Historically, humans get serious about avoiding disasters only after one has just struck them. 62 that logic, 2006 should have been a breakthrough year for rational behavior. With the memory of 9/11 still 63 in their minds, Americans watched hurricane Katrina, the most expensive disaster in U.S. history, on 64 TV. Anyone who didn’t know it before should have learned that bad things can happen. And they are made 65 worse by our willful blindness to risk as much as our 66 to work together before everything goes to hell.

Granted, some amount of delusion(错觉)is probably part of the 67 condition. In A.D. 63, Pompeii was seriously damaged by an earthquake, and the locals immediately went to work 68, in the same spot-until they were buried altogether by a volcano eruption 16 years later. But a 69 of the past year in disaster history suggests that modern Americans are particularly bad at 70 themselves from guaranteed threats. We know more than we 71 did about the dangers we face. But it turns 72 that in times of crisis, our greatest enemy is 73 the storm, the quake or the 74 itself. More often it is ourselves.

62. A) To B) By C) On D) For                                                  63. A) fresh B) obvious C) apparent D) evident 　

        64. A) visual B) vivid C) live D) lively                                         65. A) little B) less C) more D) much

        66. A) reluctance B) rejection C) denial D) decline                      67. A) natural B) social C) world D) human

        68. A) revising B) refining C) rebuilding D) retrieving                   69. A) review B) reminder C) concept D) prospect

        70. A) preparing B) protesting C) protecting D) prevailin             71. A) never B) ever C) then D) before

        72. A) up B) down C) over D) out                                               73. A) merely B) rarely C) incidentally D) accidentally

        74. A) surge B) spur C) surf D) splash

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