A linguist, an expert on languages, is always listening, never off-duty.I invited a group of friends round to my house, telling them that I was going to record their speech.I said I was interested in their regional accents, and that it would take just a few minutes.Thus, one evening, three people came to my house and were shown into my front room.In front of each chair there was a microphone at head height, connected to a recorder in the middle of the floor.They sat down, rather nervously, and I explained that all I wanted was for them to count from one to twenty.Then we could relax and have a drink.
I turned on the recorder and each in turn counted from one to twenty in their best accents.When it was over, I turned the recorder off and brought round the drinks.I joined them in talking and joking freely.Then I left them for a telephone call which lasted some time.The rest of the evening seemed to be spent in total relaxation.
Or at least that is how it would appear, for, of course, the microphones were not connected to the recorder in the middle of the room at all but to another one in the bedroom.My friends, having seen the recorder before them turned off, paid no more attention to the microphones a few inches from their mouths, thus giving excellent sound quality.
I should add, perhaps, that I did tell my friends what had happened to them, after the recording was over, and asked them whether it should be destroyed.None of them wanted to-but for some years after that, it always seemed that when it came to buying drinks, it was I who paid for them.Linguistic research can be a very expensive business.
(1)
The writer asked his friends to count from one to twenty because he _________.
[ ]
A.
wanted to record how they pronounced numbers in their own regional accents
B.
had to check if his recorder was working
C.
wanted them to believe that was all he would record
D.
wanted to discover who had the best pronunciation
(2)
The writer left them in the middle of the evening because _________.
[ ]
A.
he had to make a phone call
B.
the phone rang in the bedroom
C.
he wanted the others to have a talk without him
D.
he liked to stay with them and didn't stop talking until the phone bell rang
(3)
The writer managed to get as _________ a piece of talk as it would be possible to find.
[ ]
A.
natural
B.
clear
C.
excellent
D.
expensive
(4)
The last sentence of the passage shows _________.
[ ]
A.
you will pay much money if you want to do some linguistic research work
B.
his friends always made him buy them drinks in return