题目内容
cough","enough","ought" and "thorough".
The American President Theodore Roosevelt almost succeeded in simplifying English spelling.In 1906,Andrew Carnegie started the Simplified Spelling Board.He was one of the richest men in the United States of America.The board's plan was to make the spelling of words nearer to the way they sound.For
example,the word "though" would be spelt "tho" and "through" would become "thru".Other people on the board were Melvil Dewey,the head of the New York libraries,and Professor Brander Matthews of
Columbia University.They explained their idea to President Roosevelt,who thought that it was indeed
logical.He immediately asked the government printer to use simplified spelling in all government letters.
But people didn't like the change,even if it made life easier.So the new simpler spelling was not popular.
More importantly,when the American politicians (政客) discussed the plan,they did not like it either.
Because Roosevelt did not want to have any problems with the politicians,he changed his mind and told the printer to go back to the old way of spelling.
Since then no one in any government has dared to simplify English spelling.However,people do simplify some words,mainly in advertisements.For example,we often see "tonite" instead of "tonight" and "thru"
instead of "through".
B. there are many mistakes in English words
C. lots of words are spelt in many different ways
D. sometimes the same sounds have different spellings
B. Melvil Dewey.
C. Theodore Roosevelt.
D. Brander Matthews.
B. Supportive.
C. Uncertain.
D. Doubtful.
B. changed the way the words sound
C. has been used widely for over a century
D. was first used in US government letters
B. proved quite successful
C. won wide support
D. influenced English greatly
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