Cars have become more than vehicles for moving things. They have stolen our American’s hearts. After the Second World War, middle-class white-collar workers _________ into the suburbs in large numbers, taking their cars with them.

Our car culture really began to _________ in the fifties. More jobs and economic growth _________ the rapid development of driving. The idea spread that cars _________ freedom—hot, fast and good-looking. We were on the road. _________ by self-important fashions, we drove through the twentieth century, and into the harbor of twenty-first century.

We are a nation _________ our cars. Go to any small town in this country and count how many classic cars you see. Pull into a shopping mall parking lot and _________ the luxury(豪华) cars. Ask any teenager how _________ he or she wants to get a driver’s license, or any _________ citizen how long he or she would like to keep his/her own car.

My dad was particularly __________ to that national romance which has affected America for many years. In my childhood I often joked that I never knew what kind of car my dad might __________ the parking space with. I was half serious. My dad had a strange interest in trading cars. For a while, the bigger it was, the __________. Some of my dad’s cars __________ little more than a month. Some lasted a couple of years. And at his very worst, late last year, he owned two Buicks, an Audi A6 and a truck. Somewhere among them, my mother __________ to find a place to park her little Fiat finally. Although we laugh at him a little, compared with those who love cars, my dad is not that __________.