Question

People often ask why“Uncle Sam”is a nickname（綽號）for the United Stated of America. The reason is strange but simple.

Once there was a man called Samuel Wilson. He was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, on September 3, 1766. He was called“Uncle Sam”. When Sam Wilson was 14 years old, he joined the army and fought in several battles. At the end of the war, he went to live in Troy in the state of New York. He opened a meat-packing（肉食品包裝）business there.

Sam Wilson worked hard and loved his country. Everyone in the city liked him. One day in 1812, a reporter from a newspaper visited his business. The reporter looked at some boxes of meat. He saw the letters“EAUS”on the sides of the boxes.

“What do those letters mean?”he asked one of the workers.

“The EA stands for ‘Edward Anderson’,”the workman replied.“The boxes of meat are for him.”“What about the letters US?”the reporter asked.

These letters really stood for “United States”, but the workman wanted to have a laugh.“Oh,”he said .“They stand for Sam Wilson. He owns this company. We call him ‘Uncle Sam’.”

The worker did not think that the reporter would believe him. But the reporter wrote a story about his visit to Sam Wilson’s business. He wrote that his workers called him“Uncle Sam”and that“Uncle Sam”meant the United States.

Many people liked using the name“Uncle Sam”as a nickname for the United States and soon everyone was using it. In 1961, almost 150 years later, the United States government made the nickname“Uncle Sam”official（官方的）.

1. This passage is mainly about_____.

A. why the USA is called“Uncle Sam”

B. how to carry boxes with goods to other countries

C. a businessman in Troy, New York State

D. why people called Sam Wilson“Uncle Sam”

2. Many people liked Samuel Wilson because_______.

A. a reporter wrote a story about him

B. his nickname was “Uncle Sam”

C. he worked hard and loved his country

D. he had a meat-packing business

3. The reporter became important in this story because he________.

A. visited Sam Wilson’s business

B. wrote about Sam Wilson and the letters“US”

C. was Sam Wilson’s best friend

D. was good at advertising Sam’s business

4. From this passage, we can infer that________.

A. most Americans don’t like the nickname“Uncle Sam”

B. the British soldiers liked calling Americans“Uncle Sam”

C. the reporter made Americans nicknamed“Uncle Sam”on purpose（故意地）

D. the United States government has agreed to use the nickname“Uncle Sam”

 

Answer 1

答案：A;C;B;D
提示：

1題文章主要講的是A。 2題人們喜歡Samuel Wilson是因為C. 3題短文中那位記者的作用非常大是因為他寫了那篇報告而使人們開始用“Uncle Sam”指代“the United States”。 4題這是一個推斷題，根據(jù)短文最后一句可知。