首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
(1)It was said by Sir George Bernard Shaw that "England and America are two countries separated by the same language." My first
(1)It was said by Sir George Bernard Shaw that "England and America are two countries separated by the same language." My first
admin
2019-01-22
47
问题
(1)It was said by Sir George Bernard Shaw that "England and America are two countries separated by the same language." My first personal experience of this was when I worked as a camp counselor for two months in 1993 in Summer Camp run by the Boy Scouts of America, as part of an international leader exchange scheme. Before I went, all the participants in the scheme were given a short list of words that are in common use in the UK which Americans would either be confused by or would even offend them. I memorized the words and thought "I’ll cope".
(2)When*" I finally arrived in the States three months later, I realized that perhaps a lifetime of watching American television was not adequate preparation for appreciating and coping with the differences between American and British speech. In the first hour of arriving at the camp I was exposed to High School American English, Black American English and American English spoken by Joe Public, all very different to each other. Needless to say, I did cope in the end. The Americans I met were very welcoming and helpful, and I found they were patient with me when I made a social faux pas when I used an inappropriate word or phrase.
(3)Upon my return I began to wonder whether anyone had documented the differences between American and British English. I found several books on the subject but often these were written in a dry and a-cademic way. I felt that I could do better and use my sense of humor and personal experiences to help people from both sides of Atlantic to communicate more effectively when they meet.
(4)My research into the subject led me to several conclusions.
(5)Firstly, American English and 6ritish English are converging thanks to increased transatlantic travel and the media. The movement of slang words is mostly eastwards, though a few words from the UK have been adopted by the Ivy League fraternities. This convergent trend is a recent one dating from the emergence of Hollywood as the predominant film making center in the world and also from the Second World War when large numbers of American GIs were stationed in the UK. This trend was consolidated by the advent of television. Before then, it was thought that American English and British English would diverge as the two languages evolved and absorbed words brought to their respective countries by immigrants and their colonies.
(6)In 1789, Noah Webster, in whose name American dictionaries are still published in to this day, stated that: "Numerous local causes, such as a new country, new associations of people, new combinations of ideas in the arts and some intercourse with tribes wholly unknown in Europe will introduce new words into the American tongue." He was right, but his next statement has since been proved to be incorrect. "These causes will produce in the course of time a language in North America as different from the future language of England as the modern Dutch, Danish and Swedish are from the German or from one another."
(7)Webster had underrated the amount of social intercourse between England and her former colony. Even before Webster had started to compile his dictionary, words and expressions from the America had already infiltrated the British language, for example "canoe" and "hatchet". Very few people in Britain realise how many of the words they use are of American origin. Often this importation of American words has encountered a linguistic snobbery by the British, which was a manifestation of the cultural snobbery that bedevilled Anglo-American relationships for a long time. This is not, thankfully, the case now.
(8)Secondly, there are some generalizations that can be made about American and British English which can reveal the nature of the two nations and their peoples. British speech tends to be less general, and directed more, in nuances of meaning, at a sub group of the population. This can become a kind of code, in which few words are spoken because each, along with its attendant murmurings and pauses, carries a wealth of shared assumptions and attitudes. In other words, the British are preoccupied with their social status within society and speak and act accordingly to fit into the social class they aspire to. This is particularly evident when talking to someone from "the middle class" when he points out that he is "upper middle class" rather than "middle class" or "lower middle class". John Major (the former UK Prime Minister)may have said that we are now living in a "classless society" but the class system still prevails. At that moment both he and the Leader of the Opposition were talking about capturing the "middle England", "middle class vote" as the key to winning the next general election.
(9)American speech tends to be influenced by the over-heated language of much of the media, which is designed to attach an impression of exciting activity to passive, if sometimes insignificant events. Yet, curiously, really violent activity and life-changing events are hidden in blind antiseptic tones that serve to disguise the reality. Two examples come readily to mind—the US Military with their "friendly fire" and "collateral damages" and the business world with their "downsizing". British people tend to understatement whereas Americans towards hyperbole. A Briton might respond to a suggestion with a word such as "Terrific! " only if he is expressing rapturous enthusiasm, whereas an American might use the word merely to signify polite assent.
(10)Thirdly, The American language has less regard than the British for grammatical form, and will happily bulldoze its way across distinctions rather than steer a path between them. American English will casually use one form of a word for another, for example turning nouns into verbs or verbs and nouns into adjectives. In Britain, a disrespect for grammatical rules, particularly amongst the middle classes, would immediately reveal you to be "not one of us". Listening to listener feedback programmes on Radio 4 (one of the radio stations run by BBC)would reveal this. People actually write into complain about grammatical mistakes made by news presenters!
The following contribute to the convergent trend of American English and British English EXCEPT_____.
选项
A、more international travel between the two countries
B、the emergence of Hollywood as a film making center
C、the advent of television
D、the individual evolution of the two languages
答案
D
解析
选项A与第5段第1句提到的“更多的跨洋旅游”表述一致;选项B在该段第3句直接提及:选项C在第4句直接提及;选项D说“两种语言的各自发展”与文中说的“美语和英语将随着两种语言的演化发展而加大差异(would diverge as the two languages evolved)”一致,但这是过去被认为的趋势,实际则不同,因此选D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/ZWEK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Americansfinditdifficulttoengageinanyactivityforpurepleasure.Wehavetohaveahigheraim—apurpose—foreverymome
Americansfinditdifficulttoengageinanyactivityforpurepleasure.Wehavetohaveahigheraim—apurpose—foreverymome
Americansfinditdifficulttoengageinanyactivityforpurepleasure.Wehavetohaveahigheraim—apurpose—foreverymome
Americansfinditdifficulttoengageinanyactivityforpurepleasure.Wehavetohaveahigheraim—apurpose—foreverymome
ThefoundingoftheBostonLibraryin1653demonstratetheearlyNorthAmericancolonists’interestinbooksandlibraries.
TheabilitytomovetofindnewworkhaslongbeenacornerstoneoftheAmericanDream.Thereisgrowingconcernthatbeingst
TheabilitytomovetofindnewworkhaslongbeenacornerstoneoftheAmericanDream.Thereisgrowingconcernthatbeingst
随机试题
A.肌球蛋白B.肌动蛋白C.肌钙蛋白D.原肌球蛋白骨骼肌收缩过程中作为钙受体的蛋白是
下述属于神经症性的心理防御方法为
女性,30岁。2天来进行性双下肢瘫痪。大小便障碍,体温正常。胸4水平以下深、浅感觉丧失和截瘫。脑脊液检查压力正常。白细胞80×106/L(80个/mm3)。淋巴细胞占80%,蛋白轻度增高。最可能的诊断为
李小姐,28岁,因高热、腰痛、尿频、尿急来院门诊,诊断为急性肾盂肾炎。门诊给李小姐做尿常规检查,其结果最可能是
法官有下列哪种情形的,予以辞退?
对城乡规划实施进行(),是修改城乡规划的前置条件。
关于仲裁裁决撤销的说法,正确的是()。
()是影响高负债经营的商业银行稳定性的直接因素。
阅读下列材料,完成(1)~(2)题。材料一“厄尔尼诺”是指在赤道太平洋东部的大面积海域,出现呈2-7年周期性的海水温度异常增高的现象。“厄尔尼诺”影响范围广、危害大,在全世界范围内造成巨大的经济损失。材料二下图是“厄尔尼诺”年份海水温度距平等值线图(单
C语言中的标识符分为关键字、预定义标识符和用户标识符,以下叙述正确的是
最新回复
(
0
)