A slim chance and a fat chance are the same,
but a wise man and a wise guy are_ .1_ How
can 2_ speech and blunt speech be the same
and quite a lot and quite a few the same,_ _3_
overlook and oversee are opposites? How can
the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as
hell the next?
Why is it that when the sun or the moon or the
star are out, they are visible, but why the lights
are out, they are_ _4_ ; and that when I wind up
my watch, I start it, but when I wind up my essay,
Ishall_5__ it?
Still, you haveto_ 6_ at the unique lunacy of
the English language, in which the sun comes up
and goes down, but prices go up and come
down - a wonderful and crazy _ 7_ in which
your house can both burn up and burn down andi
your car can slow up and slow down, in which
you fl in a form by flling out a form, in which
your alarm clocks goes off by going on, in which
you add up a column of figures by adding them
down.
If the truth be told, all languages are a little
crazy. As Walt Whitman might 8_ they
contradict themselves. That's because language
is invented, not_ 9_ by boys and girls and men
and women, not computer. As such, language
_10_ the creative and fearful asymmetry of the
human race, which, of course, isn't really a race
at all.
A. sharp
B. proclaim C. tongue
D.still
E. marvel
F. end
G. acquire
H. while
I. escaped
J. discovered
K. reflects
L.added
M. opposites
N. invisible
O. paradox