Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.
As the world excitedly greeted Snuppy, the first cloned dog, commentators celebrated our cleverness. Many feel proud that our age is marked by technological (47) . But an article in British newspaper The Observer recently said true innovation has (48) from our society.
The writer was Peter Watson, author of the book Ideas — A History from Fire to Freud. Watson began: "The year 2005 can’t begin to compete with 1905 in terms of (49) innovations."
"Writing a history of ideas over the past three ears, I have been (50) time and again by the fact that, contrary to what we tell ourselves all the time-on TV, in newspapers and magazines, in (51) and in government propaganda — our present world is nowhere near as (52) and innovative as it thinks it is, certainly in comparison with past ages."
"Yes, we are dazzled by mobile phones, cameras, digital TV, and the www, by laser- guided surgery and bombs, by DNA fingerprinting, and now by cloning. These are not (53) things but do they change the way we think in important — in fundamental — directions "
Watson quoted Richard Southern, Oxford University historian, who died last year: "Southern thought the most interesting times in history were 1050—1250 and 1750—1950."
"Each of these periods transformed our understanding of ourselves (54) ."
"But what great ideas or transformations have been (55) in the half-century since19507" Watson asked, pointing out that except for a few innovations such as the Internet, most scientific research (56) modifies previous studies.
A) rarely B) introduced C) merelyD) intimate E) distributed
F) important G) advances H) statistics I) radically J) struck
K) disappeared L) small M) interestingN) advertisingO) pessimistic
