Americans use many expressions with the word “dog”. People in the United States love their dogs and treat them well. They take their dogs for walks, let them play outside and give them good food and medical care. However, dogs without owners to care for them lead a different kind of life. The expression, to lead a dog's life, describes a person who has an unhappy life.
Some people say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. That means many people are competing for the same things, like good jobs. They say that to be successful, a person has to work like a dog. This means they have to work very, very hard. Such hard work can make people dog-tired. And, the situation would be even worse if they became sick as a dog.
Still, people say every dog has its day. This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills. Yet, some people say that you can never teach an old dog new tricks. They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things.
Some people are compared to dogs in bad ways. People who are unkind or uncaring can be described as meaner than a junkyard dog. Junkyard dogs live in places where people throw away things they do not want. But mean dogs are often used to guard this property. They bark or attack people who try to enter the property. However, sometimes a person who appears to be mean and threatening is really not so bad. We say his bark is worse than his bite.
Dog expressions also are used to describe the weather. The dog days of summer are the hottest days of the year. A rainstorm may cool the weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. We do not want it to rain cats and dogs.
16.A person who lives an unhappy life can be described as “________”.
A.becoming sick as a dog
B.leading a dog's life
C.living in a dog-eat-dog world
D.working like a dog
17.The underlined word “mean” in Paragraph 4 most probably means “________”.
A.violent B.selfish
C. wild D.poor
18.What can we learn from the text?
A.Everyone can be successful if he lear
ns from the old.
B.It might be difficult for the young to learn new skills.
C.Junkyard dogs are careful in money arrangement.
D.Fierce persons aren't so awful as their appearance sometimes.
19.To support his idea, the author develops the text mainly by ________.
A.listing reasons B.using idioms
C.giving examples D.making comparisons
【文章大意】 本文是一篇说明文，主要介绍了美国语言中许多关于“狗”的有趣的表达方式。
16.B 细节理解题。 根据文章第一段的最后一句“The expression, to lead a dog's life, describes a person who has an unhappy life.”并结合本题的题干，可知“过着狗一般的生活”表示“生活过得不快乐”，故选B项。
17.A 词义猜测题。根据第四段的倒数第三句“They bark or attack people who try to enter the property.”可知，该句是对画线词的解释说明。为了保护主人的财产，这种狗通常大叫或攻击那些想得到主人财产的人，由此可知这种狗很厉害，故选A项。
18.D 细节理解题。根据文章倒数第二段的倒数第二句“However, sometimes a person who appears to be mean and threatening is really not so bad.”可知，有时看起来凶猛、有危险性的人实际上并非那么糟糕，故选D项。
19.C 推理判断题。结合全文的整体理解可知，作者主要是通过事例来解释每一条有关“狗”的习语的，故选C项。
