20."Indeed,"George Washington wrote in his diary in 1785,"some kind of fly,or bug,had begun to eat the leaves before I left home."But the father of America was not the father of bug.When Washington wrote that,Englishmen had been referring to insects as bugs for more than a century,and Americans had already created lightning-bug(萤火虫).But the English were soon to stop using the bugs in their language,leaving it to the Americans to call a bug a bug in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The American bug could also be a person,referring to someone who was crazy about a particular activity.Although fan became the usual term,sports fans used to be called racing bugs,baseball bugs,and the like.
Or the bug could be a small machine or object,for example,a bug-shaped car.The bug could also be a burglar alarm,from which comes the expression to bug,that is,"to install(安装) an alarm".Now it means a small piece of equipment that people use for listening secretly to others'conversations.Since the 1840s,to bug has long meant"to cheat",and since the 1940s it has been annoying.
We also know the bug as a flaw in a computer program or other design.Tha meaning dates back to the time of Thomas Edison.In 1878he explained bugs as"little problems and difficulties"that required months of study and labor to overcome in developing a successful product.In 1889it was recorded that Edison"had been up the two previous nights discovering‘a bug'in his invented record player."
25.We learn from Paragraph 1thatA.
A.both Englishmen and Americans used the word bug in the eighteenth century
B.George Washington was the first person to call an insect a bug
C.the word bug was still popularly used in England in the nineteenth century
D.Americans had difficulty in learning to use the word bug
26.What does the word"flaw"in the last paragraph probably mean?C
A.Reason.
B.Finding.
C.Fault.
D.Origin.
27.The passage is mainly concerned withA.
A.the development of the word bug
B.the misunderstanding of the word bug
C.the public views of the word bug
D.the special characteristics of the word bug.
分析 这是一篇叙述英语习语的小短文.主要叙述英语习语a littl bug的语义演变过程.
解答 25.A 细节理解题.根据句子But the father of America was not the father of bug.When Washington wrote that,Englishmen had been referring to insects as bugs for more than a century,and Americans had already created lightning-bug.可见美国人和英国人都使用"bug"这个单词,所以答案选A.
26.C 猜测词义题.In 1878he explained bugs as"little problems and difficulties"that required months of study and labor to overcome in developing a successful product 在1878,他解释错误为"小问题和困难",可以推断flaw的意思是小问题和困难fault"过错,缺陷"意义相符,所以答案选C.
27.A 主旨大意题.主要叙述英语习语a littl bug的语义演变过程.根据文章中的几个时间和bug含义的变化进行推断.答案选A.
点评 阅读理解题测试考生在阅读基础上的逻辑推理能力,要求考生根据文章所述事件的逻辑关系,对未说明的趋势或结局作出合理的推断;或根据作者所阐述的观点理论,对文章未涉及的现象、事例给以解释.考生首先要仔细阅读短文,完整了解信息,准确把握作者观点.