题目内容
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 compe?tition found they were increasingly using American words such as garbage,trash can,sidewalk,candy,sneakers,soda,and flashlight.
The stories,written by pupils aged 7 to 13,show how fairy cakes are re?ferred to as cupcakes and a dinner jacket has become a tuxedo.
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,ac?cording to the study by Oxford University Press (OUP) , which looked at the entries to BBC Radio Two's 500 Words 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. How?ever,exclamation marks were overused. Researchers found 35 ,171 examples in total,with some young writers using five at a time !
Popular US fiction such as the Tvuilight 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 com?petition,said the results were "fascinating", adding, "Who'd have thought that Messi and Gaga would be some of the most used names?"
1. According to the passage,which of the following is an example of British English?
A. Sneakers. B. Fairy cakes.
C. Tuxedo. D. Candy.
2. Which of the following was NOT frequently found in the pupils' stories?
A. Text message language.
B. A variety of Americanisms.
C. Overuse of exclamation marks.
D. Names of famous TV stars.
3. The underlined word "unfounded" in Paragraph 7 probably means " ”.
A. unbearable B. unnoticeable
C. not found D. not based on facts
4. The passage is intended to .
A. show that British children have spelling 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 lan?guage use
1. B细节理解题。根据第一段最后一句和第二段内容可知,sneakers,tuxedo和candy是美式英语词汇;fairy cakes在美式英语中是cupcakes故选B项。
2. A细节理解题。根据第七段中"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,短信中的语言没有在学生的故事中发现。故选A项。
3. D词义猜测题。根据"...they said,with youngsters on?ly using text language when they were referring to a text message."可知unfounded意为"没有根据的"。故选D项。
4. C写作意图题。全文讨论了英国书面英语的明显变化并分析了其演变过程。故选C项。