diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
index 55d9fcb..082657a 100755
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
@@ -2145,6 +2145,7 @@ module ActiveRecord #:nodoc:
         if options.nil?
           attributes
         else
+          ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn "Passing options to Base#attributes is deprecated and will be removed in Rails 2.1. Please use Hash#slice or Hash#except instead"
           if except = options[:except]
             except = Array(except).collect { |attribute| attribute.to_s }
             except.each { |attribute_name| attributes.delete(attribute_name) }
diff --git a/activerecord/test/base_test.rb b/activerecord/test/base_test.rb
index b9fad39..9371d94 100755
--- a/activerecord/test/base_test.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/base_test.rb
@@ -1706,20 +1706,24 @@ class BasicsTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
   end
   
   def test_except_attributes
-    assert_equal(
-      %w( author_name type id approved replies_count bonus_time written_on content author_email_address parent_id last_read), 
-      topics(:first).attributes(:except => :title).keys
-    )
+    assert_deprecated do
+      assert_equal(
+        %w( author_name type id approved replies_count bonus_time written_on content author_email_address parent_id last_read), 
+        topics(:first).attributes(:except => :title).keys
+      )
 
-    assert_equal(
-      %w( replies_count bonus_time written_on content author_email_address parent_id last_read), 
-      topics(:first).attributes(:except => [ :title, :id, :type, :approved, :author_name ]).keys
-    )
+      assert_equal(
+        %w( replies_count bonus_time written_on content author_email_address parent_id last_read), 
+        topics(:first).attributes(:except => [ :title, :id, :type, :approved, :author_name ]).keys
+      )
+    end
   end
   
   def test_include_attributes
-    assert_equal(%w( title ), topics(:first).attributes(:only => :title).keys)
-    assert_equal(%w( title author_name type id approved ), topics(:first).attributes(:only => [ :title, :id, :type, :approved, :author_name ]).keys)
+    assert_deprecated do
+      assert_equal(%w( title ), topics(:first).attributes(:only => :title).keys)
+      assert_equal(%w( title author_name type id approved ), topics(:first).attributes(:only => [ :title, :id, :type, :approved, :author_name ]).keys)
+    end
   end
   
   def test_type_name_with_module_should_handle_beginning