Most people would agree that, although our age exceeds all previous ages in knowledge, the

A．improves

B．precedes

C．imposes

D．exceeds

There are several factors that contribute to wisdom. Of these I should put first a sense of proportion: the capacity to take account of all the important factors in a problem and to attach to each its due weight. This has become more difficult than it used to be owing to the extent and complexity of the special knowledge required of various kinds of technicians. Suppose, for example, that you are engaged in research in scientific medicine. The work is difficult and is likely to absorb the whole of your mind. You have no time to consider the effect which your discoveries or inventions may have outside the field of medicine. You succeed (let us say) as modern medicine has succeeded, in enormously lowering the infant death-rate, not only in Europe and America, but also in Asia and Africa. This has the entirely unintended result of making the food supply inadequate and lowing the standard of life in the parts of the world that have the greatest populations. To take an even more dramatic example, which is in everybody’s mind at the present time; you study the makeup of the atom from a disinterested (无利害关系的) desire for knowledge, and by chance place in the hands of a powerful mad man the means of destroying the human race.

Therefore, with every increase of knowledge and skill, wisdom becomes more necessary, for every such increase augments (增强) our capacity for realizing our purposes, and therefore augments our capacity for evil, if our purpose are unwise.

第31题：Disagreement arises when people try to decide ________.

A) how much more wisdom we have now than before

B) what wisdom is and how to develop it

C) if there is a great increase of wisdom in our age

D) whether wisdom can be developed or not

Many?people?would?agree?that?stress?is?a?major?problem?in?modern?life.?It?is?certainly?true?that?worry?and?quarrel?can?cause?all?kinds?of?illnesses,(1)backache?to?severe?headaches,?or?even?more?serious?complaints?such?as?high?blood?pressure.?

Many?of?us?think(2)stress?as?something?that?other?people?impose?on?us.?We?often?complain?about?how?other?people?put?us(3)pressure.?But?we?should?try?not?to?let?such?pressure?affect?us.?We?should?not?forget?that?we?are?largely?responsible?for?some?of?the?stress?ourselves.?We?sometimes?take(4)more?work?than?our?bodies?and?our?minds?can?handle.?We?should?learn?to(5)our?limitations.?We?should?be?aware?of?which?things?are?really?important?and?which?are?not.

Most Americans retire after the age of sixty. The usual age of retirement is 65, although some people retire at 55 or younger. Other Americans do not retire until they are in their seventies. This type of "late retirement" is more frequent now as population growth in the US slows down, and the average age of the citizens increases. Americans usually make plans for retirement well in advance. Their income after retirement may include interest on bank savings and a company pension. Amercians also receive Social Security payments from the federal government.