Question

Try reading the following sentences as fast as you can. “She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells on the seashore, I’m sure she sells seashore shells.”

Not very easy, was it? What you’ve just read is called a tongue twister (繞口令). It is an exercise made up of sounds that are hard to pronounce(發音，讀) in order to help people pronounce words faster and more correctly. Try the next example.

“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper. Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers? If Pete Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?”

Tongue twisters usually do not have much meaning. They are just designed to improve people’s ability  to pronounce words. Although they may be very difficult, these exercises are very important to people who are trying to speak English correctly. This is because tongue twisters help people to tell the differences between similar sounds.

So if you wish to pronounce words more smoothly, you’d better try picking out some tongue twisters and practicing them.

1.Tongue twisters are helpful in improving ___________ skills.

A. listening        B. writing      C. pronunciation     D. communication

2.The first tongue twister is hard because ___________.

A. it is very boring to read            B. it teaches us a lot of knowledge

C. we don’t know who “she” is        D. the sounds of “s” and “sh” are similar

3.The passage is probably taken from _________ in a school newspaper.

A. Story Time          B. Study Garden

C. Latest News          D. Lost and Found

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.C

2.D

3.B

【解析】

試題分析：本文敘述了繞口令是用來讓人們練習自己的發音，區分相似的讀音，進而提高自己的發音水平。

1.細節理解題。根據these exercises are very important to people who are trying to speak English correctly. 繞口令提高發音技能，故選C。

2.推理判斷題。根據This is because tongue twisters help people to tell the differences between similar sounds.因為這個繞口令里“s” and “sh”是近的，不容易區分，故選D。

3.推理判斷題。根據短文的內容繞口令是來提高人們的發音，所以這篇文章有可能來自學校的學習天地，故選B。

考點：教育類短文閱讀。