6.The future of written English will owe more to Hollywood films than Dickens or Shakespeare,if the findings of a study into children's writing are anything to go by.Researchers who looked at the entries to a national competition found they were increasingly using American words such as garbage,trash can,sidewalk,candy,sneakers,soda,and flashlight.
The stories,written by pupils aged 7to 13,show how fairy cakes are referred to as cupcakes and a dinner jacket has become a tuxedo."Smart"is now often used for"clever"and"cranky"for"irritable".
Television also has a powerful influence on children's work,with Lady Gaga and Argentinean footballer Lionel Messi among the famous names from TV cropping up repeatedly.
But pupils are let down by basic spelling,punctuation and grammar,according to the study by Oxford University Press (OUP),which looked at the entries to BBC Radio Two's"500Words"competition.
Children struggled to correctly spell simple words such as"does"and"clothes"and often failed to use the past tense correctly,frequently writing"rised"instead of"rose"or"thinked"instead of"thought".
Researchers also found that punctuation was underused,especially semi-colons and speech marks.Some did not know how to use capital letters.However,exclamation marks were overused.Researchers found 35,171examples in total,with some young writers using five at a time!
Popular US fiction such as the Twilight novels and films is thought to be fueling the increasing use of American vocabulary and spelling.Meanwhile,fears that texting was corrupting children's written work were unfounded,they said,with youngsters only using text language when they were referring to a text message.
Samantha Armstrong from OUP said:"Perhaps we are catching a glimpse of the language of the future."Chris Evans,whose radio show runs the competition,said the results were"fascinating",adding:"Who'd have thought that Messi and Gaga would be some of the most used names?"
26.According to the passage,which of the following is an example of British English?B
A.sneakers B.fairy cakes C.tuxedo D.cranky
27.Which of the following was NOT frequently found in the pupils'stories?A
A.Text message language.
B.A variety of Americanisms.
C.Overuse of exclamation marks.
D.Names of famous TV stars.
28.What can we infer from the passage?B
A.Lionel Messi is now the most famous footballer in Britain.
B.American movies and books are increasingly popular in Britain.
C.The national writing competition is organised by Oxford University Press.
D.Written English is more influenced by classical literature than popular US culture.
29.The underlined phrase"unfounded"in Paragraph 7probably meansD.
A.unbearable B.unnoticeable C.not found D.not based on facts
30.The passage is intended toC.
A.show that British children have spellings and grammar abilities
B.share the experience about how to teach written English in a correct way
C.discuss the noticeable changes and evolution of written English in Britain
D.criticize the influence of popular US culture on British children's language use.
分析 本文屬于說(shuō)明文閱讀,作者通過(guò)這篇文章主要向我們描述了英國(guó)書(shū)面英語(yǔ)的明顯變化并分析了其演變過(guò)程.
解答 26.B.細(xì)節(jié)理解題.根據(jù)第一段最后一句和第二段內(nèi)容可知,sneakers,tuxedo和candy是美式英語(yǔ)詞匯;fairy cakes在美式英語(yǔ)中是cupcakes故選B項(xiàng).
27.A.細(xì)節(jié)理解題.根據(jù)第七段中"Meanwhile,fears that texting was corrupting children's written work were un?founded,they said,with youngsters only using text lan?guage when they were referring to a text message."可知,短信中的語(yǔ)言沒(méi)有在學(xué)生的故事中發(fā)現(xiàn).故選A項(xiàng).
28.B.推理判斷題.根據(jù)文章第一段的句子"The future of written English will owe more to Hollywood films than Dickens or Shakespeare,if the findings of a study into children's writing are anything to go by."可知美國(guó)電影和書(shū)在英國(guó)越來(lái)越受歡迎.故選B.
29.D.詞義猜測(cè)題.根據(jù)"…they said,with youngsters on?ly using text language when they were referring to a text message."可知unfounded意為"沒(méi)有根據(jù)的".故選D項(xiàng).
30.C.寫(xiě)作意圖題.全文討論了英國(guó)書(shū)面英語(yǔ)的明顯變化并分析了其演變過(guò)程.故選C項(xiàng).
點(diǎn)評(píng) 考察學(xué)生的細(xì)節(jié)理解和推理判斷能力,做細(xì)節(jié)理解題時(shí)一定要找到文章中的原句,和題干進(jìn)行比較,再做出正確的選擇.在做推理判斷題不要以個(gè)人的主觀想象代替文章的事實(shí),要根據(jù)文章事實(shí)進(jìn)行合乎邏輯的推理判斷.