1. (2023·石家庄模拟) 阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

During the lockdown, my husband, Bob, and I were offered a pingpong table. I am a non-athlete but Bob does well in pingpong.

"What are we going to do with that pingpong table?" Bob asked me.

"The two of us will 1 ," I replied. Bob looked doubtful.

I lost every game and I told myself that it didn't 2 that I always lost. I was playing for 3 and to provide a positive experience in a difficult time. But there were days when I 4 losing. Once I threw my paddle(球拍) across the yard angrily. Then Bob 5 I play with a handicap(让分) of 12 points. That 6 a lot—I sometimes won! I'd never been interested in any kind of sport. But pingpong became the 7 of my day. I began to get better and won more games. My handicap 8 to 8.

My husband and I 9 the worst of the lockdowns through pingpong. It 10 me that even a self-described bookworm can learn a new sport. The 11 was my husband's suggestion that I play with a handicap so I'd have an equal 12 to win. He doesn't like to lose either, but it's more fun for him if I actually want to participate and 13 it. It takes two willing partners to play table tennis, after all, and two people with an equal chance in each other's 14 to make a marriage. Simply put, when it comes to table tennis—or any other 15 —there is no ping without a pong.