2.Passage One
One Saturday night, while we were sitting around our somewhat shopworn living room with some old friends, one of them started trying to remember how long we'd lived there. "Since 1952, " I said. "We paid off the mortgage eight years ago. " "What did you pay for it? " "We paid $29, 500 in 1952. " My friend nodded knowingly and thought a minute. "I'll bet, " he said, "that you could get $85, 000 for it today. " I don't know why it is such a popular topic of conversation these days, but if any real-estate dealers are reading this, I will give them some money-saving advice: don't waste any stamps on me with your offers to buy. Our house is not an investment. Our house is our home. We live there. It is an anchor. It is the place we go when we don't feel like going anyplace. We do not plan to move. Our house provides me with a simple pleasure every time I come home to it. I am warmed by some ambiance -- which may merely be dust, but it is our dust and I like it. There's been much talk of moving, usually brought on by a leaky faucet, some peeling paint, or a neighbor we don't like. But when anyone asks me how much I think our house is worth, I just smile. They couldn't buy what that house means to me for all the money in both local banks. The house is not for sale. (5分)
2.1  The word "mortgage" in line 1, paragraph roughly means a certain sum of money from____.(1分)
A. a company
B. a bank
C. a landlord
D. the country