A ． product quality                                     B ． features

C ． style                                                    D ． price

III ． DISCOURSE CLOZE

The following is taken from the textbook ． Read the passage and fill in the numbered spaces (there are more suggested answers than necessary) ．

Write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET ． (10 points, 1 point each)

All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live ． (31)________ ． But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak ， of course ， of free men who have a choice ， not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited ．

Such stories set us thinking ， wondering what we should do under similar circumstances ． What events ， what experiences ， what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings?(32)________?

Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with a gentleness, a vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. (33)_______, but most people would be chastened by certainty of impending death.

In stories, the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed. (34)_______. It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.

Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future. (35)_______. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty task, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.

The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. (36)_______. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration, and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.