阅读理解
Passage Three
Three English dictionaries published recently all lay claim topossessing a “ne w” feature. The BBC English Dictionarycontains background information on 1,000 people and placesprominent in the news since 1988; the Oxford AdvancedLearner’s Dictionary: Encyclopedic Edition is the OALD plusencyclopedic entries; the Longman Dictionary of EnglishLanguage and Culture is the LDOCE plus cultural information.
The key fact is that all three dictionaries can be seen to have adistinctly “cultural” as well as language learning content. That being said, the way in which theyapproach the cultural element is not identical, making direct comparisons between the threedifficult.
While there is some common ground between the encyclopedic/cultural entries for the Oxford andLongman dictionaries, there is a clear difference. Oxford lays claim to being encyclopedic oncontent whereas Longman distinctly concentrates on the language and culture of the English-speaking world. The Oxford dictionary can therefore stand more vigorous scrutiny for cultural biasthan the Longman publication because the latter does not hesitate about viewing the rest of theworld from the cultural perspectives of the English-speaking world. The cultural objectives of theBBC dictionary are in turn more distinct still. Based on an analysis of over 70 million wordsrecorded from the BBC World Service and National Public Radio of Washington over a period offour years, their 1,000 brief encyclopedic entries are based on people and places that havefeatured in the news recently. The intended user they have in mind is a regular listener to theWorld Ser vice who will have a reasonable standard of English and a developed skill in listeningcomprehension.
In reality, though, the BBC dictionary will be purchased by a far wider range of language learners,as will the other two dictionaries. We will be faced with a situation where many of the users ofthese dictionaries will at the very least have distinct socio-cultural perspectives and may haveworld views which are tot ally opposed and even hostile to those of the West. Advanced learnersform this kind of background will not only evaluate a dictionary on how user-friendly it is but willalso have definite views about the scope and appropriateness of the various socio-cultural entries.
单选题
What feature sets apart the three dictionaries discussed in the passage from traditional ones?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】根据文章第一段可知新出版的这三本字典都有一个新的特征(既不 同于以往的特征 )那就是，根据第二段第一句 “The key fact is that all three dictionaries can be seen to have a distinctly“cultural” as well as language learning content”，除 了语言学习的内容外又增加了有关“文化方面”的内容， 因此选项C为正确答案。选项A、B 文章未涉及，选项D不符合题意。
单选题
The Longman dictionary is more likely to be criticized for cultural prejudice because ______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】根据文章第三段第四至六行 “The Oxford dictionary can there fore stand more vigorousscrutiny for cultural bias than the Longman publication because the latter does not hesitate aboutviewing the rest of the world from t he cultural perspectives of the English-speaking world.”可知， 作者对牛津和朗 曼字典进行了比较。作者认为相对于朗曼字典，牛津字典更能经得起文化偏见方面的推敲， 这是因为朗曼字典只是从英语国家的文化观点去审视其他国家的文化，这正好符合选项C的 内容。选项A、B、D都不符合题意。
单选题
It is implied in the last paragraph that, in approaching socio-cultural content in a dictionary,social thought should be given to ______.