in India is uncertain even now.
T. In India alone, home to about sixty percent of the world’s wild tigers, the population was estimated
at 40,000 in 1901.
U. By 1970, however, the country’s tigers numbered fewer than 2,000.
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The U.S. Internal Revenue Service recently introduced an online tax return website that can be used to file individual tax
returns over the Internet.
Q. Based on this data, the government forecast that millions of people each year would file their tax
returns electronically and proceeded with plans for the website.
R. Studies by the IRS indicated that most taxpayers with Internet access would use the new service.
S. Before designing and constructing the site, researchers attempted to predict the popularity of such a
service.
T. Clearly, further research should have been undertaken if the IRS wanted to be sure of proceeding in
response to valid predictions.
U. However, an unheeded independent survey of Internet users taken at the same time as the IRS study
had found that most said they would not file returns over the Internet.
17.
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It is common knowledge that a given word can have various shades of meaning, but many people are surprised to discover
that a single word can sometimes be used in completely contradictory ways.
Q. For example, the word “cleave” can mean “to stick together” or “to adhere.”
R. Only when “cleave” is used in a phrase or sentence is it possible to tell which of these two
meanings is intended by the speaker.
S. Based on this assessment, it would seem that such words are fundamentally meaningless until their
intended meanings are made clear by surrounding text.
T. However, the same word can also mean “to split apart” or “to divide.”
U. Some would say that the identification of two meanings as contradictory as these is as unhelpful as
not knowing the word’s meaning at all.
18.
