I keep hammering _ because I keep seeing people who don't do it. 1. Look up English to Elvish. 2. Look up the Elvish word in the best Elvish dictionary you have, and, preferably, find out the context in Tolkien's language dictionary. 3. Change the word to suit rules of grammar: singular or plural, mutations, verb tenses, etc. You cannot leave out any of these steps. If you do, you're almost certain to have errors. Why you have to do step 2: Languages never match up one- to-one. English and Elvish are closer than usual, but there are still problems. And English has strange idioms: why are there no baths or beds in public bathrooms or restrooms? You can't translate literally . You have to understand the meaning behind each word. In Elvish this is even more true, since our dictionaries contain more or less questionable reconstructions, and words that Tolkien later threw away or replaced. Find the best one you can. Consider the word "fair". We tend to use it to mean "just". Tolkien tends to use it to mean "beautiful". In Elvish, these are two entirely different words. So when you look up "fair", you'll have to go to the Elvish dictionary to see that you've got the right one. Consider the nightmare of He left the bar. Is "left" the opposite of "right" (which also has two meanings) ? Is "bar" extruded steel , or something to do with law? You have to know what words mean in both languages. And you'd be amazed at how many people ignore step 3, forgetting that language is more than a string of words, and there are rules about how to fit those words together. You can't simply look up the word "I" and use it everywhere. Sometimes you need "me" or "my". There's a reason it takes a while to learn a language: you have to learn the rules. It drives me completely mad when people give a questionable translation they insist is right because "it's in the dictionary". A dictionary is a tool, a resource. but its entries should not be mistaken for a finished product. They are raw materials. The passage is mainly about how to _ . A) learn a foreign language with a dictionary B) avoid errors when looking up a dictionary C) understand the meaning of a strange word D) use a dictionary to translate between languages
D
(Question)
Music is an international language. The songs that are sung or played by instruments are beautiful to all people everywhere. Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play the music loudly as they drive on the street. Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, politics ,and activities of the American people. Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in every state. Once the popular singer is heard throughout the country, young people buy his or her tapes. Some of the money from these tapes comes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, ail the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star. There are other kinds of music that are important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. Another is called western or country music. This was started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they were watching. Today, any music about country life and the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music. Serious music for the concert halls is called classical music. Music for instruments is called orchestra music,such as the symphonies of Beethoven. There is opera for singers. There is ballet for dancers like the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai in China. What can we know about music and people in America? A) Student drivers carry small radios with earphones when they drive on the street. B) Students listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. C) Adult drivers only listen to news except music when they drive to work. D) Adult drivers never listen to music when they drive to work.
(Answer)
B
Ques: The octopus's reputation as a human-killer isn't simply an exaggeration --it is a total myth. The octopus can indeed be a deadly hunter, but only of its natural victims. Some shellfish and an occasional sick or incautious fish have reason to be frightened of this multi-armed hunter, but a person is much too large to interest even the biggest octopus. Even the largest among octopi is much smaller than most people imagine. Far from being large enough to swallow a ship, as monster octopi in movies have been known to do, the largest octopus, found on the Pacific coast, weighs around 110 pounds and grows to no more than ten feet in width. The hard, parrot-like beak of an octopus is not used for attacking deep-sea divers, but for cutting open shellfish. Indeed, the octopus possesses such a tiny throat that it cannot swallow large pieces of meat. Instead, it feeds by pouring digestive juices into its victims, and then sucking up the soupy remains. A shellfish that finds itself in the grasp of an octopus has only a short time to live. But human beings are perfectly safe. Still, people rarely care to go close enough to these _ to get a good look at them. The hard beak of the octopus is used for _ . A) attacking deep-sea divers B) cutting up large pieces of meat C) cutting open its victims D) defending itself
Ans: C
We know the famous ones--the Thomas Edisons and the Alexander Graham Bells --but what about the less famous inventors? What about the people who invented the traffic light and the windshield wiper ? Shouldn' t we know who they are? Joan Mclean thinks so. In fact, Mclean, a professor of physics at Mountain University in Range, feels so strongly about this matter that she' s developed a course on the topic. In addition to learning "who" invented "what" , however, Mclean also likes her students to learn the answers to the "why" and "how" questions. According to Mclean, "When students learn the answers to these questions, they are better prepared to recognize opportunities for inventing and more motivated to give inventing a try. " Her students agree. One young man with a patent for an unbreakable umbrella is walking proof of McLean's statement. "If I had not heard the story of the windshield wiper' s invention," said Tommy Lee, a senior physics major. "I never would have dreamed of turning my bad experience during a rain storm into something so constructive. " Lee is currently negotiating to sell his patent to an umbrella producer. So, just what is the story behind the windshield wiper? Well, Mary Anderson came up with the idea in 1902 after a visit to New York City. The day was cold and stormy, but Anderson still wanted to see the sights, so she jumped aboard a streetcar. Noticing that the driver was struggling to see through the snow covering the windshield, she found herself wondering why there couldn' t be a built - in device for cleaning the window. Still wondering about this when she returned home to Birmingham, Alabama, Anderson started drafting out solutions. One of her ideas, a lever on the inside of a vehicle that would control an arm on the outside, became the first windshield wiper. Today we benefit from countless inventions and innovations. It' s hard to imagine driving without Garrett A. Morgan' s traffic light. It' s equally impossible to picture a world without Katherine J.... Tommy Lee' s invention of the unbreakable umbrella was _ A) not eventually accepted by the umbrella producer B) inspired by the story behind the windshield wiper C) due to his dream of being caught in a rainstorm D) not related to Professor Joan McLean' s lectures
B