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1、学习资料收集于网络，仅供学习和参考,如有侵权，请联系网站删除Module 1 British and American EnglishWords, words, wordsBritish and American English are different in many ways. The first and most obvious way is in the vocabulary. There are hundreds of different words which are not used on the other side of the Atlantic, or which are
2、 used with a different meaning. Some of these words are well-known Americans drive automobiles down freeways and fill up with gas; the British drive cars along motorways and fill up with petrol. As a tourist, you will need to used the underground in London or the subway in New York, or maybe you wil
3、l prefer to get around the town by taxi (British) or cab (American).British and AmericanChips or French fries?But other words and expressions are not so well known. Americans use a flashlight, while for the British, its a torch. The British queue up; Americans stand in line. Sometimes the same word
4、ahs a slightly different meaning, which can be confusing. Chips, for example, are pieces of hot fried potato in Britain; in the States chips are very thin and are sold in packets. The British call these crisps. The chips the British know and love are French fries on the other side of the Atlantic.Ha
5、ve or have got?There are a few differences in grammar, too. The British say Have you got? while Americans prefer Do you have? An American might say My friend just arrived, but a British person would say My friend has just arrived. Prepositions, too, can be different: compare on the team, on the week
6、end (American) with in the team, at the weekend (British). The British use prepositions where Americans sometimes omit them (Ill see you Monday; write me soon!)Colour or color?The other two areas in which the two varieties differ are spelling and pronunciation. American spelling seems simpler: cente
7、r, color and program instead of centre, colour and programme. Many factors have influenced American pronunciation since the first settlers arrived four hundred years ago. The accent, which is most similar to British English, can be heard on the East Coast of the US. When the Irish writer George Bern
8、ard Shaw made the famous remark that the British and the Americans are two nations divided by a common language, he was obviously thinking about the differences. But are they really so important? After all, there is probably as much variation of pronunciation within the two countries as between them
9、. A Londoner has more difficulty understanding a Scotsman from Glasgow than understanding a New Yorker.Turn on the TVSome experts believe that the two varieties are moving closer together. For more than a century communications across the Atlantic have developed steadily. Since the 1980s, with satel
10、lite TV and the Internet, it has been possible to listen to British and American English at the flick of a switch. This non-stop communication, the experts think, has made it easier for British people and Americans to understand each other. But it has also led to lots of American words and structure
11、s passing into British English, so that some people now believe that British English will disappear. However, if you turn on CNN, the American TV network, you find newsreaders and weather forecasters all speaking with different accents American, British, Australian, and even Spanish. One of the best
12、-known faces, Monita Rajpal, was born in Hong Kong, China, and grew up speaking Chinese and Punjabi, as well as English. This international dimension suggests that in the future, there are going to be many “Englishes”, not just two main varieties. But the messages is “Dont worry.” Users of English w
13、ill all be able to understand each other wherever they are.The Man Who Made Spelling SimpleIn English the spelling of words does not always represent the sound. So people say /rait/ but spell it right, or write, or even rite. Combinations of letters (like ough) may be pronounced in a number of ways.
14、 And some words just seem to have too many letters. For Americans things are a little bit easier, thanks to the work of Noah Webster, a teacher who graduated from Yale University in 1778. as a young man he had fought against the British in the American War of independence, and he felt that written E
15、nglish in the newly independent United States should have a distinctive “American” look. So he began his work on American English. His first book, the Elementary Spelling Book, suggested simplifying the spelling of English words. The book was extremely popular. By the 1850s it was selling one millio
16、n copies a year, making it one of the most popular school books ever. Many of the suggestions were quickly adopted. Center instead of centre, program instead of programme, and flavor instead of flavour. Others, however, such as removing silent letters like the s in island or the final e in examine, were not. Webster is best known for his American Dictionary of the English Language, which first appeared 1828. it introd
