Silence is unnatural to man. He be gins life with a cry and ends it in stillness. In the (B1) he does all he can to make a noise in the world, and there are few things of which he stands in more fear than of the (B2) of noise. Even his conversation is in great (B3) a desperate attempt to pr a dreadful silence. If he is introduced to a fellow mortal and a number of (B4) occur in the conversation, he regards himself as a (B5) , a worthless person, and is full of (B6) of the emptiest-headed chatterbox (唠叨多言的人). He knows that ninety-nine percent of human conversation means no more than the buzzing of a fly, (B7) he longs to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a wax-work (B8) . The object of conversation is not, for the (B9) part, to communicate ideas: it is to keep up the buzzing sound. Most buzzing, (B10) , is agreeable to the ear. and some of it is agreeable even to the (B11) He would be a foolish man, (B12) , who waited until he had a wise (B13) to take part in the buzzing with his neighbors. Those who (B14) the weather as a conversational opening seem to be (B15) of the reason why human beings wish to talk. Very few human beings join in a conversation (B16) the hope of learning anything new. Some of them are (B17) if they are merely allowed to go on a noise into other people’’ s ears, (B18) they have nothing to tell them except that they have seen a new play. At the end of an evening during which they have said nothing at immense (B19) , they justly pride themselves (B20) their success as conversationalists.

A．breakdown
B．collapse
C．failure
D．disappointment