Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C,or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.

No writer in American literature is more famous or more loved than Samuel Longhorn Clements. (25)______in Missouri in 1835, he grew up on the bank of the Mississippi river and later adopted the (26)_________ Mark Twain. The village environment inspired the two novels (27)______ made him famous:"Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn" and ":Life on the Mississippi", told of his adventures on the river (28)________ of that period.
Mark Twain's life as a writer started during the Civil War. At that time he worked as a newspaper man in Nevada and California. His short story "The celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was an immediate success and his new career began.