题目

英语专业四级09年真题中的一个选择题,关于slack和low的用法.
Winter is the___ season at most hotels in this seaside town,because very fw tourists come to stay.
A slow B slack C low D quiet
B选项和C选项之间的区别,

提问时间：2021-03-04

答案

当年我也纠结于此,曾经研究过,但后来不了了之.但我还是过了四级,良好.这就是应试教育.
我现在重新看这个题,首先,觉得ABC都说得过去.
slow：not busy,exciting or full of activities（麦克米伦词典）；if business is slow,there are not many customers or not much is sold（朗文词典）；not very busy,containing little action（牛津高阶）
slack：（of business）not having many customers or sales,not busy（牛津）；with less business activity than usual（SYN slow）（朗文直接把slow 和 slack 在这个意义上作为同义词）；not as busy or successful as usual in business（麦克米伦）
low season：在任何一个词典中,low season 都是作为一个固定词组,意思是
the time of year when a place or business is least busy, for example because there are not many tourists.（麦克米伦）；BrE the time of year when fewer people are on holiday and there is less business for hotels etc, and prices are usually lower than norm（朗文）；especially BrE. the time of year when a hotel or tourist area receives fewest visitors（牛津高阶）,而且,毫无例外,在解释时都特别提到是旅游业或者酒店业.
这样看来,如果非要找一个标准答案,我觉得 C 更好,因为题干已经提到了酒店和旅游.我觉得出题人的意图也是想考查这个 low season 在旅游业和酒店业中的意思.而且slow 和 slack 几乎同义,根据英语选择题技巧,两个同义的选项,那就都要排除.（呵呵）.
我觉得这个题目挺失败的,我看到一个英语论坛,不知道也是楼主问的,同样的问题,很多外国人觉得所有的选项读起来对他们来说都挺顺嘴的,都能接受而且能理解句子想表达什么意思.哎,语言不就是用来传递思想,互相沟通的吗?干嘛非得死扣考点语法各种呢.
以上拙见,献丑了.