Passage 4

Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.

Everyone is trying to convince you of something. And you spend a lot of time trying to decide what you should do, that is, trying to convince yourself. Thinking critically is a defense against a world of too much information and too many people trying to convince us. But it is more. Reasoning is what distinguishes us from beasts. Many of them can see better, can hear better, and are stronger. But they cannot plan, they cannot think through, they cannot discuss in the hopes of understanding better.

The tendency to move down in sociaTclass is less obvious, for a claim to an aristocratic birth, especially in Europe, has always carried a certain distinction, and (63)people have made tremendous efforts to obtain for their children the kind of opportunities they had for themselves.(64)In the twentieth century the increased taxation of higher incomes, the growth of the social service development of educational opportunity have considerably altered the social outlook.(65)The upper classes no longer are the sole, or even the main possessors of wealth, power and education,though inherited social positions still carries considerable prestige.

(66)Many people today are hostile towards class distinctions and privileges and hope to achieve a classless society.The trouble is that as one inequality is removed, another tends to take its place, and (67)the best that has so far been attempted is a society in which distinctions are elastic and in which every member has fair opportunities for making the best of his abilities.

(From Social Classes)

What will a student be able to do after taking the course of critical thinking?

(dead) The old woman was very sad about the_________of her only son.

What are the strong and weak points of beasts compared with humans?

moon month be reason decide example

each trade develop god call planet

There was a time in the early history of man when the days had no names! The (51) __________was quite simple: Man had invented the week.

In those days, the only division of times was the (52)___________, and there were too many days in the month for each of them to have a separate name. But when men began to build cities, they wanted to have a special day on which to (53)__________, a market day.

Sometimes these market days were fixed at evei^ tenth day, some every seventh or every fifth day. The Babylonians (54)___________that it should be every seventh day. On this day they didn't work, but met for trade or religious festivals.

The Jews followed their (55)_____, but kept every seventh day for religious purposes. On this day the week came into existence. It was space between market days. The Jews gave (56)___________of the seven days a name, but h was really a number after the Sabbath day (which was Saturday). For example, Wednesday was (57)_____________the fourth

day (four days after Saturday).

When the Egyptians adopted the seven-day week, they named the days after five (58)__________, the sun and the moon. The Romans used the Egyptian names for their days of the week: the day of the sun, of the moon, of the planet Mars, of Mercury, of Jupiter, of Venus, and of Saturn.

We get our names for the days not from the Romans but from the Anglo-Saxons, who called most of the days after their own (59)________, which were roughly the same as the gods of the Romans. The day of the sun became Sannandaeg, or Sunday. The day of the (60)_______was called Monandaeg, or Monday. The day of Mars became the day of the Tiw,who was their god of war. This became Tiwesdaeg, or Tuesday. Instead of Mercury’s name, that of the god Woden was given to Wednesday. The Roman day of Jupiter, the thunder, became the day of the thunder god Thor, and this became Thursday. The next day was named for Frigg, the wife of their god Odin, and so we have Friday. The day of Saturn became Saetemdaeg, a translation from the Roman, and then Saturday.

(From How Did the Days of the Week Get Their Names?)

(understand) Don’t    me—I’m not criticizing your decision.

(office) The report has not yet revealed________corruption in relation to road building.

(hand) John invited twelve people to his birthday party, but only a____of them came.

(easy) For him, learning French is________than learning Russian.

(frank) I'm concerned about your lack of marketing experience and,_________,you’re pretty new at all this.