’t rush to criticise; Instead they instinctively (18) solutions. Rudy Giuliani, who didn’t stop to blame (19) intelligence for letting it happen, stood out from New York mayor with a girlfriend problem to 9/11 hero when he took control of a crisis and instilled confidence that a ravaged city could (20) beyond a terrorist attack.
12（）
A.in
B.to
C.about
D.with
参考答案：D
解析：
[试题考点] 动词搭配。
[解题思路] 本题空格之前的conversed是动词，converse作动词意为“交谈”，故此句句意为“克林顿与CNN主持人沃尔夫·布利策交谈”，converse表谈话时的搭配为converse with sb(与……交谈)或converse about sth(就……交谈)。故选项[D]正确。
[干扰排除] 选项[A]in以及选项[B]to均无法与converse搭配。选项[C]converse about意为“就……交谈”，其后跟交谈的内容，而不是交谈的对象，故排除。