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  3. Allan Metcalf s new book claims that the word "OK" is America’s greatest inv

Allan Metcalf s new book claims that the word "OK" is America’s greatest inv

游客2023-11-09  54
问题     Allan Metcalf s new book claims that the word "OK" is America’s greatest invention. This offers a pair of provocations. How can "OK" be an invention? On a certain day, a certain guy just dreamed up the expression that has become the most frequently spoken word on the planet? And even if it is an invention, can one little word really be greater than jazz, baseball, and the telephone? Is it better than The Simpsons?
    The answer to the first question, implausible as it sounds, is yes. In OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word, Metcalf locates the first use of OK in an obscure corner of a Boston newspaper on March 23, 1839. As for the alleged greatness of the word, Metcalf s slim volume doesn’t entirely persuade you that OK is a more valuable invention than, say, electric light. But the fact that he even raises the question is intriguing. If it does nothing else, Metcalf makes you acutely aware of how universal and vital the word has become.
    True story: the world’s most popular word began as a joke. In the late 1830s, America’s newspapers had great enthusiasm for abbreviations—also, to judge by Metcalf s account, a sorry sense of humor. He devotes a chapter to trying to explain why readers of the Boston Morning Post might have been amused to see "o. k." used as a jokey abbreviation for "oll korrect," an intentional misspelling of "all correct." Apparently you had to be there. But the word soon got an enormous boost from Andrew Jackson—or his enemies, anyway. They circulated the rumor that the man of the people was barely literate and approved papers with the initials "O. K." for "oll korrect." It was a joke, Metcalf concludes, "but without it there’d be no OK."
    The word didn’t remain a joke for long. Telegraph operators began using it as a way to say "all clear." It became ubiquitous, turning up in all corners of the world, and beyond. Metcalf points out that OK was technically the first word spoken on the surface of the moon.
    When you pause to consider what a weird and wonderful little word OK is, the most remarkable thing isn’t that it’s so great or that it was invented but that it’s American. To foreigners in the 20th century, Metcalf writes, the word embodied "American simplicity, pragmatism, and optimism." To us today, the word sums up "a whole two-letter American philosophy of tolerance, even admiration for difference." [br] Which of the following is true about Andrew Jackson?
选项 A、He was the inventor of "OK".
B、He was poor in writing and reading.
C、He was a household name in America.
D、He was the editor of the Boston Morning Post.
答案 C
解析 Andrew Jackson的名字出现在第3段倒数第3句，而下一句则将其称为the man of the people(人民之子)，文中说到OK一词是由于他的传闻而被传播开来的，而他能被誉为“人民之子”，可推断此人的知名度一定非常高，故选C。第3段倒数第3句指出因为Andrew Jackson，OK一词得以推广，结合上文对OK的产生经过的说明，可知他不是发明该词的人，故A不正确；第3段倒数第2句提到AndrewJackson的敌人散布谣言说他“几乎不识字”，但这只是“谣言(minor)”，并不一定是事实，故B不正确；原文没有根据可以推断出Andrew Jackson是编辑，D排除。
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