Question

　　The dictionary is often used merely to determine the correct spelling of words, or to find out the accepted pronunciation. But such use is perhaps not the most important from an intellectual point of view. Dictionaries may, however, have social importance. It is often a matter of some concern to the person using the dictionary that he should not suggest to others, by misspelling a word in a letter, or mispronouncing it in conversation, that he is not educated.

　　Yet, despite familiarity with the dictionary, the average person is likely to have many wrong ideas about it, and no real concept of how to use it profitably, or interpret it correctly. For example, it is often believed that the mere presence of a word in a dictionary is evidence that it is acceptable in good writing. Though most dictionaries have a system of marking words as obsolete （廢棄的）, or in use only as slang（俚語）, many people, more especially if their use of a particular word has been challenged, are likely to conclude, if they find it in a dictionary, that it is accepted as being used by writers of established reputation. This would certainly have been true of dictionaries a hundred years ago. For a long time after they were first firmly established in the eighteenth century, their aim was to include only what was used by the best writers, and all else was suppressed, and the compiler frequently claimed that his dictionary contained no “l(fā)ow” words. Apparently this aspect of the dictionary achieved such importance in the mind of the aver age person that most people today are unaware of the great change which has taken place in the compilation of present-day dictionaries.

(1) Dictionaries may have social importance in that ________.

[　　]

A．they are often a matter of some concern to a person

B．their users do not want others to know the dictionaries

C．misspellings often appear in letters

D．misspellings would mean that the person is not educated

(2) One of the wrong ideas the average person has about the dictionary is that ________.

[　　]

A．no one is actually familiar with dictionaries

B．words in a dictionary are taken from good writings

C．he has little idea of how to use it profitably

D．people know little about how dictionaries interpret words

(3) From an intellectual point of view, ________.

[　　]

A．the dictionary should not be used to determine correct spelling

B．to determine correct spelling is not the most important use of a dictionary

C．dictionaries have social importance

D．the accepted pronunciation is not as important as the correct spelling

(4) We can infer from this passage that present day dictionaries ________.

[　　]

A．are always changing

B．are greater than old ones

C．contain “l(fā)ow” words

D．do not suit the average person

Answer 1

答案：D;B;B;C
解析：

(1) B、C都是明顯不正確的。A所說的過于泛泛，從文中第一段結尾：“…that he is not educated”可得出D是正確的。 (2) 此題采用排除法。A過于絕對化，是不正確的。C、D不符合原文。文中第二段第二句“…that it is acceptable in good writing.”可知B是正確的。 (3) 見文中第一段第二句“But such use is perhaps not the most important from an intellectual point of view.”可知B正確。A、C明顯錯誤，C顯得過于泛泛，不如B切中文義。 (4) 文中第二段講過去的字典不包含“low”words，但現在字典與以前相比有很大變化，因此我們可以推斷出現在字典包含“low”words，即答案為C。