阅读理解

Passage 1


Questions 11—15 are based on the following passage.

Shake speare wrote in his great play Hamlet,“Brevity(简洁)is the soul of wit.”But it seems that not everyone agrees with this. Microblog has canceled its 140-character limit forposts, meaning users can now write as many words as they like. And now Twitter, a US social media site that's similar to Microblog,also announced that it plans to double its character limitfrom 140 to 280.

Twitter has its reasons for the changes. It's a pain to have to edit your thoughts to less than140 characters when you have so much to say. And a big problem for English writers is that it requires more space than character-based languages such as Chinese to express the same thing.According to The Atlantic, while the average English-language tweet is 34 characters, a Japanese one, for example, is only 15.

But still, Twitter users don't seem to be happy with the new move.

Our reading habits have changed over time, and we're used to keeping up to date with what's happening in the world by reading just a couple of lines of text. For this, 140 character sare more than enough.

“Microblogs are almost always faster and more efficient than television, radio, newspapers,or any other source," wrote Dom Knight, a reporter for The Guardian."It's like gathering in the town square ... in an instant.”

Trying to fit your thoughts into a limited space is also a good way to come up with smart comments, which is why microblogs are often where the best humor is found.

For example, during former US President Donald Trump's election campaign in 2016,a Twitter user wrote:"If Trump can seriously win the presidency of this nation, I don't want to see a job description with 'experience required'ever again.”And another wrote:"England:Nothing can be more embarrassing than Brexit. America:Watch this."These tweets expressed people's upset louder and quicker than any long articles ever could.

So perhaps we should pay attention to Shakespeare's words. After all, he only needed 27characters to make his famous point.


单选题 (   )Why does Twitter plan to change its character limit for each post?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节理解题。根据第二段第二、三句It's a pain to have to edit your thoughts to less than140 characters when you have so much to say.And a big problem for English writers is that itrequires more space than character-basedlanguages such as Chinese to express the samething(用140个词来表达你想表达的诸多内容是一件很痛苦的事情，而用英语写作的人面临的一个大问题是，要表达同样的内容，英语需要比基于字符的语言(如中文)更多的空间)可知，推特计划改变每个帖子的字符限制是因为用英文写比用中文写需要更多的字。故选C。
单选题 (  )What does"this" refer to in the fourth paragraph?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节理解题。根据第四段第一句中的…andwe're used to keeping up to date with what'shappening in the world by reading just a coupleof lines of text(我们习惯于通过阅读几行文字来了解世界上正在发生的事情)可知，这里的this指代的是人们习惯于阅读简短的帖子以获得最新的消息。故选C。
单选题 (  )What is the advantage of Microblog according to Dom Knight?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节理解题。根据第五段第一句中的Microblogs are almost always faster and moreefficient than television, radio, newspapers, orany other source(微博几乎总是比电视、广播、报纸或任何其他来源更快、更有效)可知，DomKnight认为微博可以快速地为人们收集各种信息。故选B。
单选题 (   ) Why does the author write about the two Twitter posts?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】推理判断题。根据倒数第二段最后一句These tweets expressed people's upset louder and quicker than any long articles ever could(这些推文比任何长篇文章都更响亮、更快地表达了人们的不安)及Twitter内容可知，作者写出两篇推特帖子是为了证明有限的文字可以启发人们写出精辟的帖子。故选D。
单选题 (  )What is the author's attitude toward the character limit on social media?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】推理判断题。根据第四段第一句Our reading habits have changed over time, and we're used to keeping up to date with what'shappening in the world by reading just a couple of lines of text(随着时间的推移，我们的阅读习惯已经发生了变化，我们习惯于通过阅读几行文字来了解世界上正在发生的事情)以及倒数第三段Trying to fit your thoughts into a limited space is also a good way to come up with smart comments, which is why microblogs are often where the best humor.is found(把你的想法用有限的文字表述出来也是想出精辟评论的好方法，这就是为什么微博往往是最好的幽默所在)及最后一段So perhaps we should pay attention to Shake speare's words. After all, he onlyneeded 27 characters to make his famous point(所以也许我们应该注意一下莎士比亚的文字。毕竟，他只需要27个文字就能表达出他的著名观点)可知，作者认为，简短的文字符合人们的阅读习惯，且能创造幽默，因此作者认为社交媒体上的字数限制是有意义的。故选D。