Is language, like food

The problem of the standard educational tests is caused by ______.

The clash between Real Madrid and Arsenal is being______as the match of the season.

She bought a house near the sea last year so she could take a______along the beach whenever she wanted to.

His ideas are invariably condemned as______by his colleagues.

The way people hold to the belief that a fun-filled, painfree life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain. As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment (承担的义务), self-improvement. Ask a bachelor (单身汉) why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features. Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night's sleep or a three-day vacation. I don't know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild. Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all. According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because ______.

Modern appliances ______ us from a good deal of household work. For instance, the dryer frees us from hanging the laundry.

Big cities today are confronted with very serious problems. Transport is a【C1】______difficulty: some planners believe in【C2】______transport system; others believe in making it possible for citizens to move【C3】______in private cars. There are several ways of【C4】______a public transport system. Sometimes it is built under the ground; sometimes it is on the【C5】______, and sometimes it is even above ground level,【C6】______in parts of New York and Tokyo for example. In most cases, of course, it is a【C7】______of some or all of these elements. The【C8】______of the city centers has also been a problem in the last 30 years. The hearts of many cities have become poorer and poorer,【C9】______more and more crime and violence, 【C10】______the people who can afford to have moved out to the【C11】______. This is the opposite of the situation 100 years ago,【C12】______wealthy people lived in the center, and the poor lived【C13】______the outskirts of the city. Ecological problems also【C14】______, as factories and cars pollute the air, trees are cut down to make【C15】______for urban clearways, and crowded conditions cause garbage to【C16】______in the streets. In order to solve these problems, some planners believe we should limit the size of our cities, perhaps by restricting population, or perhaps by offering【C17】______jobs in the provinces. Others believe that cities cannot be limited in size and that the problems must be solved in a【C18】______of ways—by creating green areas, building【C19】______houses for everybody, stopping factory pollution,【C20】______motor transport, and so on."

What he told me was a______of downright lies.

em>Questions 14 to 17 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the conversation./em> Miss Parkinson became interested in her own business ______.

How can you he so ______ to the sufferings of people in poverty in the world?

His heart ______ with excitement as he was waiting for the reception by the leaders.

They had planned to go outing this weekend

______ the advice from the councilor

The generation ______ makes it difficult for parents to understand their children's opinions.

Their ______ building is located next to the park, so it is very convenient for them to have a walk after supper.

On behalf of my company, I am______to you and your colleagues for your generous help.

The chimney vomited a cloud of smoke.

Most episodes of absent-mindedness—forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered a room—are caused by a simple lack of attention, says Schacter. "You're supposed to remember something, but you haven't encoded it deeply." Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a major impact on recalling it later. Failure to encode properly can create annoying situations. If you put your mobile phone in a pocket, for example, and don't pay attention to what you did because you're involved in a conversation, you'll probably forget that the phone is in the jacket now hanging in your wardrobe. "Your memory itself isn't failing you," says Schacter. "Rather, you didn't give your memory system the information it needed." Lack of interest can also lead to absent-mindedness. "A man who can recite sports statistics from 30 years ago," says Zelinski, "may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox." Women have slightly better memories than men, possibly because they pay more attention to their environment, and memory relies on just that. Visual cues can help prevent absent-mindedness, says Schacter. "But be sure the cue is clear and available," he cautions. If you want to remember to take a medication with lunch, put the pill bottle on the kitchen table—don't leave it in the medicine chest and write yourself a note that you keep in a pocket. Another common episode of absent-mindedness, walking into a room and wondering why you're there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. "Everyone does this from time to time," says Zelinski. The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room, and you'll likely remember. Why does the author think that encoding properly is very important?

We all enjoy our freedom of choice and do not like to see it ______ when it is within the legal and moral boundaries of society.