阅读理解。
Homesick is a compound (复合) word made up of HOME and SICK. You know what each word means
on its own, of course. But think about what the words mean when they are used together. Homesick means
SICK FOR HOME.
Now think for a minute about. If you change the word home in the definition (释义) to the word sea,
would the definition fit SEASICK? Does seasick mean SICK FOR SEA? It means something quite different.
Seasick means SICK BY THE MOVEMENT ON THE SEA. When you are homesick, the only place you want
to be at home. When you are seasick, the last place you want to he is at sea．
Have you ever heard of a person being heartsick? Heart-sick doesn't mean that something is wrong with
a person's heart. People are heartsick when they are hurt deep inside and when they feel as if their hearts are
broken.
But, on the other hand, we have such compound words as handshake and handbag. Perhaps you may
write definitions for them and knowing something like this must be helpful in your English study.
1. When we say a person is heartsick, we mean that _____. [ ]
A. his heart is broken
B. his heart needs testing
C. he's sorry at heart
D. he's terribly disappointed (失望) and sad
2. "The last place you want to be" is _____.[ ]
A. where you want to be most
B. where you want to be least
C. where you go the last
D. the last place you go to
3. The definitions of handbag and handshake are _____. [ ]
A. easy to know
B. difficult to know
C. impossible to learn
D. unnecessary (没必要) to learn
4. The writer wanted to tell us that _____.[ ]
A. there are many compound words in English
B. the building of compound words is interesting
C. the definitions of some word are hard to guess
D. not all the compound words are what they seem to be
