CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and choose the corresponding letter.

（1）Everyone is trying to convince you of something. And you spend a lot of time trying to decide what you should do, that is, trying to convince yourself. Thinking critically is a defense against a world of too much information and too many people trying to convince us. But it is more. Reasoning is what distinguishes us from beasts. Many of them can see better, can hear better, and are stronger. But they cannot plan, they cannot think through, they cannot discuss in the hopes of understanding better.
（2）A student majoring in anthropology（人类学）took the course of critical thinking. Then he went over his term paper, analyzing it as we would in class, and made some changes in it. He showed me the professors' comments, which were roughly "Beautifully reasoned, clear. A+." He said it was the first A+ he'd ever gotten. I can't promise that you'll get an A on all your term papers after taking this course. But you'll be able to comprehend better what you're reading and write more clearly and convincingly.

（3）Once in a while I'll tune into a sports talk show on the radio. All kinds of people call in. Some of them talk nonsense, but more often the comments are clear and well reasoned. The callers know the details, the facts, and make serious projections （推测）about what might be the best strategy based on past experience. They comment on what caused a team to win or lose; they reason with great skill and reject bad arguments. I expect that you can too, at least on subjects you consider important. What we hope to do in this course is hone（磨炼）that skill, sharpen your judgment, and show you that the methods of evaluating reasoning apply to much in your life.

（4）In trying to understand how to reason well, we’ll also study bad ways to convince, ways we wish to avoid, ways that misuse emotions or rely on deception. You could use that knowledge to become a bad trial lawyer, but I hope you will learn a love of reasoning well, for it is not just ethical to reason well; it is more effective in the long run. Critical thinking is part of the study of philosophy: the love of wisdom. We might not reach the truth, but we can be searchers, lovers of wisdom, and treat others as if they are, too.