2. 外语
  3. The other forms of folktales are also widespread throughout the world. Animal tales fall into two major categories: those, such

The other forms of folktales are also widespread throughout the world. Animal tales fall into two major categories: those, such

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问题      The other forms of folktales are also widespread throughout the world. Animal tales fall into two major categories: those, such as the trickster tale, in which animals are actually believed to have the power of speech and the ability to conduct themselves as humans; and those in which the animals’ human dualities are simply a convention that is accepted during the course of the narrative such as in the medieval beast cycles (for example, the tales of Reynard the Fox), or in the fable, with its moralistic ending. When they are not mythological, animal tales have often been means to hide political or social satire. Although the point is sometimes disputed, the Brer Rabbit stories may have served a similar function. Certainly the medieval beast cycles were filled with criticism of church and state that would have been dangerous to present directly.
     Tall tales, stories that the narrator does not believe but that are supposed to dupe the naive listener, are particularly associated with the U. S. frontier, although variants of such stories were well known in earlier times in Europe and Asia. In the United States, tall tales were presented to the city dweller as true pictures of life out West. They rely for their comic effect on the incongruity (不和谐) between sober (静的) narration and fantastic elements in the stories themselves. They feature two characters whose  character traits are frequently interchangeable: the Roarer, a bragging, swearing, hard-drinking fighter; and the Yankee, a quick-thinking trader who is a rogue (骗子) beneath a bland exterior. The American frontier scouts Davy Crockett and Mike Fink are two of the most famous characters in American tall tales, but many of these stories do not feature a hero; they simply tell of such phenomena as corn that grows so fast that it knocks people to the passage which tales roll in pursuit of their prey.
The word "scouts" ( Line 8, Para. 2) probably means" ______.
选项 A、bodyguards
B、observers
C、authors
D、investigators
答案B
解析 词义题。据所处的上下文可知Davy Crockett与Mike Fink是故事中的人物形象，又据文章第二段首句知tall tales主要讲的是美国(西部)开拓边疆的故事，那么故事中的人物形象就能体现边疆变化情况，因此可推知scouts为“守望者，观察者，见证”，即B。
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