单项选择题

Americans today believe that acceptable social behavior follows effortlessly from personal virtue. The (1) between morals and manners has become blurred. (2) you need is a good heart, most people assume, and the (3) will take care of itself. You don’t have to write thank-you notes.
Many Americans believe that natural behavior is beautiful. The "natural" (4) to human relations presumes that to know any person well enough is to love him, that the (5) human problem is a communication problem. This (6) that people might be separated by basically, generally irreconcilable differences--philosophical, political, or religious--and assumes that all such differences are (7) misunderstandings.
Indeed, it has never been easier to insult people inadvertently. A gentleman opens a door for a lady because his mother taught him that ladies (8) such courtesies, but she (9) and spits in his eye because he has insulted her womanhood. A young lady offers her seat in a (10) bus to an elderly, frail gentleman, and he gives her a (11) look because she has insulted his (12) Mind you, those are just people (13) to be nice; the only problem is that they are (14) on different systems of (15) .
Curiously, it has never been (16) to insult people intentionally. If you say, "You are nasty and I hate you," the person is (17) to reply, "Oh, you’re feeling (18) ; I’ll wait until you feel better. "
The idea the people can behave "naturally" without resorting to a(n) (19) code tacitly agreed upon by their society is as silly as the idea that they can communicate by using a language without (20) accepted semantic and grammatical rules.

18（）

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