This false belief has strengthened in us until our eyes are 20 and our minds are deadened to all the beauty that is being created around us today.
答案：(A) dulled
eyes are dulled（雙眼變得遲鈍）與後文 minds are deadened（心智變得麻木）並列對應，表示我們對周遭美的感受力逐漸消失；pleased／justified／excited 均不符合此處語意與並列結構。
本題大考中心未公布逐題答對率，以下不談數據，只談觀念。
四個都是過去分詞接在 are 後面，文法上都通；描述眼睛時 pleased 與 excited 是最常見的搭配，讀起來很順。
三步判準的第三個例子，這一題的依據在空格右邊。第一步找對等連接詞：our eyes are ______ and our minds are deadened。第二步確定 and 連的是哪兩樣：兩個完整的子句，結構完全對稱，都是「身心的某個部分 ＋ be 動詞 ＋ 過去分詞」。第三步從已經寫出來的那一邊反推：右邊是 deadened（被弄得麻木、失去感覺），左邊必須同方向，也是感覺被鈍化的意思，dulled（變遲鈍、變鈍）正是。第 18 題的依據在左邊、這一題在右邊，兩題擺一起就知道判準不變、只是要往哪邊看而已。本站 91 年第 18 題（may seem ______ but provide just a drop in the bucket）也是依據在右邊的例子，只是那一題的連接詞是 but、兩邊要一正一反。
pleased（高興的）與 excited（興奮的）方向相反，都是正面的，與 deadened 對不起來，也與整句「錯誤的觀念害我們看不見身邊的美」矛盾。justified（站得住腳的、有正當理由的）講的是說法或做法合不合理，主詞通常是決定、行為或主張，不會說「眼睛是站得住腳的」。
dull（使遲鈍、使變鈍）、deaden（使麻木、使失去感覺）、false belief（錯誤的觀念）、strengthen（強化、加深）、be justified（站得住腳的、有正當理由的）、until（直到……為止）
Architecture is an art. Any art must give us pleasure; if it doesn't, either it is bad art or we are abnormally blind. We are in general insensitive to architecture 16 an art and to the joy it may bring to us. It is the constant nearness of architecture during our life that has 17 us in this way.
We forget that it is an art of here and now; because it is with us every day and 18 we must have houses to live in, we are apt to think of them solely as dwelling places. Therefore we think of architecture as some vague, learned thing having to do with French cathedrals or Italian palaces or Greek temples, 19 with New York or Chicago streets or Los Angeles suburbs.
This false belief has strengthened in us until our eyes are 20 and our minds are deadened to all the beauty that is being created around us today. Eventually we lose all the fine deep pleasure that we might otherwise experience from our ordinary surroundings.