Question about apt_preferences

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>]

In the apt_preferences man page, and in the man page apt.conf,
/etc/apt/apt.conf is referred to as a file. But there is no 
such file on my Sarge system. Instead there is a directory,
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d , which contains two files,
10apt-listbugs
70debconf
These two files were put there by some automatic process, not
by me.

How should I transform the statements in man apt_preferences,
and man apt.conf, so that they apply to the reality of Sarge?
Is there a simple rule?

Could someone who has apt_preferences working in some configuration
which they find useful, please post their apt_preferences file,
and whatever they have for /etc/apt/apt.conf and /etc/apt/apt.conf.d ?

Thanks

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net