Question

Do you know the word kiasu? If not, then be kiasu and google it. You’ll get more than a million hits and learn that, usually associated (聯(lián)系) with Singaporeans, it means “to be afraid of losing out”. You’ll come across words such as kiasu parents, kiasu companies and even kiasu apps.

Just 40 years ago, the word first spread among men in the Singapore army. But before long, it had entered everyday Singapore English.

The first formal use of kiasu happened in 1990 in a government document (公文). Since then it has often been seen in Singapore newspapers. It spread to some other countries in southeast Asia, too. In 1992, Malaysia’s New Straits Times wrote of “kiasu parents providing their children with much more materials than necessary”.

Ten years after its first use in print, the word was used worldwide. Since around 2000, kiasu has appeared in British newspapers. The Guardian, in 2001,reported how “this pursuit of material wealth and the strong need to be No.1 has created the Singaporean we hear so much about---the kiasu Singaporean”, and again reported in 2004 that Singaporeans’ value shows how much they feel the need to stay ahead of everyone else and that they have a word for it: kiasu.

The word entered the Urban Dictionary in 2003 and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2007.In the the same year, Singaporean restaurant Kiasu opened in London.

The turning point on kiasu’s road to the mainstream came with its being used in documents and newspapers. Who dared to use kiasu in a government document? Who first used it in a newspaper? It was these people who pushed kiasu into the mainstream.

1.What is the passage mainly about?

A. How to use the word kiasu. B. What the word kiasu means.

C. The history of the word kiasu. D. The importance of the word kiasu.

2.What marked the wide use of the word kiasu around the world?

A. Its appearance in British papers. B. Its use as the name of a restaurant.

C. Its acceptance by a key document. D. Its description in Singapore newspapers.

3.What does the underlined word “pursuit” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A. the act of looking for B. the act of looking out

C. the act of giving up D. the act of giving out

Answer 1