The world is filled with many interesting places. A map helps us find them. Any place you need to find—a street address, business, famous landmark or park—is most likely on a map, which brings us to our expression: all over the map! We use this expression in several different ways.

The first way means to be spread out over a great distance. For example, years ago I drove across the country by myself. I was ①all over the map on that trip—through mountains, deserts, forests, and more. All over the map can also mean having many different kinds of something. For example, if a restaurant offers a variety of dishes from many different countries, you can say its menu is ②all over the map. Here is another example. Shanghai is a very international city. People from ③all over the map live and work together in Shanghai.

We also use the expression all over the map to mean confused or unfocused. If thinking, speaking, or planning is unorganized, we can describe it as all over the map. This expression can also describe a person. If someone is all over the map, they could be having a hard time focusing on one thing. Here’s an example. My coworker Karen led a very confusing meeting. First she talked about plans to move the company overseas. Then she switched to sales estimates(估计) for the next season and later, budget cuts. Her presentation was ④all over the map! Nobody had a clear understanding of the project.

Another project I worked on was set up to fail. The directions the designer gave to the team were all over the map. The builders did not even know where to start digging!

And that brings us to the end of this Words and Their Stories. I hope our expression was clearly explained. This is not time to be all over the map!

1.How many meanings of “all over the map” are mentioned in Paragraph 2?

A Two.

B Three.

C Four.

D Five.

解析：选A。A细节理解题。第二段中提及“all over the map”的两个含义：第一个表示“to be spread out over a great distance”并列举了一个例子；第二个含义为“having many different kinds of something”，并列举了②③两个例子。故选A。

2.Which of the following example has the same meaning with the underlined part?

A Example ①.

B Example ②.

C Example ③.

D Example ④.

解析：选D。D词义猜测题。根据划线部分后文“The builders did not even know where to start digging!”可知，划线的“all over the map”表示的是“混乱的，让人疑惑的”，与例④的含义相同。故选D。

3.What can we know from the passage?

A All the interesting places can be found on a map.

B “All over the map” can be used to describe good and bad.

C We can’t use “all over the map” when talking about people.

D The development of “all over the map” is discussed in the text.

解析：选B。B推理判断题。根据全文可知，文章主要讲解了短语“all over the map”的几个含义，从其含义可以看出，既有褒义也有贬义。故选B。

4.Where is this text most likely from?

A A diary.

B A guidebook.

C A magazine.

D A novel.

解析：选C。C推理判断题。根据全文内容可知，文章主要讲解了短语“all over the map”的几个含义，属于语言学习知识，故本文最有可能来自关于语言学习的杂志。故选C。