A
There is an old saying that America and Britain are “two nations divided by a common language.” No one knows exactly who said this, but it reflects the way many Brits feel about American English. But are American and British English really so different?
Vocabulary
The most obvious difference between American and British English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different. For example, Americans go on vacation while Brits go on holidays; New Yorkers live in apartments while Londoners live in flats. There are far more examples than we can talk about here. Fortunately, most Americans and Brits can usually guess the meaning through the context of a sentence.
Past Tense Verbs
You’ll also find some differences with past forms of irregular verbs. The past tense of “learn” in American English is “learned”. British English has the option(选择) of “learned” or “learnt”. The same rule applies to “dreamed” and “dreamt”, “burned” and “burnt”, and “leaned” and “leant”. Americans tend to use the -ed ending; Brits tend to use the-t ending.
Spelling
There are hundreds of slight spelling differences between British and American English. Noah Webster, an author, politician and teacher, made an effort to reform English spelling in the late 1700s.
Webster wanted to spell words the way they sounded. You can see Webster’s legacy(遗产) in the American spelling of words like color (from colour), honor (from honour), and labor(from labour).
Not So Different After All
British and American English have far more similarities than differences. With the exception of some regional dialects, most Brits and Americans can understand each other without too much difficulty. They watch each other’s TV shows, sing each other’s songs and read each other’s books. They even make fun of each others’ accents.
1. Which of the following is a group of American words?
A. Vacation; holiday. B. Apartment; flat.
C. Vacation; apartment. D. Holiday; flat.
2. What do we know about British and American English from the last paragraph?
A. They both have some strange words.
B. They are affecting people using them.
C. They connect people of the two countries.
D. Their differences have little effect on communication.
3. What can be the best title for the text?
A. Ways to tell British English from American English
B. Differences between British and American English
C. Development of British and American English
D. Difficulty for Brits and Americans to understand each other
【答案】1. C 2. D 3. B
【解析】
【分析】
本文是一篇说明文。文章主要从词汇，过去时态，拼写三方面介绍了美式英语和英式英语的不同，并且还说明美式英语和英式英语也有很多相似之处。
【1题详解】
细节理解题。根据文章第二段“For example, Americans go on vacation while Brits go on holidays; New Yorkers live in apartments while Londoners live in flats.” 例如，美国人度假用vacation而英国人度假用holidays；纽约人住公寓用apartments，而伦敦人住公寓用flats。可知vacation和apartment都是美国人用的词汇，故选C。
【2题详解】
细节理解题。根据文章最后一段“British and American English have far more similarities than differences. With the exception of some regional dialects, most Brits and Americans can understand each other without too much difficulty. They watch each other’s TV shows, sing each other’s songs and read each other’s books. They even make fun of each other’s’ accents.”可知， 英式英语和美式英语的相似之处远远多于不同点。除了一些地方方言外，大多数英国人和美国人能毫不费力地听懂对方的话。他们看彼此的电视节目，唱彼此的歌，读彼此的书。他们甚至拿彼此的口音开玩笑。由此可知，英式英语和美式英语有很多相似之处，除了一些方言，两国人沟通是没有障碍的，故选D。
【3题详解】
主旨大意题。根据文章第一段“But are American and British English really so different?” 但是美式英语和英式英语真的有那么大的不同吗? 以及下文三段从词汇，过去时态和拼写三方面不同。可知文章的主题就是介绍美式英语和英式英语的不同。B项“英式英语和美式英语的不同之处”可作为本文最佳标题。故选B。
【点睛】标题猜测题。主旨大意题的一种，标题应位于文章之首，概括文章内容，点明文章主题。它可以是单词，短语，或句子。确定文章标题，第一，标题要与主题密切相关；其次，看标题是否能概括全文内容，不能只概括短文中的某些事实或细节；第三，标题范围不应太大或太小；最后，标题应新颖，概括性强并且精炼。小题3中B选项概括文中主旨大意，与主题密切相关，故选B项。
