第一册课本听力(上)Uint2 intergrating skills

AMERICAN ENGLISH AND BRITISH ENGLISH
Many students want to know about the differences between American English and British English. How did these differences come about? There is no quick answer to this question. At first the language in Britain and America was the same. In 1776 American became an independent country. After that, the language slowly began to change. For a long time the language in America stayed the same, while the language in England changed. For example, 300 years ago the English talked about " fall" . Today, most British people talk about " autumn" , but Americans still talk abut¹ " fall". In the same way Americans still use the expression "I guess" (meaning " I think"), just as the British did 300 years ago.
At the same time, British English and American English started borrowing words from other languages, ending up with different words. For example, the British took "typhoon²" from Chimese, while the Americans took "tornado³" from Spanish.
In 1828 Noah Webster published the first American dictionary. He wanted to make American English different from British English, so he changed the spelling of many words. That's why the words" colour", "centre" and "traveller⁴" are spelt "color", "center" and "traveler" in American English. Except for these differences in spelling, written English is more or less the same in both British and American English.
The differences are greater in the spoken language. For example, Americans say dance / /, and in southern England they say / /. In America they pronounce not / / ; in southern England they say / / . However, most of the time people from the two countries do not have any difficulty⁵ in understanding each other.

1 abut   

v.接界，毗邻

参考例句：

• The two lots are abut together.那两块地毗连着。
• His lands abut on the motorway.他的土地毗邻高速公路。

2 typhoon   

n.台风

参考例句：

• A typhoon is now approaching Hong Kong.台风现正逼近香港。
• The typhoon hit the coastal areas.台风侵袭沿海地区。

3 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

4 traveller   

n.旅馆；旅游者

参考例句：

• Almost every traveller carried about a camera.几乎每个旅行者都带着相机。
• It is nothing but a traveller's tale.这只不过是海外奇谈。

5 difficulty   

n.困难，费劲；难事，难题；麻烦，困境

参考例句：

• If there is any difficulty,please let us know promptly.倘有困难，请迅速通知我们。
• A little difficulty like this is nothing to us.这点困难算不了什么。