A
During the period from 1660 through 1800, Great Britain became the world's leader. Language itself became submitted to rules during this period. This need to fix the English language is best illustrated (描述) in the making of The Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson. Guides to the English language had been in existence before Johnson began his project in 1746. These, however, were often little more than lists of hard words. When definitions of common words were supplied, they were often unhelpful. For example, a “horse” was defined in an early dictionary as “a beast well known”．
Johnson changed all that, but the task was not an easy one. Renting a house at 17 Gough Square, Johnson began working in the worst of conditions. Supported only by his publisher, Johnson worked on the Dictionary with five assistants. Compared to the French Academy's dictionary, which took forty workers fiftyfive years to complete (1639—1694), Johnson's dictionary was completed by very few people very quickly.
Balanced on a chair with only three legs, Johnson sat against a wall in a room filled with books. Johnson would read widely from these books, mark passages illustrating the use of a particular word, and give the books to his assistants so that they could copy the passages on slips of paper. These slips were then stuck to eighty large notebooks under the key words that Johnson had selected. Fixing the word by this method, Johnson could record a word's usage and its definition.
How many passages were used? According to Johnson's modern biographer Walter Jackson Bate, the original total number could have been over 240,000. How many words were defined by the lexicographer? Over 40,000 words appeared in two large books in April of 1755. Did Johnson fully understand the huge task he was undertaking when he began? As he told his contemporary biographer James Boswell, “I knew very well what I was undertaking—and very well how to do it—and have done it very well.”
本文是一篇记叙文。文章介绍了Samuel Johnson和他的助手为修正早期的英语词典花费了大量的精力，但也高效且高质量地完成了新词典的编纂工作。
1．What is the problem of early English dictionaries?
A．They only offer simple pictures.
B．They list just a few foreign words.
C．They simply give some translations.
D．They add no more than some big words.
答案：D
解析：细节理解题。根据第一段中的These, however, were often little more than lists of hard words.可知，词典中往往都是一些生僻的单词。故D项正确。
2．What does the underlined word “lexicographer” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A．A publisher. B．A biographer.
C．A maker of dictionaries. D．An assistant.
答案：C
解析：词义猜测题。根据最后一段第二句According to Johnson's modern biographer Walter Jackson Bate, the original total number could have been over 240,000.及画线词所在句可知，根据Johnson的传记的作者Walter Jackson Bate所言，词典的最初页码超过了240 000张。到底有多少单词由这些词典编纂者定义呢？由此可推知，lexicographer意为“词典编纂者”。故C项正确。
3．What can we infer about Samuel Johnson from the text?
A．He standardized English.
B．He cared about authority a lot.
C．He gained much financial support.
D．He complained of working conditions.
答案：A
解析：推理判断题。根据第一段中的This need to fix the English language is best illustrated (描述) in the making of The Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson.可知，Samuel Johnson的词典最能说明修正英语语言的必要性。根据最后一段最后两句知，他深知自己从事的这项任务的重要性，而且也知道如何去做，并且做得很出色。由此可推知，Samuel Johnson使英语更加标准化。故A项正确。
4．What is the purpose of this passage?
A．To discuss the problems of dictionaries.
B．To encourage people to work on a project.
C．To persuade people to buy the new dictionary.
D．To introduce how Johnson completed his dictionary.
答案：D
解析：目的意图题。通读全文可知，本文主要介绍了Samuel Johnson和助手如何编纂了词典。故D项正确。
