单选题 One sure way you can tell how quickly a new idea, for example, the idea of "privatization," is taking hold among the population is to monitor how fast the word or words expressing that particular idea are passing into common usage. Professional opinions of whether or not words can indeed be said to have passed into common usage are available from dictionary editors, who are vitally concerned with this question. The method described above for determining how quickly a new idea is taking hold relies on which one of the following assumptions?

A、 Dictionary editors are not professionally interested in words that are only rarely used.
B、 Dictionary editors have exact numerical criteria for telling when a word has passed into common usage.
C、 For a new idea to take hold, dictionary editors have to include the relevant word or words in their dictionaries.
D、 As a word passes into common usage, its meaning does not undergo any severe distortions in the process.
E、 (E) Words denoting new ideas tend to be used before the ideas denoted are understood.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 由题义可知，代表某个新概念的单词或短语在转变为习惯用法时，若单词的意思发生了较大的改变，那么这些单词将不能再表达它们以前所表达的新概念。因此本题的结论成立的必要条件是当一个单词变成一种习惯用法时，它的意思在转变过程中不会经受任何严重的改变，即(D)是正确答案；(E)提及了新内容，既不能支持结论，也不能从短文中合理地推出，因此是错误选项；(A)、(C)、(D)三选项都与段落中论述的内容相反，均为错误选项。