The process of perceiving other people is rarely translated (to ourselves or other's) into cold, objective terms. "She was 5 feet 8 inches tall, had had fair hair, and wore a colored skirt." More often, we try to get inside the other person to pinpoint his or her attitudes, emotions, motivations, abilities, ideas and characters. Furthermore, we sometimes behave as if we can accomplish this difficult job very quickly -perhaps with a two-second glance.

31. The word "paradox" (Para. 1,) means "_________" .
A) implication

B) contradiction

C) interpretation

D) confusion

        It is a curious paradox that we think of the physical sciences as "hard", the social sciences as "soft", and the biological sciences as somewhere in between, This is interpreted to mean that our knowledge of physical systems is more certain than our knowledge of biological systems, and these in turn are more certain than our knowledge of social system. In terms of our capacity to sample the relevant universes, however, and the probability that our images of these universes are at least approximately correct, one suspects that a reverse order is more reasonable. We are able to sample earth' s social systems with some degree of confidence that we have a reasonable sample of the total universe being investigated. Our knowledge of mal systems, therefore, while it is in many ways extremely inaccurate, is not likely to be seriously overturned by new discoveries. Even the folk knowledge in social systems on which ordinary life is based in earning, spending, organizing, marrying, taking part in political activities, fighting and so on, is not very dissimilar from the more sophisticated images of the social system derived from the social sciences, even though it is built upon the very imperfect samples of personal experience.

26. The word "liability" (Para. 1) most probably means "______".
A) misfortune
B) instability
C) disadvantage
D) burden

        Beauty has always been regarded as something praiseworthy. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable occupations. Personal consultants give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants. But in the executive circle, beauty can become a liability.