came into English from United States' slang in the 1980s or maybe earlier.Certainly it arrived in Britain in the late 1980s.

　　It was part of a trend which goes back decades to use bad words to mean good concepts，or the other way round.I mean you might remember saying，"That's great." meaning "It isn't great."And always there's been this use of the word "naughty" to mean "nice"．So it's part of a general trend.

　　It's mainly used as an adjective in front of a noun，for example "We had a wicked time！" Or，of course，you can use it on its own by just saying "Wicked！" as a reaction-that's how youngsters use it.And youngsters，of course，knowing that grown­ups are now using it as well，have decided to use other bad words in the same sort of way-I've heard young people in recent years use words like "evil" meaning "good"，or "brutal" meaning "good"．

　　"Wicked" is still around.This means，of course，that the traditional sense of "wicked" is now being squeezed out(挤出)．So with "wicked"，tone of voice is the only way to tell the old meaning from the new meaning，and even that's ambiguous(模糊的) sometimes，so you have to be careful，and pay very careful attention to the context.

　　And notice that the word is extending its use.The other day，for the first time，I heard somebody say "wicked cool"，meaning "very cool"．

1．What does the passage mainly tell readers?

A．The changing meaning of English words.

B．The change of the word "wicked" in meaning.

C．The way to use English words.

D．English words from American slang.

解析　主旨大意题。本篇文章主要是介绍了wicked这个单词在词义上的变化。选项A的范围扩大了，而选项C、D两项脱离文章主旨。故答案为B项。

A．the word is easy to misunderstand

B．its intonation decides its meaning

C．there is another word with the same pronunciation

D．there are many meanings of the word

答案　B

解析　细节理解题。由文章第一段和第四段可知，对于该单词所使用的语境和语调不同，其意思就有可能不同。故答案为B项。

3．According to the passage，which of the following words is often used to express its opposite