Going out for a holiday is a good way to relax and refresh yourself, and this is especially true ______ it comes to preventing depression.

To get the ship back into full working order would ______ spending huge amounts of money and effort.

He wanted very much to run for a second term

Researchers have studied the poor as individuals

A new baby and a new job can be equally______.

Hunting is thought to be ______ for the extinction of some wildlife.

What our society suffers from most today is the absence of consensus about what it and life in it ought to be; such consensus cannot be gained from society's present stage, or from fantasies about what it ought to be. For that the present is too close and too diversified, and the future too uncertain, to make believable claims about it. A consensus in the present hence can be achieved only through a shared understanding of the past, as Homer's epics informed those who lived centuries later what it meant to be Greek, and by what images and ideals they were to live their lives and organize their societies. Most societies derive consensus from a long history, a language all their own, a common religion, common ancestry. The myths by which they live are based on all of these. But the United States is a country of immigrants, coming from a great variety of nations. Lately, it has been emphasized that an asocial, narcissistic personality has become characteristic of Americans, and that it is this type of personality that makes for the lack of well-being, because it prevents us from achieving consensus that would counteract a tendency to withdraw into private worlds. In this study of narcissism, Christopher Lash says that modern man, "tortured by self-consciousness, turns to new therapies not to free himself of his personal worries but to find meaning and purpose in life, to find something to live for". There is widespread distress because national morale has declined, and we have lost an earlier sense of national vision and purpose. Contrary to rigid religions or political beliefs, as are found in totalitarian societies, our culture is one of the great individual differences, at least in principle and in theory; but this leads to disunity, even chaos. Americans believe in the value of diversity, but just because our is a society based on individual diversity, it needs consensus about some dominating ideas more than societies based on uniform origin of their citizens. Hence, if we are to have consensus, it must be based on a myth—a vision about a common experience, a conquest that made us Americans, as the myth about the conquest of Troy formed the Greeks. Only a common myth can offer relief from the fear that life is without meaning or purpose. Myths permit us to examine our place in the world by comparing it to a shared idea. Myths are shared fantasies that form the tie that binds the individual to other members of his group. Such myths help to ward off feelings of isolations, guilt, anxiety, and purposelessness—in short, they combat isolation and the breakdown of social standards and values. In the eyes of the author, the greatest trouble with the US society may lie in ______.

The fuel of the continental missile is supposed to be ______ by this device.

The leaders of the two countries feel it desirable to ______ funds from armaments to health and education.

The joys of travel

Tim is dubious about diet pills which advertise quick weight loss.

For several years

Dozens of scientific groups all over the world have been ______ the goal of a practical and economic way to use sunlight to split water molecules.

Jack was about to announce our plan but I______.

All the commodities sold in that shop are given one year's______.

As industry grew

Edison tested more than one thousand materials to see if they could______electric current and glow.

There is no denying that students should learn something about how computers work, just as we expect them at least to understand that the internal combustion engine (内燃机) has something to do with burning fuel, expanding gases and pistons (活塞) being driven. For people should have some basic idea of how the things that they use do what they do. Further, students might be helped by a course that considers the computer's impact on society. But that is not what is meant by computer literacy. For computer literacy is not a form of literacy (读写能力); it is a trade skill that should not be taught as a liberal art. Learning how to use a computer and learning how to program one are two distinct activities. A case might be made that the competent citizens of tomorrow should free themselves from their fear of computers. But this is quite different from saying that all ought to know how to program one. Leave that to people who have chosen programming as a career. While programming can be lots of fun, and while our society needs some people who are experts at it, the same is true of auto repair and violin-making. Learning how to use a computer is not that difficult, and it gets easier all the time as programs become more "user-friendly". Let us assume that in the future everyone is going to have to know how to use a computer to be a competent citizen. What does the phrase "learning to use a computer" mean? It sounds like "learning to drive a car", that is, it sounds as if there is some set of definite skills that, once acquired, enable one to use a computer. In fact, "learning to use a computer" is much more like "learning to play a game", but learning the rules of one game may not help you play a second game, whose rules may not be the same. There is no such thing as teaching someone how to use a computer. One can only teach people to use this or that program and generally that is easily accomplished. To be the competent citizens of tomorrow, people should ______.

The new colleague ______ to have worked in several big corporations before he joined our company.