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1. Not until the final chapter ______ the full implications of the protagonist's decisions.

2. The committee's report, while thorough, was criticized for its ______ recommendations, which offered little in the way of concrete, actionable solutions.

3. ______ the research been funded adequately, the scientific team might have achieved a breakthrough much sooner.

4. The lecturer's argument, though elegantly constructed, rested on a series of ______ assumptions that were not supported by empirical data.

5. The CEO chose to ______ any discussion of the merger until the quarterly financial results had been officially released.

6. It is imperative that the new policy ______ implemented with due consideration for its long-term socioeconomic ramifications.

7. Despite its initial promise, the project devolved into a logistical ______, plagued by mismanagement and funding shortages.

8. Rarely ______ such a confluence of economic and political factors leading to widespread institutional change.

9. The philosopher’s latest work is a ______ examination of post-structuralist thought, so dense and complex that it is accessible only to specialists.

10. The treaty, intended to ______ regional tensions, inadvertently created a new set of geopolitical challenges.

11. ______ by the lack of clear evidence, the investigative journalist was reluctant to publish the story.

12. The government's attempts to silence dissent only served to ______ the protest movement, giving it greater momentum and public sympathy.

13. So convoluted was the legal document ______ took a team of lawyers weeks to decipher its clauses.

14. His ______ speaking style, which favored elaborate metaphors and classical allusions, was often lost on his more practically-minded audience.

15. The findings of the study were anomalous, ______ from the established theoretical framework in several key respects.

16. The director’s decision was seen as a ______ to the studio's demands, compromising his artistic vision for commercial viability.

17. The company is contractually obliged ______ its suppliers within 30 days of receiving an invoice.

18. Her arguments against the proposal were both ______ and well-researched, leaving the opposition with little room for rebuttal.

19. The organization's ______ structure, with its multiple layers of management, often hindered swift decision-making.

20. Were the council to reject the proposal, it ______ a significant setback for urban regeneration efforts.

21. The historian's work was praised for avoiding hagiography and providing a more ______ account of the controversial leader's life.

22. The politician's ______ response to the journalist's pointed question did little to quell the public's concerns.

23. At no point during the trial ______ offer any testimony that contradicted the forensic evidence.

24. The notion of a single, objective historical truth has been largely ______ by postmodern thinkers, who argue for a multiplicity of narratives.

Bài đọc hiểu

On the Demarcation Problem in the Philosophy of Science

The 20th century witnessed a profound shift in the philosophy of science, primarily centered on the 'demarcation problem'—the challenge of distinguishing scientific theories from non-scientific or pseudoscientific ones. Early logical positivists championed verifiability as the key criterion: a statement was meaningful only if it could be empirically verified. However, this position was assailed by Karl Popper, who argued that verification was an inadequate standard. One can find confirmatory evidence for virtually any theory if one looks for it. Instead, Popper proposed falsifiability as the hallmark of genuine science. A theory is scientific, he contended, if and only if it makes bold, precise predictions that could, in principle, be proven false. This criterion elegantly excludes fields like astrology, whose vague predictions are unfalsifiable. Yet, Popper's model itself faced scrutiny. Thomas Kuhn, in his seminal work 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions', observed that scientists do not, in practice, discard a paradigm at the first sign of a falsifying instance. Instead, they engage in 'normal science', a puzzle-solving activity within an established framework, often explaining away anomalies. Scientific revolution, a paradigm shift, occurs only when anomalies accumulate to a crisis point, and a compelling alternative paradigm emerges. For Kuhn, the demarcation line is less a logical absolute and more a sociological phenomenon, defined by the consensus of a scientific community. This historicist perspective suggests that what constitutes 'science' is not fixed but evolves, governed by complex social and psychological factors as much as by logical rigor.

1. What is the primary purpose of the passage?

2. According to Popper, why is 'verifiability' an inadequate criterion for demarcation?

3. The passage suggests that Thomas Kuhn's view of science is best described as:

4. What does the passage imply about the activity of 'normal science' as described by Kuhn?

5. The word 'seminal' in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to:

6. How does Kuhn's perspective challenge Popper's model?

7. The author's tone in this passage can best be described as:

The Nuances of Geopolitical Soft Power

In the lexicon of international relations, the concept of 'soft power,' coined by Joseph Nye, represents a significant departure from traditional realist paradigms that prioritize military and economic coercion ('hard power'). Soft power is the ability of a state to influence the preferences and behaviors of other actors through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion. Its currency lies in intangible assets: the perceived legitimacy of a country's values, the appeal of its culture, and the moral authority of its foreign policy. Proponents argue that in an increasingly interconnected world, soft power is not merely a supplement to hard power but a crucial, cost-effective tool for achieving national interests. However, the efficacy and measurability of soft power are subjects of intense academic and policy debate. Critics contend that its impact is often diffuse, slow-acting, and difficult to quantify, making it an unreliable instrument for statecraft, particularly in crises demanding swift, decisive action. Furthermore, the generation of soft power is not entirely within a government's control; it emanates from a nation's civil society, private sector, and cultural output, which can be inconsistent with or even critical of official policy. A state's actions can also profoundly undermine its soft power reserves. For instance, a foreign policy perceived as hypocritical or overly aggressive can rapidly erode the very cultural and political attractiveness that soft power is built upon. Consequently, wielding soft power effectively requires a sophisticated, long-term strategy of consistency and credibility, a challenge for any government navigating the complexities of the global stage.

1. What is the central theme of the passage?

2. According to the passage, which of the following is considered a source of 'soft power'?

3. The author mentions that a government's control over its soft power is limited because...

4. What can be inferred about the author's view on the practical application of soft power?

5. The word 'diffuse' in the second paragraph most nearly means:

6. Which of the following statements would a critic of soft power, as described in the passage, most likely agree with?

7. The passage implies that a state's soft power can be damaged by:

The 'Hard Problem' of Consciousness in AI

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has reinvigorated one of philosophy's most intractable puzzles: the nature of consciousness. While AI can now perform tasks requiring sophisticated cognitive functions—pattern recognition, linguistic translation, strategic planning—it remains an open question whether these systems possess any form of subjective experience. This distinction is at the heart of what philosopher David Chalmers termed the 'hard problem' of consciousness. The 'easy problems,' relatively speaking, involve explaining the brain's functional and behavioral capacities: how it processes information, integrates sensory input, and controls behavior. A sufficiently advanced AI could, in theory, solve these problems by replicating the brain's neural architecture. The hard problem, however, is to explain why and how these physical processes give rise to qualia—the private, subjective, qualitative feel of an experience, such as the redness of red or the pain of a headache. A purely functionalist or computational model of the mind struggles to account for this phenomenological dimension. An AI could be programmed to say 'I see red' when presented with a specific wavelength of light, and it could even access and process information about 'redness,' but this is not the same as the actual first-person experience. This gap between objective function and subjective experience leads to the 'philosophical zombie' thought experiment: a hypothetical being that is functionally identical to a human but has no conscious experience whatsoever. The challenge for AI is not merely to simulate intelligence, but to cross the chasm from information processing to genuine sentience, a feat for which we currently have no established scientific or philosophical roadmap.

1. What is the main distinction the passage draws between the 'easy' and 'hard' problems of consciousness?

2. The term 'qualia' is used in the passage to refer to:

3. What is the purpose of the 'philosophical zombie' thought experiment mentioned in the passage?

4. What does the author imply about the current state of AI in relation to consciousness?

5. The word 'intractable' in the first sentence is closest in meaning to:

6. According to the passage, a 'purely functionalist' model of the mind would be inadequate for: