It was in a small village in the south ______ he spent his childhood and met his life-long friend—the local schoolmaster（）A. whereB. whenC. whichD. that

本题考查强调句的用法。解题的关键在于判断句子是否符合强调句的结构。

强调句的基本结构是 “It is/was + 被强调部分 + that/who + 其他部分”。当被强调部分是人时，可用 who 或 that；当被强调部分是物、时间、地点等其他成分时，只能用 that。

对于本题，我们可以通过去掉 “It was” 和 “that” 来判断句子是否仍然成立。原句 “It was in a small village in the south that he spent his childhood and met his life - long friend—the local schoolmaster”，去掉 “It was” 和 “that” 后，句子变为 “In a small village in the south he spent his childhood and met his life - long friend—the local schoolmaster”，这是一个完整的句子，说明原句是强调句结构，强调的是地点状语 “in a small village in the south”，所以应该用 that 引导。