Many years ago, a French naturalist, Comte de Buffon, wrote some books about natural history. The books were a great success even though some critics（批評(píng)家）did not like them.

Thomas Jefferson did not like what Comte de Buffon had said about the natural wonders（奇觀）of the New World. It seemed to Jefferson that Comte de Buffon had spoken of natural wonders in America as if（好像）they were unimportant.

This troubled Thomas Jefferson. He was also a naturalist, as well as a farmer, an inventor, a historian, a writer and a politician（政治家）. He had seen the natural wonders of Europe. To him, they were no more important than those of the New World.

In 1788, Thomas Jefferson wrote about his home state, Virginia. While writing, he thought of its natural beauty and then of the words of Comte de Buffon. At that moment, Jefferson created a new word—belittle. He said, “Comte de Buffon believes that nature belittles her productions on this side of the Atlantic（大西洋）.”

Noah Webster, the American word expert, liked this word. He put it in the English language dictionary in 1806, “Belittle—to make small, unimportant.”

Americans had already accepted Jefferson’s word and started to use it. In 1797, the Independent Chronicle（獨(dú)立紀(jì)事報(bào)）used the word to describe a politician the paper supported. “It is an honorable man,” the paper wrote, “so let the opposition try to belittle him as much as they please.”

In 1872, a famous American word expert decided that the time had come to kill this word. He said, “Belittle shouldn’t become English. And more critical writers of America, like those of Britain, feel no need of it.”

This expert failed to kill the word. Today, belittle is used where the English language is spoken.

1.Thomas Jefferson was NOT a ______.

A. naturalist B. historian C. politician D. musician

2.We can infer（推斷）that Jefferson created the word “belittle” out of his ______.

A. anger B. excitement C. kindness D. responsibility

3.What can we know about the word “belittle” from the passage?

A. It has already disappeared from the English language.

B. It had been used before it was put in the English language dictionary.

C. It is used to describe natural wonders now.

D. An American politician decided to kill this word in 1872.

4.What’s the passage mainly about?

A. How the word “belittle” came into being. B. The argument about natural wonders.

C. Every word has a long history behind. D. Noah Webster supported Jefferson’s idea.

練習(xí)冊(cè)系列答案
相關(guān)習(xí)題

科目：初中英語 來源：2017年初中畢業(yè)升學(xué)考試（廣州卷）英語（解析版） 題型：語法填空

閱讀下列短文，按照句子結(jié)構(gòu)的語法性和上下文連續(xù)的要求，從1－15各題所給的A、B、C和D中選出最佳選項(xiàng)，并在答題卡上將該項(xiàng)涂黑。

“I’m going shopping in the village, ”George’s mother said to George on Saturday morning.“So be a good boy and don’t get into trouble. And don’t forget ___1___ good care of Grandma.”Then out she went.

Grandma___2___ in the chair by the window when she opened one little eye and said , “Now

you heard ___3___your mother said, George.”

“Yes, Grandma,” George said.

George was bored to tears. He didn’t have a brother or a sister. His father was a farmer, and ___4___farm they lived on was miles away from anywhere, ___5___ there were never any children

to play with. He was tired of staring at ___6___pigs , hens, cows and sheep. He was especially tired of having to live in the house with his grandma. Looking after her all by himself was hardly ___7___way to spend a Saturday morning.

“Go and make me a cup of tea for a start, ___8___ sugar and milk.” Grandma said.Most grandmothers are lovely , kind, helpful old ladies, but not this one. George’s grandma was a woman ___9___was always complaining about something or other. She spent all day___10___on her chair by the window. George___11___ that Grandma used to be a gentle lady, but as she grew older, she was not able to look after herself and even worse, she was easy to get angry.

“We___12___be nice to the old, George,” His mother always told him.

Thinking of this, George___13___into the kitchen and made Grandma a cup of tea with a teabag. He put one spoon of sugar and ___14___ milk in it. He stirred the tea well and carried it into the living room___15___.

1.A. take B. taking C. to take D. takes

2.A. sleep B. sleeps C. is sleeping D. was sleeping

3.A. that B. what C. where D. which

4.A. a B. an C. the D. /

5.A. but B. if C. or D. so

6.A. hundred B. hundreds C. hundredth D. hundreds of

7.A. exciting B. the most exciting C. more exciting D. much more exciting

8.A. in B. with C. of D. for

9.A. who B. which C. where D. when

10.A. sitting B. sits C. sit D. sat

11.A. tell B. told C. was told D. has told

12.A. should B. would C. might D. can

13.A. goes B. went C. will go D. has gone

14.A. many B. any C. few D. some

15.A. care B. careful C. carefully D. careless

查看答案和解析>>

科目：初中英語 來源：2017年初中畢業(yè)升學(xué)考試（四川南充卷）英語（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

“Without music, life would be a mistake,” famous German philosopher(哲學(xué)家) Friendrich Nietzsche said over a century ago. Music is a big part of our lives. But in recent years, some US schools have cut music classes to control budgets(預(yù)算).

For example, Chicago public schools hurt arts education when it fired(解雇)over 1,000 teachers. Among them, 10 percent of the teachers taught art or music, according to The Washington Times. In fact, this is not just a problem in the US. In other countries, such as China and the UK, music classes are not thought to be as important as ones like science, math and history. That’s partly because music is not seen as a very important life skill, and it isn’t tested. Many students are busy with schoolwork, so parents and students choose to focus on subjects that are tested more often.

However, learning music is beneficial(有益的)in many ways.

When playing music, you need different abilities to work together. It is not as simple as it looks, according to Kenneth Guilmartin of Music Together, an early childhood music development program. For example, when playing the piano, people see music notes and decode(解碼)them in their brains. They also use their fingers to make sounds. You need to deal with all these things at the same time.

Music has a special connection with science as well. You can see that many scientists are good at playing music: Einstein played the violin, and German physicist Max Planck was talented in playing the piano.

1.Some schools in the US cut music classes, because ______.

A. students in the US weren’t interested in music B. they were too difficult to learn

C. there weren’t enough music teachers in the US D. the schools wanted to control budgets

2. In Paragraph 2,what does the underlined word“them” refer to(指代)?

A. Public schools. B. Fired teachers. C. Parents in Chicago. D. Students in Chicago.

3.What’s the main idea of Paragraph 4?

A. Different abilities are needed to work together while we are playing music.

B. Playing the piano needs people to use fingers to make sounds.

C. Decoding music notes is needed while we are playing music.

D. Playing the piano needs people to see music notes.

4.How many scientists who are good at playing music are mentioned in this passage?

A. One. B. Two. C. Three. D. Four.

5.What’s the writer’s opinion according to this passage?

A. Music is as simple as it looks. B. Music classes should be cut in some schools.

C. Music is a big part of our lives. D. Music isn’t a very important life skill for us.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：初中英語 來源：2017年初中畢業(yè)升學(xué)考試（山東棗莊卷）英語（解析版） 題型：單詞拼寫

1.Where are_____（獅子）from?

2.I have no problem______（爬）the mountains, which is not too high.

3.Of the two boys, who do you think is more_____ （仔細(xì)）?

4.I just hid behind my father and never______ （說）anything.

5.My life has _____（變化）a lot in the past few years.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：初中英語 來源：2017年初中畢業(yè)升學(xué)考試（山東泰安卷）英語（解析版） 題型：書面表達(dá)

如今，很多城市出現(xiàn)了一種綠色出行方式――共享單車（bike-sharing）,它因環(huán)保、便捷而備受青睞，但同時(shí)也引發(fā)了一些問題。請(qǐng)你根據(jù)提示以“Bike-sharing”為題寫一篇英語短文，表達(dá)自己的看法和建議。

要點(diǎn)提示：

Advantages

Be convenient, less pollution, reduce the traffic pressure（減緩交通壓力）

Take exercise…

Problems

Throw away, damage（毀損）, be stolen…

Advice

Civilized（文明的）, follow the rules, take good care of…

注意：

1. 短文應(yīng)包括以上要點(diǎn)，可適當(dāng)發(fā)揮，以使行文連貫；

2. 文中不得出現(xiàn)真實(shí)的人名、校名及地名；

3. 詞數(shù)：80-100（文章開頭已給出，不計(jì)入總詞數(shù)）。

Bike-sharing

Today, as a greener means of transportation, bike-sharing is becoming more and more popular in many cities. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

查看答案和解析>>

科目：初中英語 來源：2017年初中畢業(yè)升學(xué)考試（山東泰安卷）英語（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

–The light in Bill’s office is still on. I wonder ______.

--Maybe at midnight again.

A. if will he stop working B. why he works so hard

C. how long will he work D. when he will stop working

查看答案和解析>>

科目：初中英語 來源：2017年初中畢業(yè)升學(xué)考試（山東泰安卷）英語（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

–It rained ______ and lasted for a long time yesterday.

--Too bad! Even some streets were full of water.

A. hardly B. strongly C. terrible D. heavily

查看答案和解析>>

科目：初中英語 來源：2017年初中畢業(yè)升學(xué)考試（山東青島卷）英語（解析版） 題型：單項(xiàng)填空

— Excuse me, do you know ?

— On foot.

A. what Alice came to do B. where Alice came from

C. how Alice came here D. who Alice came with

查看答案和解析>>

科目：初中英語 來源：2017年初中畢業(yè)升學(xué)考試（浙江紹興卷）英語（解析版） 題型：完形填空

As a new teacher at Doull Primary School in Denver, Kyle Schwartz thought of a simple way to get to know her third graders, most of whom came from 16 families. She asked them to complete the 17 “I wish my teacher knew…” and share something about themselves.

Their 18 answers gave the teacher a chance to understand her students’ difficulties. “I wish my teacher knew I have no pencils to do my homework,” 19 one child. “I wish my teacher knew sometimes my reading homework is not signed（簽名）, because my mom is not 20 a lot,” wrote another. Some shared hope for the 21 . “ I wish my teacher knew that I want to go to college.”

“Some notes are really heartbreaking,” Schwartz tells ABC News. “I care 22 about each of my students and I don’t want them to be poor forever.” She explains, “ I hoped to know 23 I could better support them. So I 24 to let them tell me what I needed to know. That was why I created the fill-in-the-blank exercise.”

25 the third graders were allowed to answer anonymously（匿名）, most wanted to include names. And some were even excited to read their notes out loud. 26 one shy girl who bravely said that she was lonely. “After she told the class, ‘I don’t have friends to 27 me,’ I was worried what they would do.” Schwartz tells Us Weekly. “However, I felt encouraged to see how much support the other kids offered 28 . They invited her to play at break and sit with them at lunch. You see, 29 have an unusual ability to express empathy（同情）.”

“The results have been 30 ,” says Schwartz. “It speaks to the importance of giving people a voice and really listening to them.”

1.A. traditional B. friendly C. poor D. small

2.A. postcard B. note C. letter D. diary

3.A. honest B. polite C. usual D. right

4.A. suggested B. copied C. repeated D. wrote

5.A. free B. careless C. famous D. angry

6.A. society B. course C. research D. future

7.A. secretly B. deeply C. nervously D. directly

8.A. where B. why C. how D. when

9.A. decided B. refused C. forgot D. learned

10.A. Unless B. Though C. Because D. Once

11.A. like B. from C. against D. except

12.A. look for B. talk about C. depend on D. play with

13.A. him B. you C. her D. me

14.A. children B. teachers C. parents D. reporters

15.A. boring B. surprising C. worrying D. relaxing

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習(xí)冊(cè)答案