四、閱讀測驗【請在下列各題中選出最適當的答案】
Have you ever wondered where the name “America” came from? Why aren’t the continents of North and
South America called “Columbusia” after Christopher Columbus? The word “America” actually came from
Amerigo Vespucci, a 15-century Italian explorer. Who made the decision? A mapmaker.
Like Columbus, Vespucci traveled to the New World (first in 1499 and again in 1502). Unlike Columbus,
Vespucci wrote about it. Vespucci’s accounts of his travels were published in 1504 and were widely read in
Europe. Columbus was also hindered because he thought he had discovered another route to Asia; he didn’t
realize America was a whole new continent. Vespucci, however, found that America was not contiguous with
Asia. He was also the first to call it the New World, or Novus Mundus in Latin, in his books. With the discovery
of this “New World,” maps were being redrawn all the time.
In 1507, a German mapmaker named Martin Waldseemüller was drawing a map of the world. He called it
the Universalis Cosmographia, or Universal Cosmography. Comprised of 12 wooden panels, it was eight feet
wide and four-and-a-half feet tall. He based his drawings of the New World on Vespucci’s published travelogues,
and the mapmaker further used Vespucci’s name “Amerigo” to name the new continents “America.” Mapmakers
tended to copy one another’s choices, so Columbus was left off the map. Today, an original of Waldseemüller’s
map is permanently on display at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
【題組】50. In the 2nd paragraph, what does the word “contiguous” most likely mean?
(A) Distant. (B) Circling. (C) Nonstop. (D) Connected.
寫作批改
VIP與詳解卡管理
私人筆記( 1 )
