At first he was very gentle with the bird, but gradually he lost his 25 .
答案：(C) temper
【句型】lose one's temper 固定片語「發脾氣、失去耐性」；pet（寵物）、thing（東西）、possession（財產）都不符合這個「失去耐性」的固定用法。
本題大考中心未公布逐題答對率，以下不談數據，只談觀念。
lose 後面接什麼，中文幫不上忙——「失去寵物、失去東西、失去財產」聽起來都成句。這一格靠的是固定片語，加上前半句的對照。
四個選項都是名詞，可見這一格考的是 lose 跟哪一個組成固定的說法。答案是 lose one’s temper（發脾氣、失去耐性）。句子本身還給了一個很清楚的對照：At first he was very gentle with the bird, but gradually he lost his ___（起初他對這隻鳥很溫和，但漸漸地他……）。前半是 gentle（溫和），後半用 but 一轉，要說的當然是「不再溫和了」——失去的正是耐性與脾氣。再往後讀一句更確定：緊接著他就對鸚鵡大吼「你這隻笨鳥！」。順便把 lose 的常見組合記起來：lose one’s temper（發脾氣）、lose one’s way（迷路）、lose one’s mind（發瘋）、lose one’s patience（失去耐心）。
pet（寵物）：鸚鵡還在，他沒有失去寵物；而且下一句他還在對鸚鵡說話。thing（東西）：lose his thing 不是通行的說法，語意也太空泛。possession（財產、所有物）：與「不再溫和」這個轉折接不起來。
lose one’s temper（發脾氣）、keep one’s temper（忍住脾氣）、lose one’s way（迷路）、lose one’s patience（失去耐心）、be gentle with sb（對某人溫和）、gradually（漸漸地）。
There was once a man in Puerto Rico who had a wonderful parrot. The parrot was 21, there was no other bird like him in the whole world. He could learn to say any word-- 22 one. He could not say the name of his native town, Catano.
The man 23 everything he could to teach the parrot to say "Catano," but he never 24. At first he was very gentle with the bird, but gradually he lost his 25. "You stupid bird! 26 can't you learn to say that one word? Say 'Catano' or I'll kill you!" But the parrot would not say it. Many times the man screamed, "Say 'Catano' or I'll kill you!" But the bird would not 27 the name. Finally the man gave up. He picked up the parrot and threw the bird into the chicken house.
In the chicken house, there were four old chickens, waiting to be killed 28 Sunday's dinner. "You are even more stupid than the chickens," the man said as he was leaving. The next morning, the man went out to the chicken house. When he opened the door, he was 29 by what he saw. He could not believe his eyes and ears! On the floor 30 three dead chickens. The parrot was screaming at the fourth, "Say 'Catano' or I'll kill you!"