美国英语大辞典，挑战完型填空

Noah Webster was born in West Hartford, Connecticut in 1758. He

came _(1)_ during the American Revolution and strongly believed that

the United States needed to be culturally independent from Britain and

_(2)_ a large part of America was in its distinct language, _(3)_ that

American English was remarkably different from British English. There

were different idioms, pronunciations, and styles. In 1806, Webster

published the first true American dictionary. After the publication of this

work, Webster went to work _(4)_ An American Dictionary of the English

Language. In order to research the origins of the English language, he

learned _(5)_ 26 languages. The dictionary included 70,000 entries

_(6)_. Webster was the first to document words that were distinctly

American, such as skunk, chowder, and hickory. He also _(7)_ people

to change the spelling of many words that he felt were confusing in their

spelling. Words such as musick were changed to music and centre to

center. _(8)_ his hard work and diligence, the world was given the first

dictionary that truly expressed American English.

1. (A) to age (B) of age (C) in age (D) with age

2. (A) what (B) which (C) that (D) where

3. (A) realized (B) to realize (C) realize (D) realizing

4. (A) at (B) on (C) with (D) out

5. (A) some (B) many (C) much (D) several

6. (A) at length (B) in depth (C) in total (D) at large

7. (A) urged (B) made (C) had (D) talked

8. (A) Despite (B) Although (C) Because of (D) In addition

参考译文：

1758 年，诺亚·韦伯斯特在康涅狄格州西哈特福市出世。他于美国

革命期间长大成人，深信就文化的层面而言，美国应脱离英国独立，

也深信美国有大部分地区自有其独特的语言，因为他了解美式英语与

英式英语有显著的不同。两种语言各有其不同的惯用语、发音及风

格。1806 年，韦氏出版了一本原汁原味的美语字典。这本著作出版之

后，韦氏就着手编纂《美式英语大字典》。为了要研究英语的字源，

他特地学了大约 26种语言。这本字典共搜集了 7 万字。韦氏是将纯属

美语的用词如skunk (臭鼬鼠)、chowder (杂烩)、hickory (山核桃) 加以

记录整理的第一人。他觉得有许多字拼法混淆, 因此他呼吁大家一起

来改变它们的拼法。像 musick 就改成 music，centre 就改成 center。

由于他的努力和勤奋，世人就拥有了第一部真正用美语撰写的字典。

答案：1. (B)　2. (C)　3. (D)　4. (B)　5. (A)　6. (C)　7. (A)　8. (C)