Wicked!Noticetheintonation(语调).Itmeans“wonderful”,“grea...

问题详情：

Wicked! Notice the intonation(语调). It means “wonderful”, “great”, “cool”, “splendid”. It came into English from United States’ slang(俚语) in the 1980s or maybe earlier. Certainly it arrived in Britain in the late 1980s.

    It was part of a trend(趋势) which goes back decades to use bad words to mean good things, or some good words to mean bad things. I mean you might remember saying, “ That’s great” meaning “ It isn’t great”. And always there’s been this use of the word “naughty” to mean “nice”.

    It’s mainly used as an adjective in front of a noun, for example “ We had a wicked time!” Or, of course, you can use it alone by just saying “ Wicked!” as a reaction ― that’s how youngsters use it. And youngsters, of course, knowing that grown-ups are now using it as well, have decided to use other bad words in the same sort of way ― I’ve heard young people in recent years use words like “ evil” meaning “good”, or “brutal” meaning “good”.

   “Wicked” is still around. This means, of course, that the traditional sense of “wicked” is now being squeezed（挤） out. So with "wicked", intonation(语调) is the only way to tell the old meaning from the new meaning, so you have to be careful, and pay very careful attention to the context.

    And please pay attention that the use of the word is spreading . The other day, for the first time, I heard somebody say “wicked cool”, meaning “very cool”.

24. What does the text mainly tell readers?

A.      The changing meaning of English words.

B.      The change of the word ”wicked” in meaning.

C.     The way to use English words.

D.     English words from American slang.

25. The author tells readers to pay attention to the intonation of the word “wicked” because_____.

A.      the word is easy to misunderstand

B.      there is another word with the same pronunciation

C.     its intonation decides its meaning

D.     there are many meanings of the word

26. According to the text, which of the following words is often used to express its opposite meaning?

    A.  Cool.      B. Wonderful.     C. Splendid.      D. Evil.

27. According to the text, we know that the word “wicked”_____.

A.      has been used in Britain for more than 20 years

B.      is only used in front of a noun

C.     has lost its old meaning

D.     was first used by American children

【回答】

BCDA

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