Question

    “Hello” is a relatively new greeting. It first appeared sometime in the mid-1800s, but many people would not have dreamed of using it. “Hello” was considered a very impolite way to greet someone. Instead, people used formal expressions like “How do you do?”

Back then, there were several words that sounded like “hello,” but they were used to get someone’s attention or to express surprise. For example, if you caught your little brother stealing your snack, you might have said, “Halloa there! Stop eating my cheese!” If you found a fly in your soup, you might have shouted, “Hullo! How did that get in there?”

Everything started to change in 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The first telephones didn’t have numbers you could dial, nor did they have bells or ringers. Instead, your telephone sent signals along telephone lines to a central office where an operator would answer by saying something like “Are you there, sir?” or “What is wanted?” The operator would then connect your phone to the phone of the person you wanted to reach. There was just one small problem: Since telephones didn’t ring, how would the person you were calling know that you were “on the line”? The answer is you would yell (大喊) into your phone and hope someone on the other end heard you. But what would you yell? And what would the person you were calling say when they were going to answer? Bell suggested “Ahoy! Ahoy!” but it didn’t catch on. Then the famous inventor Thomas Edison suggested the word hello. That caught on right away.

“Hello” became so popular that by 1878 telephone operators were required to use it. In fact, operators received the nickname (绰号) “Hello Girls.” Soon, “hello” became not just the standard way to answer the phone, but an accepted way to greet people in person.

1.Why was “hello” seldom used when it first appeared?

A. It was too informal.

B. It was hard to pronounce.

C. It was considered to be rude.

D. There were other words like “hello”.

2.“Hullo” was used to show something _____.

A. interesting B. exciting

C. boring D. unexpected

3.Paragraph 3 is mainly about _____.

A. how “hello” was used to answer the telephone

B. the friendship between Bell and Edison

C. the invention of the telephone

D. how the telephone improved

4.We can infer from the text that _____.

A. “hello” got popular as soon as the telephone was invented

B. the telephone has changed the way people speak

C. people liked simple expressions like “hello”

D. Bell advised girls to use “hello”

Answer

1.C

2.D

3.A

4.B

【解析】

本文是一篇记叙文。文章叙述了“Hello”一词的由来。

1.细节理解题。根据第一段中It first appeared sometime in the mid-1800s, but many people would not have dreamed of using it. “Hello” was considered a very impolite way to greet someone.“它最早出现在19世纪中期的某个时候，但许多人做梦也没想到会使用它。“Hello”被认为是一种非常不礼貌的打招呼方式。”可知，“hello”第一次出现时很少被使用，是因为这被认为是粗鲁的。故选C。

2.推理判断题。根据第二段中If you found a fly in your soup, you might have shouted, “Hullo! How did that get in there?”“ 如果你在汤里发现一只苍蝇，你可能会大叫:“喂!那是怎么进来的?””可知，“Hullo”是用来表示意想不到的事情。故选D。

3.推理判断题。根据第三段中And what would the person you were calling say when they were going to answer? Bell suggested “Ahoy! Ahoy!” but it didn’t catch on. Then the famous inventor Thomas Edison suggested the word hello. That caught on right away.“当你打电话的人要接电话时，他们会说什么?贝尔说“喂!喂! !但它没有流行起来。然后，著名发明家托马斯·爱迪生提出了“你好”这个词。马上就流行起来了。”可知，第3段主要是关于如何用“hello”来接电话。故选A。

4.推理判断题。根据最后一段“Hello” became so popular that by 1878 telephone operators were required to use it. In fact, operators received the nickname (绰号) “Hello Girls.” Soon, “hello” became not just the standard way to answer the phone, but an accepted way to greet people in person.“到1878年，“你好”一词变得如此流行，以至于电话接线员必须使用它。事实上，接线员得到的昵称是“你好女孩”。很快，“hello”就不仅仅是接电话的标准方式，而是一种被广泛接受的当面打招呼的方式。”可知，电话改变了人们说话的方式。故选B。