"You’ll love the seafood there," he 37 me.
答案：(D) assured
【句型】assure sb (that)... 字詞搭配「向某人保證」，是及物動詞可以直接接人稱受詞；declared／proposed 通常不這樣直接接人作受詞，responded 則通常搭配 to sb 而非直接接受詞。
本題大考中心未公布逐題答對率，以下不談數據，只談觀念。
四個選項都是「說」這一類的動詞，中文分別是「宣布、提議、回應、保證」，光比意思會覺得幾個都說得通。這一格有一個形態上的硬線索，比語意快得多。
四個選項都是動詞，可見這一格考的是搭配。決定性的線索在空格後面：直接就是受詞 me，中間沒有任何介系詞。所以問題變成「哪一個動詞可以直接接人當受詞」。assure 可以：assure somebody (that) ...（向某人保證……），本句 "You’ll love the seafood there," he assured me. 就是「他向我保證」。respond 不行：它是不及物動詞，要接人得加介系詞，寫成 respond to me。declare 與 propose 也不行：這兩個字後面接的是被宣布或被提議的內容（declare that ...、propose a plan），不直接接聽話的那個人。語意上也對得起來：對方在推銷那家餐廳，說「你會愛上那裡的海鮮」，這是在給保證，不是宣布也不是提議。順便把幾個「向某人保證」的說法一起記：assure sb of sth、assure sb that ...、promise sb that ...。
responded：不及物，缺了 to。declared（宣布）：後面接的是宣布的內容，不接聽話的人；語氣也太正式。proposed（提議）：後面接的是提議的內容；而且他上一句才提議過要帶「我」去餐廳，這一句是在說服，不是再提議一次。
assure sb that …（向某人保證）、assure sb of sth（讓某人確信某事）、respond to sb（回應某人）、declare that …（宣布）、propose sth（提議某事）、promise sb that …（向某人承諾）。
It was my first day in this beautiful tropical city. 31 I was walking to the beach, a stranger came up to me and tried to shake my hand. "Don't you remember me, my friend?" he said. But I couldn't 32 his face at all. I didn't know a soul in the city. I had just arrived by plane and still had jetlag. "I 33 you at the airport. I work there at the customs. How are you enjoying our beautiful city?" I couldn't remember him but I was too 34 to tell him. He was so friendly.
35 he offered to take me to his uncle's seafood restaurant, just by the beach. I thanked him 36 but he insisted that we should go there for dinner. "You'll love the seafood there," he 37 me. "And it will be a dinner to remember."
So we went to the restaurant and sat by a window 38 the bay. The dinner was great indeed, but the coffee they served was quite different. In fact, it tasted very strange...
Anyway, it was not 39 10 o'clock the next morning that I finally woke up. But I had no idea where I was. All my money was 40 and my "friend" had even taken my watch and my shoes!