Is there something as truth？ For a good many centuries "the search for truth" has been【31】

the noblest activity of the human mind, but the seekers after truth have come to such【32】conclusions that it often seems that very little progress has been made.【33】,there are many people who reel that we are actually going backward. They【34】, often contemptuously, that we have accumulated more "knowledge" than our ancestors, but they think we are farther from the truth than ever, or even that we have【35】the truth that we once possessed.

If people look for anything long enough without finding it, the question naturally arises【36】the thing is really there to find. You have seen a picture of an animal with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail—and maybe an eagle's wings for good【37】. There is plenty of evidence that each part of this animal【38】—but there is no【39】evidence that the parts ever occur in this combination. It is at least conceivable that the seekers after "truth" have made a similar mistake and invented an【40】combination.

(31)

A．regarded

B．considered

C．pondered

D．referred