Т.В. Артеменко, Е.В. Кривощекова, Е.В. Кравченко, Н.Е. Николаева - Reader in Language and Culture (1098538), страница 3
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Which tense is usually used in reported speech, present or past?2. Which area of Britain uses more swearwords, the north or the south?3. What is a 'wicked' ice-cream?4. What is a 'sad' shirt?5. Who says 'gorgeous' more frequently, men or women?6. Which is more frequently used in spoken English, 'can' or 'would'?7.
Is it more usual to say 'permit', 'let', or 'allow'?8. Which is more frequently used in spoken English, 'began' or'started'?Answers:1. Present tense.2. The South swears more.3. It is ‘very good’ ice-cream.4. Unfashionable.5. Women – 3 times more than men.6. ‘Would’ is twice as frequent as ‘can’.7.
‘Let’ 790 million, ‘allow’ 160 million, ‘permit’ 10 million.8. ‘Started’ 256 million, ‘began’ 18 million.1214Comprehension questions:1. Why was it decided to cover both spoken and written English in theBritish National Corpus (BNC) project? How was BNC collected?2. What were the unexpected facts discovered about spoken English?SLANGThe word 'slang' can mean several things. It can mean: the words and1expressions used by a particular group of people to show that they belong to thegroup; language that is not acceptable in official situations because it is oftentoo impolite, or too new; any new words, or new meanings of old words, thatpeople use in everyday conversation. Slang is colourful and often funny.
Thereare thousands of slang words and expressions in English, from all over theworld.Most slang changes quite quickly as the people using it get bored with it,2and as they need to create new words to keep puzzling outsiders. But someslang lasts longer: for example, bum has been used as an impolite word forbottom since the fourteenth century. Some slang used by one particular groupmay become part of general slang.
For example, in the twentieth century theword wimp moved from American teenage slang to general slang meaning aweak person. Slang can sometimes become part of Standard English. Forexample, row meaning disturbance was slang in Britain in the eighteenthcentury, but now is an acceptable word. Other slang words change in meaningover time. For example, in American English previous meant arriving too soonin the 1900s; in 1920 it meant tight (of clothes) and now it means a bit rude.Slang is a very inventive part of language: new words are alwaysappearing and disappearing. Some words are used only by the small groups thatcreated them, others become part of national or international slang, and otherscross into everyday spoken language. In this way, slang is an important source315of new words in Standard English.Comprehension questions:1.
What does the word ‘slang’ mean?2. Is it useful or necessary for foreigners to learn slang?MACHINE TRANSLATORSForeign-language translation may prove to be just a bit more than1computer can handle. From the Tower of Babel on there have been countlessexamples of man's inability to understand man. What hope is there then for amachine to understand man, or even another machine? Machine translatorswould be an enormous boon, especially to science and technology. A machinetranslator would obviously be a great aid.In the 80s a machine was developed that can optically scan the written2characters and print out the translation. It has a program that translates Chineseinto English and English into Chinese. At a press demonstration the programmer asked for a phrase to translate and a reporter said: "Out of sight, out ofmind." The phrase was dutifully fed into the computer, which replied byprinting out a string of Chinese characters.
"There," said the programmer, "thatmeans 'out of sight, out of mind'."The reporter was sceptical. "I don't know Chinese and I don't know that3that means 'out of sight, out of mind'.""Well," replied the engineer, "it's really' quite simple. We'll ask the other4program to translate the Chinese into English."And so once again a string of characters, this time Chinese, was fed into5the computer. The translation was typed out almost immediately and it read:"invisible idiot”.In order to make communication between man and machine as painless616and easy as possible, the computer is being taught not only to speak but also tolisten.
The Autonctics Corporation has built a system completed with audioanalysers and all of the complex electronics needed to give a computer "cars"that will actually hear the words spoken into its microphone. The vocabulary isstill limited.During a demonstration, the engineer spoke slowly and distinctly a7handful of the computer's words, and the latter dutifully typed them back. Buton one word it failed. While counting "one, two, three," the computer typedback, "one, two, four." Whereupon the demonstrator snapped "idiot," and thecomputer, in a veritable machine version of British aplomb, calmly replied,"Not in vocabulary."Comprehension questions:1.What is your experience in using machine translators? Have theyimproved since the time the text was written?2.Do you think foreign-language translation with the help of a computeris possible or adequate?ON ENGLISH PRONUNCIATIONWithin the complex pattern of regional and social accents, most ofus have a feeling that there is some good or correct pronunciation ofEnglish, without markedly regional or social connotations.
Many wouldsay that the BBC announcers have such a neutral pronunciation. TheBBC encourage this type of pronunciation in its national serviceannouncers mainly because it is widely intelligible - in a way that aregional accent such as that of Scotland or the West country might not be- and also because it does not generally excite in the minds of listenersthe strong prejudices associated with other, more local, accents.
But it is117not an invention of the BBC, even though it is often referred to as BBCEnglish. It is a style of pronunciation which had currency and acceptancein this country for a long time; yet it cannot be said to be a standard inthe sense that it has been consciously accepted as such or has had itsfeatures defined by an official body. Nor can it be called simply educatedor cultured English pronunciation, since many highly educated people donot use it - and nor all of those who use it give evidence of any degree ofculture.
It has emerged as a somewhat vaguely accepted form of speechwithout narrowly prescribed limits, as a result of the interplay throughoutour history of many regional and social influences.There has always been in Britain, as in most other countries, agreat regional variety in speaking the common language. But, especially2in the last four centuries, one type of regional pronunciation has acquireda social prestige.
This prestige has been attached to the pronunciation ofthe South-East of England.Comprehension questions:1. What is characteristic of the most socially prestigious pronunciationin Great Britain?2. What are the common connotations of the adjectives “good” or“correct”, “educated” or “cultured” as applied to Englishpronunciation?From “SPOKEN ENGLISH AND BROKEN ENGLISH”by G.
B. ShawI am now going to address myself especially to my foreign hearers. If1you are learning English because you intend to travel in England and wish tobe understood there, do not try to speak English perfectly because, if you do,18no one will understand you.Though there is no such thing as perfectly correct English, thereis2presentable English, which we call "Good English," but in London ninehundred and ninety nine out of every thousand people not only speak badEnglish but speak even that very badly.
You may say that even if they do notspeak English well themselves they at least understand it when it is wellspoken. They can when the speaker is English; but when the speaker is aforeigner, the better he speaks, the harder it is to understand him. Noforeigner can ever stress the syllable and make the voice rise and fall inquestion and answer, assertion and denial, in refusal and consent, in enquiryor information exactly as a native does.
Therefore the first thing you have todo is to speak with a strong foreign accent, and speak broken English: that is,English without any grammar. Then every English person to whom you speakwill at once know that you are a foreigner, and try to understand and be politeand to use elaborate grammatical phrases. He will be interested in youbecause you are a foreigner, and pleased by his own cleverness in making outyour meaning and being able to tell you what you want to know.
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