On a Summer evening it is______to hear the joyful sound of the shepherd's flute floating across the valley.

He read the story______for everybody present to hear.

Without the friction between their feet and the ground, people would______be able to walk.

Cancer has always been with us

Millions of years ago the Vesuvian volcano destroyed Pompeii

Painting

There are few more reliable routes to an early grave than cigarette smoking. As a matter of fact, some tobacco users are informed only about how tobacco use can affect people's respiratory system, but not about the fact that over 4,000 kinds of chemicals can be found in tobacco smoke. They are warned of the epidemic being carcinogenic, but not of the fact that at least 40 kinds of cancer-causing substances are lurking in the smoke. They know tobacco use is harmful, but they do not know that tobacco smoke is highly toxic with many pathogenic substances in it, including nicotine, nitrogen dioxide and lead. Tobacco smoke proves more dangerous than industrial air pollution, taking a varied toll on people's brain, heart, lung, liver, stomach and kidney, triggering sexual and procreative dysfunctions, and even leading to birth defects. But despite the dangers, nicotine addicts find it almost impossible to kick the habit. Half of those who try will fail within a week. Fewer than 5% manage to stay clean for a year or more. Crutches such as nicotine patches or gum, which provide the drug without the cigarettes, can help—but only a little. One reason is that addiction is about more than mere chemistry. The rituals involved, such as holding a cigarette between the fingers or taking a long, luxuriant puff, can be as habit-forming as nicotine itself. So a better way to stop smoking might be a drug-delivery system that mimicked an ordinary cigarette as closely as possible, but had none of the pesky carcinogens and other poisons which come from burning a rolled-up mix of paper tobacco leaves and additives. Electronic cigarettes would seem to fit that bill. They use a small electric heater to vaporize a mix of glycerin and propylene glycol (two fairly inoffensive chemicals) in which nicotine has been dissolved, turning it into a breathable mist that can be savored much as cigarette smoke is. And because some of these devices are designed to resemble traditional cigarettes, they can be held between the fingers and jabbed in the air for emphasis, just like the real thing. However, the novelty of e-cigarettes (the first of which hit market in 2006) means there is only a smattering of evidence addressing the question of whether they actually do help smokers ditch the real thing. On December 17th, though, more evidence arrived—in the form of a review published by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international medical research organization. The review's authors, led by Peter Hajck of Queen Mary, a college of the University of London, examined results from 13 trials of e- cigarettes. The results, though a long way from being definitive, are encouraging. Two of the studies the team looked at were randomized control trials. These are the highest form of medical evidence, in which doctors assign volunteers at random to the treatment being studied or to something else, and compare the results. In the cases examined, the something else was a placebo e-cigarette. This resembled the real thing, but delivered no nicotine. About 9% of people using electronic cigarettes in these studies managed to abstain from smoking for six months, as against 4% of those using the placebos. One of the studies also found that e-cigarettes were at least as useful as nicotine patches in encouraging abstinence (the other did not examine this question.) Giving up smoking is the ideal outcome, but puffing less is good for you as well. Both studies suggested that e-cigarettes help those who cannot face giving up completely to cut their consumption significantly. Some 27% of smokers using placebo e-cigarettes, and 36% of those using the genuine electronic article, were able to do so by half or more. One of the trials also compared e-cigarettes with nicotine patches. In that study, 61% of e-cigarette users were able to cut their consumption by half, compared with only 44% of those using patches. These general conclusions were supported by the 11 remaining investigations, known as cohort studies, in which doctors merely monitored people for a time, without attempting to influence their behavior. Which of the following does "taking a varied toll on" in the first paragraph mean?

The lease is______in saying that the rent must be paid in dollars by the 20th of every month.

A ______ refers to an animal that is born from its mother's body, not from an egg, and drinks its mother's milk as a baby.

As one works with color in a practical or experimental way, one is impressed by two apparently unrelated facts. Color as seen is a mobile changeable thing depending to a large extent on the relationship of the color to other colors seen simultaneously. It is not fixed in its relation to the direct stimulus which creates it. On the other hand, the properties of surfaces that give rise to color do not seem to change greatly under a wide variety of illumination colors, usually (but not always) looking much the same in artificial light as in daylight. Both of these effects seem to be due in large part to the mechanism of color adaptation mentioned earlier. When the eye is fixed on a colored area, there is an immediate readjustment of the sensitivity of the eye to color in and around the area viewed. This readjustment does not immediately affect the color seen but usually does affect the next area to which the gaze is shifted. The longer the time of viewing, the higher the intensity, and the larger the area, the greater the effect will be in terms of its persistence in the succeeding viewing situation. As indicated by the work of Wright and Shouted, it appears that, at least for a first approximation, full adaptation takes place over a very brief time if the adapting source is moderately bright and the eye has been in relative darkness just previously. As the stimulus is allowed to act, however, the effect becomes more persistent in the sense that it takes the eye longer to regain its sensitivity to lower intensities. The net result is that, if the eye is so exposed and then the gaze is transferred to an area of lower intensity, the loss of sensitivity produced by the first area will still be present and appear as an "afterimage" superimposed on the second. The effect not only is present over the actual area causing the "local adaptation" but also spreads with decreasing strength to adjoining areas of the eye to produce "lateral adaptation." Also, because of the persistence of the effect if the eye is shifted around from one object to another, all of which are at similar brightness or have similar colors, the adaptation will tend to become uniform over the whole eye. This selection is primarily concerned with ______.

My eldest sister went on with the story and young children around her ______ with "wonderful!" from time to time.

The Coriolis force causes all moving projectiles on Earth to be______from a straight line.

A terrible traffic accident happened; people were saddened when they watched the ______ sight on TV.

The history of African—Americans during the past 400 years is traditionally narrated【C1】______an ongoing struggle against【C2】______and indifference on the part of the American mainstream, and a struggle【C3】______as an upward movement is【C4】______toward ever more justice and opportunity. Technology in and of【C5】______is not at fault; it's much too simple to say that gunpowder or agricultural machinery or fiber optics【C6】______been the enemy of an【C7】______group of people. A certain machine is put【C8】______work in a certain way—the purpose【C9】______which it was designed. The people who design the machines are not intent on unleashing chaos; they are usually trying to【C10】______a task more quickly, cleanly, or cheaply,【C11】______the imperative of innovation and efficiency that has ruled Western civilization【C12】______the Renaissance. Mastery of technology is second only【C13】______money as the true measure of accomplishment in this country, and it is very likely that by【C14】______this under-representation in the technological realm, and by not questioning and examining the folkways that have【C15】______it, blacks are allowing【C16】______to be kept out of the mainstream once again. This time, however, they will be【C17】______from the greatest cash engine of the twenty-first century. Inner-city blacks in particular are in danger, and the beautiful suburbs【C18】______ring the decay of Hartford, shed the past and learn to exist without contemplating or encountering the tragedy of the inner city. And blacks must change as well. The ways that【C19】______their ancestors through captivity and coming to freedom have begun to loose their utility. If blacks【C20】______to survive as full participants in this society, they have to understand what works now."

When he finally emerged from the cave after thirty days, John was ______ pale.

If you are a fan of science fiction

Mr

A series of attempts ______ made

Mr. Abu, the laboratory attendant

The______beauty of the mountain has made it a world-famous resort. Every year numerous tourists from home and abroad come to visit it.