2013大学英语重修3上课用题

2013大学英语重修3上课用 2013大学英语重修大学英语三课堂材料 阅读理解： Passage 1 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 American 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 about “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 “typhoon” from Chinese, while the American took “tornado” 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 traveller 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. However, most of the time people from the two countries do not have any difficulty in understanding each other. 1. America stopped being a part of England in ________. A. 1707 B. 1828 C. 1776 D. 1911 2. Which of the following statements is true? A. After 1776 American English and British English stayed the same. B. After 1776 American English changed but British English stayed the same. C. After 1776 British English changed but American English stayed the same. D. After 1776 both British English and American English changed. 3. British English is different from American English because ______. A. British decided to change the spelling of many American words. B. American English changed but British English stayed the same. C. the American and British took different words from other languages. D. America is a bigger country. 4. Noah Webster was ______. A. an American president B. a Spanish farmer C. a British teacher D. an American writer 5. Which of the following statements is true? A. In the future both American English and British English will stay the