III. Cloze: Choose the BEST answer for each blank in the passage.
A Senate committee estimates the loss of earnings of men ages 25 to 34 who have less than highschool-level skills __21__ $236 billion. Half of the heads of households classified below the federalpoverty line cannot read an eighth-grade book. More than a __22__ of mothers on welfare are alsofunctionally illiterate. (Functional illiteracy is the inability to read and write well enough foreveryday practical needs.) So are 60% of the adult prison population and 84% of juveniles whocome before the courts. Businesses have difficulty filling such __23__ -level jobs as clerk, bank teller,and paralegal assistant. A major insurance firm reports that 70% of dictated letters must be retyped“at least once” because secretaries cannot __24__ and punctuate correctly. The military, too, pays aprice for functional illiteracy. The navy has stated that 30% of new __25__ are “a danger tothemselves and costly to naval equipment” because they cannot read very well or understand simpleinstructions.
【題組】21.
(A) off
(B) at
(C) on
(D) upon