课时跟踪练(一) Welcome to the unit & Reading - Pre-reading

　　Ⅰ.阅读理解

　　A

　　Only a hundred years ago, people seldom travelled far out of their birthplace.Books were very expensive and there were few national newspapers and no radio or television.In fact, most people spent their time talking and listening.Only a very small quantity (量) of reading and writing went on and many people were unable to read or write.For this reason, native dialects (方言) grew up and people spoke the way their parents and grandparents spoke.A woman from Cornwall who travelled just as far as to London would find herself in a place where people spoke what was almost a different language.

　　Sometimes it is hard to take in just how much things have changed.You are used to owning books and having them around, to reading magazines and newspapers and to a choice of national television and radio programmes.You, and everyone around you, are used to travelling not just in the British islands but all of the world.Modern science has changed our life and distances have been made shorter.It might have taken that Cornwall woman three days to travel to London.Now it takes less than two hours by air, less than four by train and less than six by road.

　　The result of this is that the language we use is becoming more national and the dialects are dying out.Writing, printing and broadcasting have speeded up this change as one dialect has come to be used by more and more people.This is the dialect called standard English which was first used outside London in the south and east Midlands.

　　语篇解读：本文主要说明了标准英语的由来。

　　1．From the information given in the passage we know that a century ago ________.

　　A．people wouldn't like to leave their birthplace

　　B．there were neither books nor newspapers

　　C．not many people could read and write

　　D．people learned to read and write from their parents and grandparents

　　解析：选C　推理判断题。由第一段第四句可知，当时没有多少人能够识字。many与否定词连用表示部分否定。

　　2．If a woman who lived in Cornwall a hundred years ago went to London, she would find ________.

　　A．London was far from her birthplace

　　B．London was a strange city

C．London people used a very difficult language