Ⅱ.阅读理解
A
"Long time no see" is a very interesting sentence. When I first read this sentence from an American friend's email, I laughed. I thought it was a perfect example of Chinglish.
Obviously, it is a word-by-word literal(字面意义的) translation of the Chinese greeting with wrong English grammar. Later on, my friend told me that it is a standard American greeting. I was too surprised to believe her. Her words were unbelievable at all. So I did research online. To my surprise, there are over 60 thousand web pages containing "long time no see". Though it is sort of informal, it is part of the language that Americans use daily.
Nobody knows the origin of this Chinglish sentence. Some people believe that it came from Charlie Chan's films. In the 1930s, Hollywood film-makers successfully created a worldwide famous Chinese detective named "Charlie Chan" on wide screens. Detective Chan liked to teach Americans some Chinese wisdom by quoting Confucius. "Long time no see" was his symbol. Soon after Charlie Chan, "long time no see" became a popular expression in America thanks to the popularity of these films.
Some scholars compare America to a huge melting pot. All kinds of cultures are mixed in the pot together, and they change the colour and taste of each other. Language is usually the first thing to be influenced in the mixed pot.
You can have some examples from other countries, such as pizza from Italian, sushi from Japanese, and déjà vu from French, etc. There is a long list! Since Americans admire Chinese culture more and more nowadays, I believe more Chinese words will become American English in the future. In this way, the American's melting pot keeps adding richness.
() 1. What did the writer himself feel surprised at?
A. The use of the Chinglish expression "long time no see".
B. Finding out Americans use the expression every day.
C. So many literal translations of the expressions used in America.
D. "Long time no see" being used as a standard American English greeting.
() 2. What do the underlined words "melting pot" in paragraph 4 probably mean?
A. Culture mixture.
B. Confucius's words.
C. A kind of cooked dish.
D. American changing cultures.
() 3. What can be inferred from the passage?
A. Cultures cannot be changed in the huge melting pot.
B. Detectives translated the phrase "long time no see".
C. Hollywood probably made "long time no see" popular.
D. The phrase "long time no see" is recognized as correct and formal English now.
() 4. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Some American expressions can be used in China.
B. Americans have a strong interest in Chinese culture.
C. Some Chinese expressions are introduced into English.
D. American English keeps being enriched by different cultures.