每日一题

Critical Reading>Sentence Completions

Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

When, in 1864, a factory established by Alfred Nobel to manufacture nitroglycerin blew up, the scientist discovered that the explosive was as ------- as it was powerful, ------- to detonate without warning.

(A) dormant . . ready
(B) fickle . . unlikely
(C) volatile . . liable
(D) unprecedented . . intended
(E) inactive . . designed

答案和解析

答案：C

解析：

Choice (C) is correct. It makes sense to say that when his factory exploded, Nobel discovered how "volatile," or unpredictable, nitroglycerin could be; in fact, it was "liable" to, or prone to, detonate unexpectedly.