Question

A new word has suddenly become wildly popular in China - "tuhao" - which loosely translated means "nouveau riche". There have been more than 100 million references to the word "tuhao" on social media since early September.

It's being used to describe everything from the new People's Daily building, to expensive celebrity weddings full of bling, and the new gold-coloured iPhone.

In Chinese "tu" means earth and "hao" means rich. To say someone is tuhao is to imply they come from a poor peasant background, and have made it rich quick - but don't quite have the manners, or sophistication to go along with it. It's like the term "nouveau riche", says Professor Steve Tsang at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies in Nottingham - but has even more negative meanings, suggesting a certain vulgarity(粗俗).

"Tuhao" is actually an old word - dating back perhaps as far as the Southern Dynasty 1,500 years ago - but it has always meant something rather different. During the communist revolution, from the 1920s to early 1950s, it was widely used to refer to landholders and gentry who would bully（欺負） those beneath them.

This new usage of the term took off in September after a widely-shared joke about a rich, but unhappy man, who goes to a Buddhist monk for advice, expecting to be told to live a more simple life. The monk replies instead with the phrase: "Tuhao, let's be friends!"

Chinese internet users are highly creative in their use of language, and are constantly inventing, and re-inventing words as a way of getting past censorship(審查) rules. But in this case, its popularity seems to be down to the fact that it expresses China's changing society so well - many people sneer at those with wealth, but are secretly jealous.

1. What is the best title of the passage?

A. Tuhao, a new popular word in China

B. The long history of Tuhao

C. The new usage of Tuhao

D. Tuhao, a newly-invented Chinese word

2. Which of the following may NOT be considered “tuhao”?

A. A vulgar nouveau riche

B. A bully landholder

C. A quick-rich peasant without proper manners

D. A Buddhist monk.

3. The last but one paragraph mainly tells us ______.

A. what the new usage of the word is

B. how the word becomes popular again

C. why the unhappy man went to the Buddhist monk

D. what advice the monk gave the unhappy man

4. What does the underlined word in the last paragraph mean?

A. respect B. envy

C. laugh D. disbelieve

 

Answer 1

1.A

2.D

3.B

4.C

【解析】

試題分析：本文講述了新詞土豪的來歷，意義，及其不斷更新的用法，這些不斷更新的意義使其再度受到許多人的追捧。

1.

2. rich, but unhappy man, who goes to a Buddhist monk for advice可知是一個富有的不愉快的人去向大師尋求建議，而并非這個大師是土豪。故選D

3. new usage of the term took off in September after a widely-share可知由于新用法的出現使這個詞再次走紅。故選B

4. even more negative meanings, suggesting a certain vulgarity(粗俗).可知土豪是個貶義詞，是用來譏諷的。故選C

考點：考查說明類閱讀