Question

When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation. I suggested that they should stay at “bed and breakfast” houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.

“We didn’t stay at bed and breakfast houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were on holiday.” I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought “VACANCIES” meant “holidays”, because the Spanish word for “holidays” is said “vacaciones”. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said “VACANCIES”, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to houses where the sign said “NO VACANCIES”, because they thought this meant people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels.

We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word “DIVERSION” means “fun”. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word “DIVERSION” on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hole.

English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris when someone offered me some more coffee, I said “Thank you” in French, I meant that I would like some more, however to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that “Thank you” in French means “No, Thank you”.

1.The author’s Spanish friends wanted advice about _______.

A. some funny English stories

B. finding places to stay in England

C. driving their car on English roads

D. going to England by car

2.The author suggested that they stay at “bed and breakfast” because _______.

A. it would be convenient for them to have dinners and live

B. it would be much cheaper than staying in hotels

C. they would be able to practice their English in the house

D. there would be no problem about finding accommodation there

3.“NO VACANCIES” in English means _______.

A. no free rooms                    B. free rooms

C. not away on holiday             D. they don’t live

4.If you see road sign that says “Diversion” in England, you will _______.

A. take the road and you will be excited

B. have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself

C. find that the road is blocked by crowds of people

D. have to take a different road

Answer

1.B

2.C

3.A

4.D

【解析】

试题分析：本文通过几个例子说明相同的单词在不同的文化中表示不同的含义，以此提醒我们一定要注意文化上的差异。

1.B 细节理解题。根据文章第一段第二句Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation.我的朋友们在离开英国之前，咨询我一些关于在英国食宿的建议。本句中的名词accommodation意为“食宿”，也就是住的地方。故B正确。

2.C 细节理解题。根据文章第一段第三句I suggested that they should stay at “bed and breakfast” houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family.可知我建议他们住在“bed and breakfast”家里，意为他们可以和主人练习讲英语。故C正确。

3.A 推理判断题。根据第二段第五句So they did not go to house where the sign outside said “VACANCIES”, which in English means there are free rooms.可知“VACANCIES”表示有空闲的房间，那么“NO VACANCIES”表示相反的含义，也就是没有空闲的房间。故A正确。

4.

【名师点睛】

本文【小题1、2、4】都属于细节理解题，该题型的解题方法及注意事项如下：

1. 跳读查找法这个方法的要点在于先看题干，带着问题读文章。以what, who, where, when, why, how 提问的问题，可以从文章中直接找到答案。同学们做这类题时可以边读边做记号，能加强阅读的针对性，提高做题的准确率，节省宝贵的时间，这是做事实细节题最基本也是最常用的方法。一般来说，细节题主要考查考生对某句话或某几句话的理解，同学们若能根据题干内容从原文中找到相关的句子，然后进行比较和分析，便可确定最佳答案。

另外，运用跳读查找法解题时，同学们要特别注意试题以及选项与原文之间的适当变换。根据近几年的中考题情况来看，很少有直接用原文中的句子进行考查和测试的，通常要进行一定的处理，而这种“处理”主要就是进行语义转换，其中包括同义变换、概念解析、归纳事实等。

2. 排除法排序题也属于事实细节题的一种题型，它通常出现在说明文中。这类文章有明显的信息词，如first, to begin with, after that, afterwards, later, next, second, third, then, finally等。按照信息词的提示阅读，可以加快理解的进程。在做细节排序题时，首先要确定首或尾的答案，通常四个选项中会有两个选项的顺序类似，正确答案往往在这两个选项中选择，找到两者的不同之处，回到原文，进行核对，一旦确定，后面的排序就不用再比较了。

3. 简单计算法数字计算题也是事实细节题的一种，要求对文章中提到的数据进行简单的加减乘除运算，以便得出符合题目要求的数据。解答这类题目时，考生首先要弄清题干的要求是什么，然后找到与它相关的数字，再对它们进行分析、整合，最后计算出正确答案。

细节题占阅读理解的比例很大，阅读时要特别注意以下几点：第一，阅读时，利用这类关键词和词组that is to say, above all, especially, mainly等，把握文章的思路和脉络。另外在问题的选项中表示绝对意义的词first （第一），least （最不），always （总是），never（永不），all（所有），none（一个也不），any（任何）和表示唯一性的词汇only（只有） , just（仅仅），往往是命题的陷阱，因此要多加注意。第二，阅读时，必须以原文提供的事实、细节和逻辑关系为依据，切忌把自己的观点和看法与原文或作者的观点、看法混为一谈。第三，文章中的数字、日期、时间都是设题的重点，此类题目很少是文章中表层出现的数字或日期，通常需要做简单的计算。

考点：考查说明文阅读