What makes a word real？Who has the power to make those kinds of official decisions about words？Those are the questions many people have in mind.When most people say a word isn't real，what they mean is that it doesn't appear in a dictionary.That，of course，raises some other questions，including，who writes dictionaries？
   Now，dictionaries are good resources，but they are changeable.If you ask dictionary editors，what they'll tell you is that they're just trying to keep up with people as people change the language.They're watching what people say and what people write and trying to figure out what's going to stick and what's not going to stick.
   Every January，dictionary editors go to the American Dialect Society Meeting every year，where among other things，they decide on the word of the year.There are about 200 or 300 people who come.Some of them are the best known linguists（语言学家） in the United States.In the past，some of the winners have been "staycation" to describe a vacation spent at home and "tweet" to describe a post made on the social networking service Twitter.
   So how does a word get into a dictionary？It gets in because people use it and people keep using it，and dictionary editors are paying attention to people.If a community of speakers is using a word and knows what it means，it's real.That word might be informal and that word might be a word that you think is illogical（不合逻辑的） or unnecessary，but as long as people are using the word，it is real.I hope that what you can do is to find language change not annoying but fun and interesting，just the way dictionary editors do.I hope you can enjoy being part of the creativity that is continually remaking our language and keeping it alive.

（1）Why do dictionaries change over time？
A．Speakers keep changing language.
B．Linguists often make up new words.
C．Dictionary editors change every year.
D．Words in the dictionary are out of date.
（2）Who has the right to decide the word of the year？
A．New words inventors.
B．American Officials.
C．Dictionary editors.
D．Famous linguists.
（3）What does the underlined word "staycation" mean in paragraph 3？
A．Taking a holiday while working.
B．Working online at home.
C．Staying at home for the moment.
D．Going on a vacation at home.
（4）What is the author's attitude towards language changing？
A．Worried.
B．Positive.
C．Uninterested.
D．Confused.

【考点】学习；议论文．

【答案】A；C；D；B