Question

The hit movie Notting Hill begins with a famous scene. Hugh Grant bumps (撞) into Julia Roberts and spills (灑) orange juice all over her. After the collision, Grant repeatedly says: “ I am so sorry. I am so sorry.”

His actions in this scene are very British. If Roberts’ character were from Britain then she would probably apologize repeatedly as well—even if the crash were not her fault. But this doesn’t happen in the film, as Roberts is from the US.

A report in The Telegraph last week said that three-quarters of British people apologize when they bump into someone in the street — regardless of whether they are responsible or not. In fact, we Britons use “sorry” in many situations. For example, if we mishear someone, we say “Sorry?” The person we are talking to will also apologize by replying: “No, I am sorry!” This can go on for up to five minutes as we compete over who is the most sorry.

Life is never as simple as “duibuqi” and “meiguanxi”.

How we use “sorry” has changed. Traditionally, “sorry” was used to express deep regret, but a survey in 2007 showed that we use it to mean anything from “what” to “whatever”.

Why are Britons so sorry? Mark Tyrell, a psychology writer in the UK, thinks about our apologetic tendencies are rooted in the British class system. We say sorry because historically the new middle classes in Britain had to apologize for not being working class, but also for not really being upper class. Another theory is that we apologize to avoid confrontation(沖突). For example, if you bump into someone they might get angry. To avoid this we instantly say “Sorry!”.

True manners are about being considerate and the modern day obsession with apologizing show that we are perhaps not as thoughtful as we once were. The word has lost some of its meaning. Do you see my point? Sorry, it might just be a British thing…

1.What can we infer from paragraph 2?

A．In fact Roberts are responsible for the collision.

B．People from the US say “sorry” more than British people.

C．There is no crash happening in the film.

D．British people say sorry even if it is not their fault.

2.Which of the following might Mark Tyrell agree to?

A．British people are sincere while saying sorry.

B．Now more British people say sorry because of the British class system.

C．British people say sorry to avoid quarrels.

D．British people apologize for not working hard.

3.What does the author want to tell us with the passage?

A．British people overuse “sorry” in daily life.

B．British people now say “sorry” in different situations.

C．Middle classes in British are to blame for not being working class.

D．Britons say “sorry” to avoid confrontation.

4.What does the underlined word “collision” in the first paragraph mean?

A．quarrel           B．disagreement      C．crash             D．fight

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.D

2.B

3.A

4.C

【解析】

試題分析：這篇文章通過(guò)一些電影情節(jié)和報(bào)道，告訴我們英國(guó)人在日常生活中頻繁的使用“對(duì)不起”，這個(gè)單詞已經(jīng)失去了它的一些意思。

1.細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第二段的主要意思是英國(guó)人如果和別人發(fā)生沖突的話(huà)，即使不是他的錯(cuò)，他也會(huì)說(shuō)“對(duì)不起”的。故選D

2.細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章Mark Tyrell, a psychology writer in the UK, thinks about our apologetic tendencies are rooted in the British class system.馬克·泰勒，英國(guó)的一個(gè)心理學(xué)作家，認(rèn)為他們道歉趨勢(shì)深植于英國(guó)的階級(jí)系統(tǒng)中。故選B

3.主旨題，通過(guò)這篇文章作者告訴我們英國(guó)人在日常生活中很多情況下都說(shuō)對(duì)不起。故選A

4.推斷題。根據(jù)文章The hit movie Notting Hill begins with a famous scene. Hugh Grant bumps  into Julia Roberts and spills  orange juice all over her. After the collision, Grant repeatedly says: “ I am so sorry. I am so sorry.”可知，當(dāng)這個(gè)沖突發(fā)生之后，Grant馬上說(shuō)對(duì)不起。所以，

Collision的意思是沖突。故選C

考點(diǎn)：社會(huì)現(xiàn)象類(lèi)說(shuō)明文

點(diǎn)評(píng)：本文文脈清晰，結(jié)構(gòu)很好把握。說(shuō)明文是歷年高考很常見(jiàn)的文體，對(duì)于科技類(lèi)的說(shuō)明文比較難，而對(duì)于說(shuō)物的文體較容易。本文中，把握好一個(gè)中心即作者對(duì)sorry這個(gè)詞進(jìn)行了介紹。同時(shí)，此類(lèi)文章中推斷題要理解作者寫(xiě)作的意圖，方可作答。