① In general the relation between parents and children is essentially based on teaching.
② Many of us forget this.
③ Some think it is based on love, others on control.
④ But you can give a child as much love as it can absorb and still make it an idiot unfit to face the world;
⑤ while the best and surest way to control your children is to explain the rules you intend to enforce.
32番
① Facts are to science what words are to the poets.
② The scientist has a love of facts, even isolated facts, similar to the poet’s love of words.
③ But a collection of facts is not science any more than a dictionary is poetry.
④ Around his facts the scientist weaves a logical pattern or theory which gives the facts meaning, order, and significance.
33番
① A pet theory of mine is that things should be seen from a distance ―― never close-up, but always from a distance.
② Seen close-up, things have a way of showing their defects, their innate ugliness.
③ For nothing is so beautiful but it betrays some defect on close inspection.
④ Seen from a distance, however, their defects disappear, and only their charm remains.
34番
① The first subject that attracted my attention was religion.
② For it seemed to me of the greatest importance to decide whether this world I lived in was the only one I had to think about or whether I must look upon it as no more than a place of trial which was to prepare me for a life to come.
35番
① Science is a good thing, but it is not an end in itself;
② it is a means toward an end and that end is human betterment.
③ As scientists keep insisting, there is neither good or bad in any scientific discovery;
④ it is the use to which it is put which makes it beneficial or dangerous;
⑤ and the decision does not lie with the scientists themselves but with society.
36番
① Language is an indispensable instrument of human society.
② It is the means by which individuals understand each other and are enabled to function together as a community.
③ Indeed, it is unlikely that any human organization could either be formed or long maintained without language.
④ The effectiveness of human society, therefore, is largely dependent upon the clarity, accuracy, and efficiency with which language is used or understood.
37番
① Industry as we know it began in 1765, when James Watt developed the first practical steam engine.
② With this unlimited source of mechanical power at his command, man finally escaped from monotonous, exhausting methods of doing the world’s work.
③ Human energy was directed to more constructive tasks, and during the next century civilization made more progress than in all the ages since the dawn of history.
38番
① Differences between nations, so long as they do not lead to hostility, are by no means to be deplored.
② Living for a time in a foreign country makes us aware of merits in which our own country is deficient.
③ The same thing holds of differences between different regions within one country, and of the differing types produced by different professions.
④ Uniformity of character and uniformity of culture are to be regretted.
39番
① To be an interesting person you have to feed and exercise your mind.
② You cannot be interesting on an empty mind any more than you can be healthy on a diet of potato chips and no exercise.
③ You have to read and discuss and write a good deal before you can fulfill the wonderful opportunity you have to pass from ignorance to knowledge and interestingness.
40番
① Strange is our situation here upon earth.
② Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.
③ From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know :
④ that man is here for the sake of other men ―― above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.
