Question

Before the print was brought to England in 1476, everything was written by hand. The few people who knew how to write were trained in schools set up by the church. Those who made a living by writing for other people were called scribes(抄写员)。

The work of scribes was not easy. Much of it had to be done fast in order to meet the needs of the King. the church and traders. Most of the writing was in Latin(拉丁) ,but some of it was in the English of the day. And no one was quite sure how some English words should be spelled.

One problem was that several letters were written with short vertical strok（竖笔）that all looked like each other. Among them were the letters , i, u, v, m and n, Thus .five straight lines in a row might stand for uni nui uvi or mii.

As a result .reading was sometimes difficult, especially when the writing was done in a hurry.

The scribes solved(解决)the problem in part, by changing the letter u to o when it came before m. n or v. This is how sum and cum came to be written as some and come.

At some point, too, the scribes seemed to have decided that no English word should be ended by u or v. Thus, in time an e was added to such words as live, have, due and true. It was added, but not pronounced.

1.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Everything has been written by hand in English since 1476.

B. The church set up schools to train scribes before 1476.

C. More than 500 years ago no people made a living by writing for other people.

D. Scribes in England worked only for kings and traders.

2.Sometimes people couldn’t read easily_____________

A. because there were too many u’s and v’s in sonic English words.

B. because most of the writing was in Latin.

C. When tile writing was done hurriedly.

D. when the writing was in English.

3.The scribes changed u before m to o because___________

A. the change helped them write faster

B. om was the right order

C. um and om had the same pronunciation

D. the change made reading easier

4.It is believed that some scribes thought___________

A. it important to add an e to every English word

B. an English word should be ended neither by n nor by v

C. it natural to change the spelling of sonic Latin words

D. the letter e at the end of any word shouldn't be pronounced

Answer

1.B

2.C

3.D

4.B

【解析】

试题分析：本文是一篇记叙文，介绍了抄写员的由来以及抄写员的工作，同时还有一些由于抄写员的工作带来的文字上面的演变。

1.B；考查推理判断。根据第一段，Before the print was brought to England in 1476, everything was written by hand. The few people who knew how to write were trained in schools set up by the church.在1476年打印映入英国以前，一切都是手工写的。那些少数懂得如何写作的人在教堂的学校里被训练。这些被训练的人就是抄写员，故选B。

2.C；考查细节理解。根据第四段，As a result .reading was sometimes difficult, especially when the writing was done in a hurry. 由此可知当书写地非常潦草时很难辨认那些字迹。故选C。

3.D；考查细节理解。根据倒数第二段，The scribes solved(解决)the problem in part, by changing the letter u to o由此可知这样的改变是为了解决问题，使阅读起来变得更加容易，故选D。

4.B；考查推理判断。根据文中最后一段，the scribes seemed to have decided that no English word should be ended by u or v. 抄写员们似乎已经决定没有英语单词应该用u或v结束，故选B。

考点：考查记叙文阅读