23().

A．the more
B．the most
C．the much
D．the less

All the wisdom of the ages, all the stories that have delighted mankind for centuries, are easily and cheaply (21) to all of us (22) the covers of books — but we must know how to avail ourselves (23) this treasure and how to get (24) from it. The most (25) people all over the world, are (26) who have never discovered how (27) it is to read good books.

　　I am very interested in people, in meeting them and (28) about them. Some of the most (29) people I’ve met existed only in a writer’s imagination, then (30) the pages of his book, and then, again, in my imagination. I’ve found in books new friends, new societies, new words.

　　If I am interested in people, others are interested not so much in who (31) in how. Who in the books includes everybody from science-fiction superman two hundered centuries in the future all the way back to the first (32) in history; how (33) everything from the ingenious explanations of Sherlock Folmes (34) the discoveries of science and ways of teaching manners to children.

　　Reading can make our minds feel pleased , (35) means that it is a little like a sport: your eagerness and knowledge and quickness (36) you a good reader. Reading is (37) , not because the writer is telling you something, (38) because it makes your mind work. Your own imagination works together with the (39) or even goes beyond his. Your experience, (40) his, brings you to the same or different conclusions, and your ideas develop as you understand his.