Does your local town have a nickname (绰号)? If so, what does it say about the area and the people who live there?
Many cities are recognized across the world by their unofficial names. New York is the Big Apple, London is the Big Smoke, and Los Angeles is famously called La La Land.
A project has been carried out to make a survey on how the nicknames of some places came about. The University of Winchester’s Professor Bill Lucas is a patron (赞助者) of the English Project. He explains that unofficial place names often show what people think about a place.
“The name that people create for a place forms a connection with feelings,” he says.
Basingstoke is a town in central England. The local nickname, Amazingstoke, shows the love that locals seem to have for the area.
Swindon, on the other hand, is sometimes called Swindump, showing that some people think it’s a dump (垃圾场). Stanford Le Hope in Essex is called Stanford No Hope by locals. And Padstow in Cornwall is so closely connected with the local famous person Rick Stein that it’s become known as Padstein.
Some people say that the project may have a practical use. Glen Hart, the survey’s head of research, says the information could be very helpful to the emergency services, for example. “By having the most complete set of nicknames we could help the emergency services（应急服务机构）quickly locate the right place as soon as possible, for people usually remember the nicknames of some places instead of their official names. And this will take the helpers less time to reach the places.” he says.
25. The best title of the passage can be ________.
A. People’s Attitudes to Nicknames B. A Survey on Nicknames
C. Development of Nicknames D. Usefulness of Nicknames
26. The underlines word “locate” in the last paragraph probably means “________”.
A. search B. visit C. mark D. find
27. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
A. every famous place has a nickname
B. the town Swindon must be a clean place
C. sometimes nicknames can help save lives
D. Rick Stein nicknamed Padstow Padstein