Water is more useful to mankind than diamonds, and yet 26 are costlier.
答案：(D) the latter
【句型】the latter 固定用法「後者」，指前面提到的兩者（water和diamonds）中後面提到的那個，即diamonds；the above（以上的）、the former（前者，語意相反，前者指water）、the following（以下的）都不合。
the former 和 the latter 常常一起背，順序記反是最常見的失誤。答對率只有 47%，超過一半的人在這裡失手，但鑑別度高達 67——代表這一題分的是「有沒有回頭去看前面那兩樣東西誰先誰後」，不是單字難不難。
先回頭找那兩樣東西。文章開頭問：Which is more valuable? Water or diamonds?——順序是先 water、後 diamonds。接著就是這一句：Water is more useful to mankind than diamonds, and yet ______ are costlier. 兩個線索可以一起用。第一，and yet 是轉折，前半說水比較有用，後半必須講出相反的一面，也就是「比較貴的是鑽石」。第二，空格後面的動詞是 are，是複數；water 是不可數名詞要配 is，diamonds 是複數才配 are，光看動詞就能確定指的是 diamonds。the former 指前面提到的那一個（water），the latter 指後面提到的那一個（diamonds），所以答案是 the latter。記法：latter 和 late（晚的）同源，晚出現的那一個。整篇的結論也對得上：最後一句 diamonds carry a higher monetary value than water（鑽石的金錢價值高於水）。
the former：前者，指的是 water，語意剛好相反，而且 water 要配 is 不是 are。the above：以上所述，用來回指前面整段內容，不是用來從兩者中指定其中一個。the following：以下所述，指的是還沒出現的內容，方向錯了。
the former（前者）、the latter（後者）、and yet（然而）、be costlier than（比…昂貴）、carry a higher monetary value（具有較高的金錢價值）、have to do with（與…有關）。
Which is more valuable? Water or diamonds? Water is more useful to mankind than diamonds, and yet 26 are costlier. Why? Called the diamond-water paradox, this is a classic problem posed to students of economics.
The answer has to do with supply and demand. Being a rare natural resource, diamonds are 27 in supply. However, their demand is high because many people buy them to tell the world that they have money, 28 as conspicuous consumption in economics. In other words, the scarcity of goods is 29 causes humans to attribute value. If we 30 surrounded by an unending abundance of diamonds, we probably wouldn't value them very much.
Hence, diamonds carry a higher monetary value than water, even though we find more use for water.