A
Before the print was brought to England in 1476, everything was written by hand. The few people who knew how to write were trained in schools set up by the church. Those who made a living by writing for other people were called scribes.
The work of scribes was not easy. Much of it had to be done fast in order to meet the needs of the King, the church and traders. Most of the writing was in Latin, but some of it was in English of the day. No one was quite sure how some English words should be spelled.
One problem was that several letters were written with short vertical stroke that all looked like each other. Among them were the letters “i”“u”“v”“m” and “n”. Thus, five straight lines in a row might stand for “uni” “nui” “uvi” or “mii”. As a result, reading was sometimes difficult, especially when the writing was done in a hurry.
The scribes solved the problem in part, by changing the letter “u” to “o” when it came before “m” “n” or “v”. This is how sum and cum became to be written as some and come.
At some point too, the scribes seemed to have decided that no English word should be ended by “u” or “v”. Thus, in time an “e” was added to such words as “live” “have” “due” and “true”. It was added, but not pronounced.
【语篇概述】在印刷术传入欧洲之前, 英国历史上存在一类人——以抄写为生的抄写员。本篇介绍了抄写员在历史上的角色与作用。
1. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. Everything has been written by hand in English since 1476.
B. More than 500 years ago no one made a living by writing for other people.
C. The church set up schools to train scribes before 1476.
D. Scribes in England worked only for kings and traders.
【解析】选C。细节理解题。根据第一段第二句“The few people who knew how to write were trained in schools set up by the church. ”(少数知道怎么书写的人在由教堂建立的学校里接受训练。)得知正确答案为C。
2. Sometimes people couldn’t read easily _______.
A. because there were too many “u” and “v” in some English words
B. because most of the writing was in Latin
C. when the writing was in English
D. when the writing was done hurriedly
【解析】选D。细节理解题。根据第三段最后一句“As a result, reading was sometimes difficult, especially when the writing was done in a hurry. ”(结果, 阅读有时很难, 尤其是当人们匆忙地写下东西时。)得知正确答案为D。in a hurry=hurriedly 急匆匆地, 匆忙地。
3. The scribes changed “u” before “m” to “o” because _______.
A. the change helped them write faster
B. the change made reading easier
C. um and om had the same pronunciation
D. om was the right order
【解析】选B。推理判断题。根据第三段最后一句中的“reading was sometimes difficult” 以及第四段第一句“The scribes solved the problem in part, by changing the letter ‘u’ to ‘o’ when it came before ‘m’‘n’ or ‘v’”可以得出一个结论, 抄写员做出的这种改变解决了阅读困难的问题, 即让阅读变得更容易, 因此答案为B。
4. It is believed that some scribes thought _______.
A. it important to add an “e” to every English word
B. the letter “e” at the end of any word shouldn’t be pronounced
C. it natural to change the spelling of some Latin words
D. an English word should be ended neither by “u” nor by “v”
【解析】选D。细节理解题。根据最后一段第一句中的the scribes seemed to have decided that no English word should be ended by “u” or“v”(抄写员似乎决定了这样一个事情:英语单词不应该以字母u或字母v结尾)得出答案为D。
