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  3. The men and women of Anglo-Saxon England normally bore one name only. Distinguishing epithets were rarely added. These might be

The men and women of Anglo-Saxon England normally bore one name only. Distinguishing epithets were rarely added. These might be

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问题     The men and women of Anglo-Saxon England normally bore one name only. Distinguishing epithets were rarely added. These might be patronymic, descriptive or occupational. They were, however, hardly surnames. Heritable names gradually became general in the three centuries following the Norman Conquest in 1066. It was not until the 13th and 14th centuries that surnames became fixed, although for many years after that, the degree of stability in family names varied considerably in different parts of the country.
    British surnames fall mainly into four broad categories: patronymic, occupational, descriptive and local. A few names, it is true, will remain puzzling: foreign names, perhaps, crudely translated, adapted or abbreviated; or artificial names.
    In fact, over fifty per cent of genuine British surnames derive from place names of different kinds, and so they belong to the last of our four main categories. Even such a name as Simpson may belong to this last group, and not to the first, had the family once had its home in the ancient village of that name. Otherwise, Simpson means "the son of Simon", as might be expected.
    Hundreds of occupational surnames are at once familiar to us, or at least recognisable after a little thought: Archer, Carter, Fisher, Mason, Thatcher, Taylor, to name but a few. Hundreds of others are more obscure in their meanings and testify to the amazing specialization in medieval arts, crafts and functions. Such are "Day" (old English for breadmaker) and "Walker" (a fuller whose job was to clean and thicken newly made cloth).
    All these vocational names carry with them a certain gravity and dignity, which descriptive names often lack. Some, it is true, like "Long", "Short" or "Little", are simple. They may be taken quite literally. Others require more thinking; their meanings are slightly different from the modern ones. "Black" and "White" implied dark and fair respectively. "Sharp" meant genuinely discerning, alert, acute rather than quick-witted or clever.
    Place-names have a lasting interest since there is hardly a town or village in all England that has not at some time given its name to a family. They may be picturesque, even poetical; or they may be pedestrian, even trivial. Among the commoner names which survive with relatively little change from old-English times are "Milton" (middle enclosure) and "Hilton" (enclosure on a hill).
This passage is mainly about______.
选项 A、the importance of surnames
B、the origin and culture of British surnames
C、the dignity of having a proper surname
D、the meanings of British surnames
答案B
解析 主旨题。本文第一段讲英国姓氏的发展，第二、三、四段讲英国姓氏的分类及起源，第五、六段讲英国姓氏的含义。A、C项没提英国，首先排除。D项“英国姓氏的含义”，只是文章的一个方面，也排除。B项概括较为全面，故选B。
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