Most Chinese whostudy English become familiar with the British name pattern that predominatesin the US: a “first name”, which is a personal name almost always instantlyrecognizable to native speakers as male or female, plus a “middle name” thatcan be either a personal name or a family name, followed by a “last name”, i.e.the surname. In England the first and middle names are called one’s “Christiannames” because they are given to most European（and North American）children when they are baptized or “christened” intothe Christian religion soon after birth; these names can also be called one’s “givennames”, as opposed to the surname normally inherited from one’s father. In Britain, it is fairly common, especially among upper-class parents, to bestow more than twogiven names on a child; occasionally Americans of English descent do this also,as in the case of George Bert Walker Bush. People who came to America after theoriginal British settlers were expected to adhere to the same conventions innaming their children，even though other European cultures, not to mention African and EastAsian cultures, have different name patterns.

Most Britons andNorth Americans prefer to be known by some form of their “first name” ratherthan their “middle name”, and indicate this by reducing their middle name to aninitial. Thus Charles Alexander Hawkins will probably give his name as “CharlesA. Hawkins” on official documents. He will usually expect his friends to call himCharles or one of the common nicknames（Charlie, Chuck）derived from Charles. If, however, he would rather people called himAlexander（or one ofthe related nicknames, e.g. Alex, Alee, Al or Sandy）, he will sign his name “C.Alexander Hawkins” instead.

Finally, somepeople so like the sound of their initials that they turn them into an informalname. Someone by the name of, say, Timothy Jacob Coleman may call himself T.J.（one may write this withoutperiods, as T J）.Thisis not possible with any set of initials, however; only combinations that soundgood to native speakers are acceptable as names. Thus “William Quentin Sawyer”would never be called WQ; the letters are just too hard to say. These initialnames by the way, can include the initial of the surname. President JohnFitzgerald Kennedy was widely referred to as JFK, and President Lyndon BainesJohnson was LBJ to friends and foes alike.

How are thenaming conventions in other Western societies different from the first name/midname/surname pattern? The most striking exception to the general Western trendis among Hungarians, who persist in placing the surname first, as in Chinese.And although Russians and other Eastern Slavs put their surname last，when they identify themselvesin official situations they will very often state their surname first, as ifthey were filling out a bureaucratic form.

The concept of a“middle name” is generally lacking in Europe. A German name may lookstructurally similar to a British name. but very often what looks like the “middle”name is the primary personal name. And among other Europeans, if a person hastwo or more given names, they are regarded as constituting a compound name, tobe used together in addressing their bearer. The French tend to make this clearby hyphenating such compound names, e.g. Jean-Jacque and Marie-Louise.

Perhaps thepeople with the grandest names are the inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula and Latin America. A Spanish speaker will have one or more given names followed byhis father’s surname plus his mother’s surname—and expect to be referred toin speaking by his paternal surname, which is not the last in the series. Mostmarried women keep their father’ s surname and add their husband’s father’ssurname, preceded by the particle “de”（of）. Portuguesespeakers prefer to place the father’s surname after the mother’s surname, whichmeans that in a Pan-American crowd of people handing out name cards, one mustremain mindful of who is a Brazilian and who is a Mexican.

1．Which of the following is true accordingto the passage?

A. You candecide an American is a male or female from his name.

B. A middle namemust be a family name.

C. One personcan have only one given name.

D. A Christianname is a first name.

2．What is typical of Hungarian names?

A. Hungarianshave no middle names.

B. Hungariansmay turn initials into an informal name.

C. Hungariansplace the surname first.

D. Hungariansplace the surname first only in official situations.

3．Which of the following is the rightorder of a Spanish speaker’s name?

A. Given name, mother’ssurname, father’s surname.

B. Given name, father’ssurname, mother’s surname.

C. Father’ssurname, mother’s surname, given name.

D. Mother’ssurname, father’s surname, given name.

4．What is the main idea of this passage?

A. How tounderstand the British name patterns.

B. The conceptof middle name in Europe.

C. Nameconventions in western societies.

D. Theappropriate behavior in Pan-American crowd.

5．The best title for the text may be ______.

A. The BritishName Pattern

B. The Namingconventions of Spanish Speakers

C. The NamePatterns Used in Western Society

D. TheDifferences in Naming Conventions

【答案与解析】

1．D 答案见第一段“In England the first and middle names are called one’s ‘Christiannames’”。A似乎也对，但是要注意，其限定条件是“nativespeakers”一看“就可以马上分辨出这个人是男性或女性”，并非指所有人。因此，需要稍加注意，不要选错答案。

2．C 本题答案见第四段“Hungarians…persist in placing the surname first”，A、B和D的内容都在文内叙及。

3．B 文中第六段中提到，西班牙人的正确的姓名顺序是：名+父姓十母姓。

4．C 本题要求概括文章的中心思想。综观全文，作者主要叙述的是西方国家的姓名模式，可知答案为C，其他三项都是对中心思想展开叙述的事例。

5．C 如题解4中所述，本文叙述的是西方国家的姓名模式，A、B为细节，D过于宽泛，只有C概括了文章的意思，可作为标题。 S7J5fGxMfJlZaZ2x7vSIuIb7YTmhZwbdjRDnT3Qt5qjMo3g2j+9NeqawX/n92CX6