单选题 As Christmas approached, with people A crowded department stores, restaurants, theatres and movie houses, the downtown area B was , C as always , D the busiest .

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解析：crowded一crowding。句意：随着圣诞临近，人们都涌入百货商店、饭店、戏院和电影院，一如既往，市中心又成了最热闹的地方。本句中由“with+名词+分词”的介词短语结构表示伴随状况，而句中人们和涌入是主动关系，因此用V-ing形式，将crowded改为crowding。