39．A．impoliteness B．carelessness C．loneliness D．unhappiness 40．A．sadly B．happily C．briefly D．personally 41．A．already B．even C．still D．never 42．A．powerful B．unhappy C．valuable D．different 43．A．confident B．determined C．unable D．willing 44．A．learn B．refuse C．fail D．plan 45．A．In addition B．Above all C．Finally D．However 三.第三部分阅读理解（共3小题；每小题8分，满分30分）阅读卞列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑．

20．（8分）

Did you know the meaning of a word may change over time？Many English words we know now had different meanings a long time ago．One example is the word nice．Around the year l 300，nice was first used in English to mean"stupid"．Two hundred years later，nice began to carry a"better"meaning．If people said a book was written nicely，they meant the book was written"clearly"or"carefully"，not"stupidly"．After l800，nice began to take its meaning like"kind"or"friendly"．Since then，people have thought of nice as a word with good meanings．

A good change of a word's meaning like this example of nice is called AMELIORATION．Though we don't use nice to mean"stupid"any more，it is fun to know how much a word's meaning can change from its start!

*For more examples of AMELIORATION，see next page．

46.1300years ago，a"nice person"was believed to be　 　．

A．careful B．friendly C．foolish D．clever

47．What is the second paragraph mainly about？