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
The Rise of RP Historical reasons Received Pronunciation (RP) was originally associated with a ______【1】spoken in the region
The Rise of RP Historical reasons Received Pronunciation (RP) was originally associated with a ______【1】spoken in the region
admin
2010-03-25
71
问题
The Rise of RP
Historical reasons
Received Pronunciation (RP) was originally associated
with a ______【1】spoken in the region between central 【1】______
England and London, including Oxford and Cambridge.
Its survival was due to its use by the ______【2】 【2】______
in the 14th century and by university students in the
______【3】. 【3】______
Its rise in importance resulted from its application
in government and official documents.
The prestige of its ______【4】pattern of 【4】______
pronunciation came about with its use in ______【5】 【5】______
in the 19th century.
As a result, its ______【6】is accepted by 【6】______
television and the radio, the professions and teaching
English as a foreign language.
Three characteristics of RP
1) Its speakers don’t regard themselves as connected
with any geographical region;
2) RP is largely used in England;
3) RP is a "class" accent, associated with ______【7】 【7】______
social classes.
Its present status
Decline in the prestige of RP is the result of
a) loss of monopoly of education by the privileged;
b) ______【8】of higher education in the post-war 【8】______
period.
However, it still retains its eminence among
certain professional people.
There is a rise in the status of all ______【9】. 【9】______
We are moving towards the ______【10】position: 【10】______
general acceptance of all regional accents and absence of
a class accent that transcends all regions.
【8】
People in Britain speak English with different accents according to where they come from, what kind of social status they have, or what kind of education they’ve received, etc. Among the various accents there is one that has achieved a certain eminence. It’s called Received Pronunciation (RP). And this accent is also generally preferred for teaching English as a foreign language and for reading BBC news bulletins. Why is it so? Let’s take a look at how it evolved over the years, its features, its present status, etc.
Received Pronunciation (RP) had its historical origins in a dialect of English spoken particularly in the region stretching south-east from the Midlands, which is in the central part of England, down towards London, the capital city. The two historic university cities of Cambridge and Oxford, though Outside this region, are also considered as the place of origin for the dialect. The dialect survived because of its association with centres of power and influence. It was spoken by the merchant classes of London in the 14th century, for example, and would have been familiar to students attending the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the Middle Ages. Its status as an important dialect was enhanced by its use in government and official documents from about 1,430 onwards. More recently, its association since the 19th century with public schools helped to achieve special pre-eminence for its distinctive patterns of pronunciation. So we can see in the United Kingdom, at least, this accent is usually associated with a higher social or educational background, with the BBC and certain professions, and is most commonly taught to students learning English as a foreign language. For many such students it is the only accent they are prepared to learn, and a teacher who does not use it may have difficulty in finding a position as a teacher of English in certain non-English-speaking countries. Other names for this accent are the Queen’s English, Oxford English and BBC English. As the accent has lost its former regional affiliations, it is now the most widely understood and spoken of all the accents within the British Isles.
So, what are the most interesting characteristics of RP? Firstly, the relatively very small number of speakers who use it do not identify themselves as coming from any particular geographical region; secondly, RP is largely confined to England and there it is a non-localized accent; thirdly, RP is a "class" accent, in England, the higher the social class of a speaker, the less the regional accent, and also the use of local words and grammatical forms.
As we have seen, RP, a non-regional accent based on the speech of the great public schools, has been accepted as a standard inside England for well over a century. Increasingly, however, there has been a tendency for the accent of educated people in South-Eastern England to replace strict RP as the standard. RP has lost some of its prestige, as people educated at public schools have lost their monopoly of power and education. A considerable part has been played by the great post-war expansion of higher education. Today, the majority of university students are not speakers of RP. Most schoolteachers, too, do not use RP, but an educated regional accent.
This is not to say that RP has lost all its magic. It still has prestige, for example, in the financial and banking sectors, among senior government officials and officers of the armed forces. Moreover, since it has been so fully described, it is the accent usually taught to foreigners learning British English. But the public schools are no longer felt to have a monopoly of "correct speech", and the prestige of educated regional speech has risen enormously during the past half-century. Since an educated South-Eastern accent is fairly similar to RP, there is a tendency nowadays for this to be regarded as a standard. it is the accent used, for example, by many radio and television announcers and presenters. On the other hand, there has been a rise in the prestige of all regional accents in Britain. And it is probable that we are moving towards the American position, in which it is normal and acceptable for a speaker to use an educated regional accent, and there is no supra-regional class-accent.
选项
答案
expansion/popularity/growth
解析
同上。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/qXqO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Whybankruptyourselfinaso-calledoldpeople’shome?Tryahealthspa—itmightactuallybecheaper.SometimesIseeoldl
NextmonthalargegroupofBritishbusinesspeoplearegoingtoAmericaonaventurewhichmaygenerateexportearningsforthe
A、Theirlecturer-studentratioisnotreasonable.B、Theirstaffisnotinterestedinhelpingstudents.C、Theirlecturehallsar
A、Expertsinthemedicalfieldhavedoubledinthepastfiveyears.B、Bothhealthfoodandmedicalauthoritieshaverecommended
ManypeoplearesurprisedtolearnthatAntarcticaisnearlytwicethesizeoftheUnitedStates.ThenameAntarcticawascoined
Weholdcertainprofessionstoahigherstandardwhenitcomestothementalhealthoftheirworkers,andforgoodreason.Docto
Theterm"Americandream"wasfirstusedin【B1】______inanovelwrittenbyHoratioAlger:RaggedDick.Themessagewas:Nomatte
A、TheyprotectthevastwildernessregionsofAustraliaasawhole.B、Theyaremembersofthecountry’smostunusualmilitaryun
PartofthenewdesignistobeconcernedwiththefollowingEXCEPTAccordingtothepassage,thenewdesignworkinvolves
人类自有文化就有文化交流。人类文化从整体来说,是各国、各国民族文化汇聚,交流的产物。现代国际间的文化交流,更是以空前的规模、内容、形式和手段,在直接间接地进行着。当今的世界,既非丝绸之路时代,亦非马可波罗时代。从上海去东京,只需两个多小时,相当于从北京到杭
随机试题
与机遇失之交臂在当今世界彩色胶片市场上,有美国柯达和日本富士两家公司在争雄。富士公司自1984年取得“第23届奥运会专用胶卷”特权后,目前以更加咄咄逼人的态势,决心与柯达争夺世界上的每一个顾客,柯达的霸主地位受到严重的挑战。而在上世纪70年代,柯
抢救患者中护士进行的工作下列哪项不正确?()
通谋投标指投标者之间串通、故意抬高或压低标价以及投标者为排挤竞争者对手而与招标人相互勾结的行为,包括()。
关于小窑采空区,下列说法错误的是()。
建设工程采用工程总承包模式的优点有()。
某公司的资本结构保持30%的负债资本和70%的主权资本,明年计划增加资金500万元,本年实现净利润400万元,采用剩余股利分配政策,那么,应向投资者分配股利的数额为( )万元。
西湖龙井历来以色绿、香郁、味醇、形美“四绝”著称于世,以()水冲泡,号称杭州“双绝”。
页:册
根据以下资料,回答下列问题。某年度某机构关于中国宠物主人消费行为及倾向调查回收的10680份有效问卷显示:女性养宠者占58.1%,宠物主人为“80—90后”占79.5%。将宠物定义为“孩子”“亲人”“朋友”和“宠物”的分别为54.5%、33.4%
FDDI的基本编码方法是(30),在此基础上采用(31)编码以获得足够多的同步信息,这样可使编码效率提高到(32)。为了消除环网中的时钟偏移,FDDI使用了(33)方案,并规定进入站点缓冲器的数据时钟由输入信号的时钟确定,缓冲器的输出时钟信号由(34)确定
最新回复
(
0
)