题目内容

The question this week comes from our listener Herve Acard, who asks about the American word “OK”, which means “all right” or “acceptable”. It expresses agreement or approval. The word is used more often than any other word in the world.
Language expert Allen Walker Read said the word began as a short way of writing a different spelling of the words “all correct”. Old stories say some foreign-born people would write “all correct” as o-l-l k-o-r-r-e-c-t and spoke it as “OK”. Some people say it came from the Native American Indian tribe known as the Choctaws. The Choctaw word “okeh” means the same as the American word “OK”. Experts say early explorers in the Western America spoke the Choctaw language in the nineteenth century. The language spread across the country.
According to some people, “OK” was a way to shorten Greek words that mean everything is fine. It is also said that a railroad worker named Obadiah Kelly invented the word. He is said to have put the first letters of his names — O and K — on each object people gave him to place on the train.
Another explanation is that “OK” was invented by a political organization that supported Martin Van Buren for president in the 1800s. They called their organization the OK Club. The letters O and K were taken from the name of the town where Martin Van Buren was born — Old Kinderhook, New York.
Not everyone agrees with these explanations, but experts do agree that the word is purely American and has spread to almost every country on Earth. Yet in the United States, it is used mostly in speech. Serious writers prefer using words, such as “agree”, “approve” or “confirm” instead

  1. 1.

    Where does the passage probably come from?

    1. A.
      A newspaper
    2. B.
      A textbook
    3. C.
      A radio program
    4. D.
      A language magazine
  2. 2.

    Of the following origins, which one has the same meaning as the American word “OK”?

    1. A.
      The OK Club
    2. B.
      The Choctaw word “okeh”
    3. C.
      The word invented by Martin Van Buren
    4. D.
      The short form of “all correct”
  3. 3.

    According to the passage, which statement is NOT true?

    1. A.
      People disagree about the origin of “OK”
    2. B.
      “OK” is often used in formal writing in the USA
    3. C.
      The word “OK” is widely used all over the world
    4. D.
      Native American language once influenced American English
CBB
试题分析:本文叙述了“OK”这个词的历史,对于它的来历不同的人有不同的观点,最后短文指出专家认为它是真正的美国人的语言,然后传到了地球上的各个地方。
1.文章出处题。根据短文开头The question this week comes from our listener Herve Acard,这个问题来自听众,所以应是收音机广播电台的节目,故选C。
2.细节理解题。根据The Choctaw word “okeh” means the same as the American word “OK”它们的意思是一样的,故选B。
3.细节理解题。根据Not everyone agrees with these explanations,一些人不同意这个解释,故选项A符合原文;has spread to almost every country on Earth.它已经被传到了世界各地,故选项C符合原文;the word began as a short way of writing a different spelling of the words “all correct”它是“all correct”的缩写,故选项D符合原文,故选B。
考点:文化类短文阅读。
点评:文章出处题应从文章的内容或结构来判断其出处:报纸:前面会出现日期、地点或通讯社名称。广告:因其格式特殊,容易辨认。产品说明:器皿、设备的使用说明会有产品名称或操作方式,而药品的服用说明会告知服用时间、次数、药量等。本篇短文主要看的是开头的第一句。
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I wasn’t surprised when I read that actress Helen Hunt recently stated that she would never allow her young daughter to become a child star. Ms Hunt is the daughter of a Hollywood technical director, and grew up in Hollywood. Now in her late 40s, she started acting and modeling when she was eight and has probably seen a lot over those years in show business.

  She has had a successful career. She earned four Golden Globes and four Emmys. She also attained the top honor of her profession when she won the Best Actress Academy Award for her role in the 1992 movie, As Good As It Gets. Given those accolades, Ms Hunt is successful. There is no doubt that her early experiences as a child star prepared her for what has been an outstanding adult career. Given those achievements, why would this star declare she’ll never allow her daughter, now at the age of six, to follow in her footsteps?

   Everyone familiar with the entertainment scene is aware of the reasons for her attitude. Recent tabloid (小报) news headlines featuring the troubles of former child stars, among them Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and the late Gary Coleman, may answer the question. Although Ms Hunt managed to become a successful grown-up star, she apparently believes she’s an exception.

  What Ms Hunt may be suggesting is that many very young stars go through unnatural childhoods on movie and TV sets. While they’re earning big incomes, they’re so pampered (纵容) by directors and praised by fans; they may get false impressions that their lives will always be that way. Then, within a few years, when faced with reality, they’re hurt and confused. After all the overwhelming affection, they find they can’t deal with the problems. That’s often when drugs and alcohol take over their lives.

Helen Hunt has some other reasons why she doesn’t want her daughter to be in the entertainment business. Many child stars can never make a successful transition to meaningful adulthood. However, as with many Hollywood movies, I believe there are both good and bad scenes about how it can be played out in real life.

1.According to the passage, Ms Hunt _________.

A. started acting and modeling when she was a little girl

B. has been acting for about 30 years

C. is the daughter of a famous actor

D. started singing when she was eight

2.The underlined word “accolades” in Paragraph 2 probably means “_________”.

A. difficulties              B. awards                    C. salaries          D. opinions

3.The author thinks Helen Hunt’s success is mainly due to _________.

A. her hard work                B. the help of a technical director

C. her experiences as a child star   D. her talent and good luck

4.Helen Hunt wouldn’t allow her daughter to become a child star because she thinks _________.

A. child stars often take drugs and alcohol

B. being a child star may ruin her future

C. child stars aren’t able to solve their problems

D. it is difficult to succeed as a child actor

5.From the passage we can conclude that _________.

A. few child stars will succeed in the future

B. there is no way to save the entertainment business

C. the author has a different opinion about child stars

D. meaningful adulthood only belongs to non-child stars

 

My friend Dr. Dong had a wonderful chance to go to Seattle to present a paper at a professional meeting. When he got back to Beijing, he told me his experience.

   Dr. Dong enjoyed his first days very much. At the medical conference, he felt quite confident in his area of research and was able to perform well in his presentation. But after a few days, he began to feel uncomfortable. His medical English was fine, but the social communication skills were different.

   He got more and more worried that he was misunderstanding simple English greetings and table talk conventions(习俗). When someone greeted him with, “Hi, how’s it going?” he thought they had asked him “Where are you going?” and answered with the name of the conference hall, only to get a surprised stare from them. At a western style dinner, a colleague asked, “So how’re you enjoyin’ the States?” he thought he heard, “how are you enjoying your steak?” and answered that he was eating chicken, not beef. That time, they smiled, and patiently repeated the question, then both laughed at the error.

By the end of the meetings, Dr. Dong felt a deep sense of “cultural stress” and was worn out from having to pay attention to so many new expressions and ways of dealing with things. He felt his handshake was not as firm as Americans’, found that people reacted unusually when he modestly insisted his English was not good after they complimented(称赞) him, didn’t know how to accept dinner invitations properly and therefore missed out on going to several lunches, and so on. Eventually, he was so confused that he felt the full impact of “culture shock”.

1.Why did Dr. Dong travel to Seattle?

A. To improve his spoken English.  B. To experience culture shock.

C. To give lectures on his research.   D. To attend a medical conference.

2. Which of the following best describes Dr. Dong’s experience in Seattle?

   A. Comfortable—very uncomfortable—uncomfortable.

   B. comfortable—very uncomfortable—comfortable.

   C. Comfortable—uncomfortable – very uncomfortable.

   D. Comfortable—uncomfortable – very comfortable.

3.Dr. Dong felt a deep sense of “cultural stress” mainly because_______.

   A. he was too modest      B. he didn’t understand cultural differences

   C. he lacked confidence     D. he was not good at English listening

4.                                       

 

D

  In the atmosphere,carbon dioxide actd rather like a one-way mirror or the glass in the roof of a greenhouse which allows the sun's rays to enter but prevents the heat from excaping.

  According to a weather expert's prediction,the atmosphere will be 3 warmer in the year 2050 than it is today, if man continues to burn luels at the present rate. If this warming up took place,the ice caps in the poles would begin to melt,thus raising sea level several meters and severely flooding coastal cities.Also,the increase in atmospheric temperature would lead to great changes in the climate of the northern hemisphere(半球),psooicbly resulting in an alteration of earth's chief food growing zones.

  In the past,concern about a man - made warming of the earth has concentrated on the Arctic because the Antarctic is much colder and has a much thicker ice sheet.But the weather experts are now paying more attention to West Antarctic,which may be affected by a warming on the scale that will possibly take place in the next fifty years from on burning of fuels.

  Satellite pictures showthat large areas of Antarctic ice are already disappearing.The evidence available suggests that a warming has taken place.This fits the theory that carbon dioxide warms the earth.

  However,most of the fuel is burnt in the northern hemisphere,where temperatures seem to be falling.Scientists conclude,therefore,that up to now natural influences on the weather have exceeded those caused by man.The question is:Which natural cause has most effect on the weather?

  One possibility is the variable behavior of the sun.Astronomers at one research station have studied the hot spots and cold spots(that is,the relatively less hot spots) on the sun. As the sun rotates(旋转),every 27.5 days,it presents hotter or colder faces to the earth,and different aspects to different parts of the earth.This seems to have a considerable effect on the distribution of the earth's atmospheric pressure,and consequently on wind circulation.The sun is also variable over a long term:its heat output goes up and down in cycles,the latest trend being downward.

  Scientists are now finding mutual relations between models of solar weather interactions and the actual climate over many thousands of years ,including the last Ice Age.The problem is that the models are predicting that the world should be entering a new Ice Age and it is not.

  One way of solving this theoretical difficulty is to assume a delay of thousands of years while the solar effects overcome the inertia(不活动,惰性) of the earth's climate.If this is right,the warming effect of carbon dioxide might thus be serving as a useful counter balance to the sun's diminishing heat.

  68.It can be concluded that a concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would ___.

   A.mean a warming - up im the Arctic

   B.raise the temperature of the earth's surface

   C.prevent the sun's rays from reaching the earth's surface

   D.account for great changes in the climate in the northern hemiphere

  69.Although the fuel consumption is greater in the northern hemisphere,temperatures there seem to be falling.This is _______.

   A.mainly because the levels of carbon dioxide are rising

   B.partly due to variations in the output of solar energy

   C.possibly because the ice caps in the poles are melting

   D.exclusively due to the effect of the inertia of the earth's climate

  70.On the basis of their models,scientists are of the opinion that ________.

   A.the climate of the world should be becoming cooler

   B.the new Ice Age will be delayed by the greenhouse effect

   C.the man - made warming effect helps to increase the solar effects

   D.it will take thousands of years for the inertia of the earth's climate to take effect

 

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