Originally, both the British and the American spoke with a rhotic accent. Rhotic essentially means an accent where the letter “r” is pronounced strongly after a vowel (元音). Rhotic accents are strong in both the US and Scotland, but seem to have disappeared from British English and its derivatives, such as Australian English and New Zealand English.

The major American accent –– the typical accent of the mid-western US –– is rhotic, and British English is, as a rule, non-rhotic. Specifically, US speakers pronounce every “r”, wherever they appear in a word. Most British speakers (and you will note that there are some British Isle accents that are strongly rhotic, like US) do not pronounce every “r”. Americans stress the “r” at the end of words such as “teacher” or “neighbour”, but in many non-rhotic British accents it is more of a “schwa” (an unstressed sound) so it comes out as, “teacha” (unstressed) or “neighba”.

This main difference also differs across the country of origin. For example, the US has a clear difference in the accents between people of the north and south, not to mention less clear differences across the states. Similarly, British people have a different accent according to their locality. The “cockney (伦敦东区)” accent is greatly different to the middle and upper class accents.

Another common difference appears to be that Americans pronounce words such as “herbal” without the “h”. Syllables (音节) may be stressed differently, too. “Oregano” in the US tends to be pronounced “o–reg–a–no” while in British English it is more likely to be “o–reg–AH–no”.

【小题1】When a rhotic accent occurs, ______.

A. the letter “r” is silent in any positions         B. the letter “r” is sounded after a vowel

C. the ending syllable of a word is stressed      D. the ending syllable of a word is unheard

【小题2】The underlined word “derivatives” in the first paragraph probably means “_____”.

A. neighbours                      B. ancestors           C. symbols                   D. branches

【小题3】In non-rhotic British accents, ______.

A. “bother” sounds the same as “buther”                 B. “cheaper” sounds the same as “chapter”

C. “worker” sounds the same as “worka”                D. “painting” sounds the same as “paintin”

【小题4】Even in the original country of the specific English language, accents differ ____.

A. from area to area                                        B. from person to person

C. from word to word                                    D. from stress to stress

【小题5】American people trend to pronounce words like “herbal” with the “h” ______.

A. stressed                          B. silent                                                           C. changed                 D. loud

单词拼写

1.The progress of the work will depend on how modern the e____________ (设备) is.

2.We e____________ (交换) addresses and phone numbers at the party held on Sunday.

3.Our bodies are strengthened by taking exercise. S____________ (类似地), our minds are developed by learning.

4.There is nothing like a holiday to make us feel r____________ (放松的). 

5.Radio-paging systems (无线寻呼系统) enable us to c____________ (联络) each other even though we do not have a telephone within easy reach.

6.He will make a speech on behalf of (代表) all the graduates at the graduation c ____________ next Monday.

7. Parts of trees and bushes came falling down around us, but it was f____________ that nobody was hurt.

8.According to the timetable, the airplane will cover the d____________ from Beijing to Shanghai in an hour and a half.

9.After the written test and interview, Jackson came to the c____________ that Mr. Li was not fit for the position.

10.Our math teacher is very s____________ not only with all of us, but in all her own work.

根据以下各句所给的首字母或汉语提示，用单词的正确形式填空，并将其写在答题卷上。

It was quite terrible. It took me some time to c___________ down myself.

Parents are always c_____________ much about their children.

I'm terribly sorry. I didn't do it on p__________.

It took her a long while to r___________ from her heart operation.

The children played ____________ (在户外)until it started to rain.

After the war, a new g_______________ was set up for that country.

The people p__________ at the meeting were all for the suggestion.

The ball went in the d_______________ of the man sitting in a boat on the river.

At the party a foreign teacher was r______________(要求) to sing some folk songs.

He was a young sailor on his first sea v______________.

The mother i_________ that he finish his homework first, which made his son very angry.

Whether you will succeed or not in doing the work depends on your a________ to it.

This song sounds f_____________ to me. I must have heard it sung somewhere before.

She ________________ (毕业)from Peking University last year.

The speech contest was o______________ well.

When she heard the news that her husband was killed in the accident, she b_______ into tears.

After the earthquake, the whole city was in r_________.

J_______ from his accent, we know he comes from the west.

Prices have _____________ (上涨) quickly.

The building was completely ______________(摧毁) by fire.

第一节：单词拼写(每小题1分，满分10分)

1.The car was so badly damaged that it couldn’t be repaired and had to be _____(放弃) as a total loss.

2.One’s appearance is not _______ (有关的) to whether he can do things well.

3.We believe that young children should never ________(反驳) what their parents say.

4.My first two shots missed the ______(靶).

5.There is no _______ （通路）to the street through that door.

6.Lily, could you r______ me a latest movie which is popular among your people?

7.I have a______ myself to the new work environment.

8.The new employees were presented to the rest of the s______ at the company’s meeting.

9.Terry was chosen by our class to p_______ in the sports meeting in the school.

10.The new discovery is b_____ to be of great benefit to humans,” the researcher said confidently.

Can you understand the beginning of this article?
“My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we usd 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & 3 kds FTF.”
The Scottish teacher who received it in class had no idea what the girl who wrote it meant. The essay was written in a form of English used in cell phone text messages. Text messages (also called SMS2) through cell phones became very popular in the late 1990s. At first, mobile phone companies thought that text messaging would be a good way to send messages to customers, but customers quickly began to use the text messaging service to send messages to each other. Teenagers in particular enjoyed using text messaging, and they began to create a new language for messages called texting.
A text message is limited to 160 characters, including letters, spaces, and numbers, so messages must be kept short. In addition, typing on the small keypad of a cell phone is difficult, so it’s common to make words shorter. In texting, a single letter or number can represent a word, like “r” for “are,” “u” for “you,” and “2” for “to.” Several letters can also represent a phrase, like “lol” for “laughing out loud.” Another characteristic of texting is the leaving out of letters in a word, like spelling “please” as “pls.”
Some parents and teachers worry that texting will make children bad spellers and bad writers. The student who wrote the essay at the top of this page said writing that way was more comfortable for her. (The essay said, “My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend, and their three kids face to face.”)
Not everyone agrees that texting is a bad thing. Some experts say languages always evolve, and this is just another way for English to change. Other people believe texting will disappear soon. New technology for voice messages may soon make text messages a thing of the past.
【小题1】What is the writer’s opinion of text messaging?