In the 1930s, a lot of people in the USA were out of work. Among these people was a man named Alfred Butts. He always had an interest in word games and so, to fill his time, he planned a game which he called ‘Lexico’. However, he was not completely satisfied with the game, so he made a number of changes to it and, in time, changed its name from ‘Lexico’ to ‘Alph’ and then to ‘Criss Cross’. He wanted to make some money from his new ga
me but he didn't have any real commercial success.
In 1939, Butts happened to meet a man called Jim Brunot who showed an interest in the new game. The two men worked together on developing the game and in 1948 it was offered for sale in the United States under its new name —‘Scrabble’.
At first, it didn't sell very well. In the first year it sold just 2,250 sets and by 1951 it had only reached 8,500 sets a year.
Then, in 1952 the manager of Macy's department store in New York, Jack Strauss, happened to play ‘Scrabble’ while he was on holiday. He thought it was a wonderful game and, when he went back to work after his holiday, he insisted that Macy's should stock（储备）the game and make an effort to call the public's attention to it.
As a result, ‘scrabble’ became a big success in the United States
and it soon spread to Australia and then to other English-speaking countries.
小题1:The text is mainly about .
A．‘Lexico’
B．three men
C．a word game
D．Alfred Butts小题2:Alfred Butts invented the game ‘Lexico’ .
A．to make himself famous
B．to make spelling simpler
C．when he was out of work and looking for a job
D．when he was playing word games to pass the time小题3: Who made ‘Scrabble’ popular?
A．Alfred Butts.
B．Jack Strauss.
C．Alfred Butts and Jim Brunot.
D．Jack Strauss and Jim Brunot.小题4:When did Alfred Butts first put his game on the market?
A．In 1939.
B．In 1948.
C．Before 1939.
D．Between 1939 and 1948.
