CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW HARD IT WOULD BE TO READ SENTENCES LIKE THIS?
Every one of us gets so used to punctuation marks that not many of us give them a second thought.Actually,the ancient Greeks wrote this way.The lack of punctuation marks probably didn’t bother good readers,though.As they read,they just put pauses where they fit best.Also at this time,sentences switched directions.A sentence read from left to right.The next one read right to left,and then left to right
again,etc.The ancient Romans sometimes punctuated like this: They·put·something
·that·can·separate·words·in·a·sentence.The word punctuation actually comes from this idea and the Latin word puncture,which means a dot.
When the 5th century arrived,there were just two punctuation marks: spaces and points.The spaces separated words while the points showed pauses in reading.Then in the 13th century,a printer named Aldus Manutius tried to standardize
punctuation.He always used a period for a complete stop at the end of a sentence.He used a slash (/) to indicate a short pause.Over time,that slash was shortened and curled,and it became the modern comma (逗号).
Since that time,other marks have enlarged the punctuation family.The exclamation mark(感叹号) comes from the Latin word io.It means “exclamation of joy”.The question mark originally started out as the Latin word questio,meaning question.Eventually,scholars put it at the end of a sentence to show a question.
Punctuation even keeps changing nowadays.New marks are coming into existence,and old punctuation marks are used in new ways.Take for example the “interrobang”.This 1962 invention combines the question mark and exclamation mark for times when writers want both.For example,“She did what!?”or“How much did you pay for that dress!?”Obviously,the interrobang is not widely used or recognized yet,but its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation.
1.From the first paragraph,we can know that .
A.good readers had trouble reading without punctuation marks
B.a sentence always read from left to right in ancient Greece
C.the ancient Greeks switched the direction of punctuation marks
D.the use of punctuation marks can date back to ancient times
2.The passage is developed by .
A.time B.space C.comparison D.importance
3.We can learn from the passage that .
A.ancient Romans didn’t use any punctuation marks
B.exclamation and question marks came from Latin
C.spaces and slashes were already used before the 5th century
D.Aldus Manutius first started to use commas
4.What can be concluded from the last paragraph?
A.The combination of two marks will not work.
B.It takes time for people to accept new punctuation marks.
C.Old punctuation marks need to be standardized.
D.Punctuation marks are still changing today.
语篇解读:本文主要介绍了英文中标点符号的起源和发展。
答案及剖析:
1.D 推理判断题。根据第一段最后两句“The ancient Romans sometimes...which means a dot.”可推知,标点符号的使用可以追溯到古代。故答案选D。
2.A 篇章结构题。第二、三、四段开头第一句都与时间有关,由此可推知本文是按照时间顺序来写的。故答案选A。
3.B 细节理解题。根据第三段第二、四句可知,感叹号和问号都起源于拉丁语。故答案选B。
4.D 细节理解题。根据最后一段第一句“Punctuation even keeps changing nowadays.”和最后一句中的“but its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation”可知,英语中的标点符号至今还在继续变化。故答案选D。
