阅读理解。
In the year Shakespeare died in 1616, New England was born. This was in fact four years before
any English speakers permanently (永久) settled in that northern location. But in 1616 it was already
the subject of the book A Description of New England, by that busy explorer and promoter Captain
John Smith, who had visited the land two years before.
According to Smith, New England owes its name to Sir Francis Drake. Not that Drake ever saw or
talked about New England, but in sailing around the world he stopped in 1597 at a place on the Pacific
coast of North American and called it Nova Albion, the Latin for "New England". Following Drake's
lead, Smith called the area at a similar latitude (纬度) on the Atlantic coast by the same name, translated
into plain English.
The very words New England show the direction of Smith's thinking. This was to be an extension (延
伸) of Old England, not a new kind of community. The map in his book gives only English names for the
places of New England, and he provides a special list showing thirty American Indian names replaced by
English ones: Accormack by Plymouth, Massachusets River by Charles River, Kinebeck by
Edenborough, to list a few. Some of those changes succeeded. But what finally happened after the
Plymouth colonists landed four years later has turned out differently than Smith had imagined, for Indian
names as well as English ones still cover the new England area.
1. Captain John Smith arrived at the area New England in__________.
A. 1579
B. 1614
C. 1616
D. 1620
2. The underline words "that northern location" probably refer to__________.
A. Edenborough
B. Nova Albion
C. New England
D. Massachusets
3. The passage is written mainly to__________.
A. explain why English and Indian names are both used in New England
B. explain how the name New England came into being
C. tell people New England was named by Sir Francis Drake
D. tell people that New England has a long history of having the name
4. It can be inferred from the passage that_________.
A. Sir Francis Drake first used the name New England
B. The name New England was given by Captain John Smith
C. New England and Old England refer to the same land
D. English speakers began to settle in New England in 1612
