Gap Filling: The following passage is taken from the textbook. Fill in the numbered gaps with the correct form of the words or phrases in the box (there are more words than necessary).

subconsciously    commit        get        necessary    on       conviction

consideration    controversy    count    beyond        fatal    contrarily

    If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he ______. He did not do so because he thought he knew. Thinking that you know when in fact you don't is a ______ mistake, to which we are all prone. I believe myself that hedgehogs eat black beetles, because I have been told that they do; but if I were writing a book on the habits of hedgehogs, I should not ______ myself until I had seen one enjoying this unappetizing diet. Aristotle, however, was less cautious. Ancient and medieval authors knew all about unicorns and salamanders; not one of them thought it ______ to avoid dogmatic statements about them because he had never seen one of them.

    Many matters, however, are less easily brought to the test of experience. If, like most of mankind, you have passionate ______ on many such matters, there are ways in which you can make yourself aware of your own bias. If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are ______ aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If someone maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is ______ the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. The most savage ______ are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So whenever you find yourself ______ angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going ______ what the evidence warrants.

(From How to Avoid the Foolish Opinions)