Historically, humans get serious about avoiding disasters only after one has just struck them. (21) that logic, 2006 should have been a breakthrough year for rational behavior. With the memory of 9/11 still (22) in their minds, Americans watched hurricane Katrina, the most expensive disaster in U.S. history, on (23) TV. Anyone who didn’t know it before should have learned that bad things can happen. And they are made (24) worse by our willful blindness to risk as much as our (25) to work together before everything goes to hell.
Granted, some amount of delusion (错觉) is probably part of the (26) condition. In A.D. 63, Pompeii was seriously damaged by an earthquake, and the locals immediately went to work (27) , in the same spot—until they were buried altogether by a volcano eruption 16 years later. But a (28) of the past year in disaster history suggests that modern Americans are particularly
A. little
B. less
C. more
D. much
More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving. As Skolnick notes, Americans are a marrying people: Relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, aster a decline in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce rate needs to be taken in this pro-marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains, by far, the preferred way of life for the vast majority of people in our society.
What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty-five years ago, the typical American family consisted of a husband, a wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children. And there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriage, or the husband’s, or bot
A. will most likely remarry
B. prefer the way they live
C. have lost faith in marriage
D. are the vast majority of people in the society
Motorways are, no doubt the safest roads in Britain. Mile (21) mile, vehicle for vehicle, you axe much (22) likely to be killed or seriously injured than on an ordinary road. On (23) hand, if you do have a serious accident on a motorway, fatalities are much more likely to (24) than in a comparable accident (25) on the roads.
Motorways have no (26) bends, no roundabouts or traffic lights and (27) speeds are much greater than on other roads. Though the 70 mph limit is (28) in force, it is often treated with the contempt that most drivers have for the 30 mph limit applying in built up areas in Britain. Added to this is the fact that motorway drivers seem to like traveling in groups with perhaps (29) ten meters between each vehicle. The resulting horrific pile-ups (30) one vehicle stops for some reason—mechanical failure, driver error and so on—have become all (31) familia
A. push
B. rake
C. till
D. plough
我来回答:
