Question

Every year, a handful of new words enter the world’s collective vocabulary, but only one has the honor of being named Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year. And this year’s top honor goes to “selfie”.

The frequency of the word selfie used in the English language has increased by 17,000 per cent since this time last year. This figure is calculated by Oxford Dictionaries using a research program which collects around 150 million English words currently in use from around the web every month. To qualify, a word need not have been invented within the past 12 months but it does need to stand out or become notable at that time.

Selfie is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as: “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smart phone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” Oxford Dictionaries said the earliest known usage is an Australian online forum post in 2002. A man posted a picture of injuries to his face when he tripped over some steps. He apologized for the fact that the picture was out of focus, saying that it was not because he was drunk but because it was a selfie.

Judy Pearsall, editorial director for Oxford Dictionaries, said: “Using the Oxford Dictionaries language research program, we can see a phenomenal upward trend in the use of selfie in 2013, and this helped to win its selection as Word of the Year.” She also added: “Social media sites helped to popularize the term, with selfie appearing on the photo-sharing website Flicker as early as 2004, but usage wasn’t widespread until around 2012, when selfie was being used commonly in mainstream media sources.”

Selfies have taken the world by storm. Everyone from the first family to ordinary people has taken the time to pose for a selfie. Celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jennifer Aniston have all showed their new haircuts with selfies this year. Selfie was added to the Oxford Dictionaries online in August, but not yet in the Oxford English.

1.What does this passage mainly talk about?

A. The definition of the word “Selfie”.

B. The widespread usage of the word “Selfie” in 2012.

C. “Selfie” has been chosen as the Word of the Year of 2013.

D. “Selfie” began to be used in the Oxford English.

2.What can we learn from the passage about the word Selfie?

A. Social media sites helped to popularize the word Selfie.

B. The frequency of the word “selfie” has increased to 17,000 % since 2004.

C. Celebrities and the first family have all showed their new haircuts with selfies.

D. The earliest known usage of “selfie” was a man who was drunk.

3.The word “selfie” was chosen the Word of the Year by _____________.

A. A social media website.

B. The photo-sharing website Flicker.

C. A research program by Oxford Dictionaries.

D. People who take picture using a smart phone or webcam.

4.In which column of a newspaper can we find this article?

A. Arts B. Entertainment

C. Science D. Culture

Answer 1

1.C

2.A

3.C

4.D

【解析】本文是一篇說明文，針對牛津字典年度新詞selfie（自拍照）進行了一系列以事實為基礎的解說。“自拍照”風靡全球。在前年8月，自拍照已經被加入到牛津網絡詞典，但是還沒有添加到牛津英語。

1.

2. photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smart phone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.一張某人拍攝的自己的照片，尤其是用智能手機或者網絡攝像頭拍攝的，被上傳至社交網站的照片。故選A

3. figure is calculated by Oxford Dictionaries using a research program which collects around 150 million English words currently in use from around the web every month. 這項數(shù)字是由牛津字典使用的一個能夠收集網上15億每月最近使用的英語詞匯的研究程序計算而來。故選C

4.

考點：考察說明文閱讀。