Dangers can be caused by the use of such abstract words
as "beauty", "crime" and" (1) ______ ". The danger lies (1) ______
in the fact that the word "beauty" may mean different things for
different people. When we use it, we may not be (2) ______ (2) ______
what is in our mind to other people because they may have their
idea about "beauty" different from (3) ______ (3) ______
(4) ______ sorts of danger arise with the word "crime". (4) ______
It is generally used to refer to acts that are forbidden by law.
Anyone who (5) ______ such an act is, strictly speaking, a (5) ______
"criminal". The word "crime" is associated mainly with
(6) ______ such as armed robbery and murder; and the (6) ______
common idea of the "criminal" is of a dangerous kind of man.
However, a girl of seventeen who takes something off a shop shelf
may be thought as a criminal by a (7) ______ man. Here, once (7) ______
again, we see how an abstract word makes a misleading impression.
If "beauty" is an aesthetic abstraction, and "crime" a legal
abstraction, "average" is a (8) ______ . For instance, to (8) ______
know the average height of all the people in a town is to know
(9) ______ at all about any of the individuals living there. (9) ______
Therefore, abstract ideas and their expressions have to be
watched with caution. We must (10) ______ before (10) ______
deciding whether we know what one is really saying.