Our words are meaningless and cannot be distinguished from their opposites, as can be proved by an example. People think that they know the difference between the meanings of "bald" and "having hair." Suppose an average person twentyone years of age has N hairs on his or her head. We say that that person is not bald but has hair. But surely one hair less would make no difference, and a person with N-1 hairs on his or her head would be said to have hair. Suppose we kept on, with one hair less each time. The result would be the same. But what would be the difference between someone who had one hair and someone who had none We call them both bald. Nowhere can we make a distinction between "bald" and "having hair."
Which of the following statements best counters the argument above
A．The word "bald" can be translated into other languages.
B．A word can have more than one meaning.
C．A word such as "cat" can be applied to several animals that differ in some respects.
D．Words can lack precision without being meaningless.
E．(E) People cannot think clearly without using words.
参考答案：D
解析： 段落第一句话是个结论，而后面的几句话是对结论的进一步论证，因此读题重点在第一句话。如果“词汇可以缺乏准确但不至于无意义”，如(D)所说，那么将与段落第一句话“词汇是无意义的并且无法与其反义词区分开来”相违背。因此(D)为正确答案。(A)、(B)、(C)、(E)对推理不能起到任何作用，没有一个像正确答案但又绝对不是正确答案的选项。其实ETS命题人员也经常陷入这样一种尴尬的局面，有时设计出了一个正确答案，但怎么也设计不出一个迷惑答案。