We live in a society where there is a lot of talk about science, but I would say that there are not 5 percent of the people who are (1) e________with schooling, college included, to understand (2) s________ reasoning. We are more ignorant of science (3) t________ people with comparable education in Western Europe.

There are a lot of kids who know (4) e________ about computers—how to build them, how to take them (5) a________, and how to (6) w________ programs for games. But if you ask them to (7) e________ the principles of physics that have gone into creating the (8) c________, they don’t have the faintest (9) i________.

The (10) f________ to understand science leads to such things as the neglect of human creative (11) p ________. It also gives (12) r________ to blurring of the distinction between science and technology. Lots of people don’t (13) d________ between the two. Science is the production of new (14) k________ which can be applied or not, and (15) t________ is the (16) a________of knowledge to the production of some products, machinery or the (17) l________. The two are really very different, and people who have the faculty for one very seldom have the faculty for the (18) o________.

Science in itself is harmless, more or (19) l________. But as soon as it can provide technology, it is not necessarily (20) h________. No society has yet learned to forecast the consequences of new technology, which can be enormous.