The Queen’s English is now sounding less upper-class, a scientific study of the

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The Queen’s English is now sounding less upper-class, a scientific study of the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts has found. Researchers have studied each of her messages to the Commonwealth countries since 1952 to find out the change in her pronunciation from the noble Upper Received to the Standard Received.
Jonathan Harrington, a professor at Germany’s University of Munich, wanted to discover whether accent changes recorded over the past half century would take place within one person. “As far as I know, there just is nobody else for whom there is this sort of broadcast records,” he said.
He said the noble way of pronouncing vowels (元音) had gradually lost ground as the noble upper-class accent over the past years. “Her accent sounds slightly less noble than it did 50 years ago. But these are very, very small and slow changes that we don’t notice from year to year.”
“We may be able to relate it to changes in the social classes,” he told The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. “In 1952 she would have been heard saying ‘thet men in the bleck het’. Now it would be ‘that man in the black hat’. Similarly, she would have spoken of ‘the citay’ and ‘dutay’, rather than ‘citee’ and ‘dutee’, and ‘hame’ rather than ‘home’. In the 1950s she would have been ‘lorst’, but by the 1970s ‘lost’.”
The Queen’s broadcast is a personal message to the Commonwealth countries. Each Christmas, the 10-minute broadcast is put on TV at 3 pm in Britain as many families are recovering from their traditional turkey lunch (传统火鸡午餐).
The results were published (发表) in the Journal of Phonetics.
小题1:What is the text mainly about?

A．The relationship between accents and social classes.

B．The Queen’s Christmas speeches on TV.

C．The changes in a person’s accent.

D．The recent development of the English language.

小题2:The Queen’s broadcasts were chosen for the study mainly because ______.

A．she has been Queen for many years

B．she has a less upper-class accent now

C．her speeches are familiar to many people

D．her speeches have been recorded for 50 years

小题3:Which of the following is an example of a less noble accent in English?

A．“dutay”

B．“citee”　　　　　

C．“hame”

D．“lorst”

小题4:We may infer from the text that the Journal of Phonetics is a magazine on ______.

A．speech sounds	B．Christmas customs
C．TV broadcasting	D．personal messages

答案

小题1:D
小题1:B
小题1:A
小题1:A

解析

略

举一反三

Do you know how to tell a story? The following are some tips:
Who Will Listen?
Will you tell your story to children of your own age? Will they be friends or young people you haven’t met before? Perhaps you will tell it to younger children．Or, will it be an audience of adults? Will it be just a few people, a small group, or a large audience?
Why Are You Telling It?
There are many reasons for telling a story．Knowing why you are telling it may be the most helpful reason for choosing a story for a particular audience．
Many storytellers choose tales just to entertain （娱乐）．They tell jokes or silly stories．Others want to teach something, such as how to be kinder to animals, the environment, or other people．One storyteller likes to encourage his listeners to try new things．Some babysitters tell stories to help children feel not afraid of thunder, lightning or scary shadows in their rooms．Others want to make people think or to help people remember．Some like to frighten their audiences with ghost stories．
Where Will You Speak?
How you tell your story and what story helpers you use depend on where you will be speaking．Will you be talking at an evening party, in your classroom, in a library storytelling program, at a family dinner, at a museum, at a storytelling festival, or during a religious program?
小题1:The author mainly shows his ideas by ______．

A．listing questions	B．describing
C．comparing	D．giving examples

小题2:According to the author, when telling a story, you should pay attention to ______．
①the hobbies of the audience
②the jobs of the audience
③the age of the audience
④the size of the audience
⑤the reason for telling a story

A．①②③

B．②③④

C．③④⑤

D．①③④

小题3:The purpose of knowing why you are telling a story is to ______．

A．choose stories suitable for a certain audience

B．do something good to animals, the environment or other people

C．decide what can help you

D．satisfy different listeners

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Driving in a foreign country is always different in at least some ways from driving in your own country. Here are some general points regarding driving in New Zealand.
l Visitors wishing to drive in New Zealand do not require an international driver’s license but are required to carry their local driver’s licens

e whenever driving.
l Vehicles drive on the left-hand side of the road as they do in Britain, Australia, and Japan. Most rental vehicles will have a sticker reminding you of this important fact.
l When the traffic light is red, you must stop. There is no left turn rule as in North America.
l New Zealand road rules follow international standards but please note that in New Zealand vehicles turning left must give way to traffic turning right.
l In general, if you are turning left (where there are give-way signs or no signs), give way to vehicles that not turning. In all other situations, give way to vehicles crossing or coming from your right.
l Seat belts must be worn at all times while driving in New Zealand. This stands for the driver and passengers. The driver is responsible for ensuring all passengers are wearing their seatbelts.
l Do not drink alcohol before driving in New Zealand—drinking and driving laws are strictly enforced.
l Speed limits are in kilometres per hour (kph), not miles per hour (mph).
Speed conversion: 1 kph equals 0.621 mph; 1 mph equals 1.61 kph.
l The speed limit on the open road is 100km/h. In towns and cities the speed limit is 50km/h. Be sure to obey all school crossing speed reductions as speed cameras operate regularly throughout New Zealand.
For further information and up to date road conditions visit: http://www.transit.govt.nz
小题1:What can be learned from the passage?

A．A passenger’s not wearing the seat belt has little to do with the driver.

B．There will be a reminder for drivers to remember to drive on the left side.

C．Cars passing a school in towns should drive at a speed of less than 31 mph.

D．A foreign driver is expected to have a driving license issued by New Zealand.

小题2:Which of the following statements correctly explains road rules in New Zealand?
A. In Figure 1, Car B must give way to Car A.
B. In Figure 2, Car B must give way to Car A.
C. In Figure 3, Car B must give way to Car A.
D. In Figure 4, Car B must give way to Car A.

小题3:This passage is most likely ____________.

A．a travel brochure for locals

B．a website travel introduction

C．an advertisement of travel

D．a travel column in a geographical magazine

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The best way of learning a language is using it. The best way of learning English is talking in English as much as possible. Sometimes you’ll get your words mixed up(混合)and people will not understand you. Sometimes people will say things too quickly and you can’t understand them. But if you keep your sense of humor(幽默感),you can always have a good laugh at the mistakes you make. Don’t be unhappy if people seem to be laughing at your

mistakes. It’s better for people to laugh at your mistakes than to be angry with you, because they don’t understand what you are saying.The most important thing for learning English is:“Don’t be afraid of making mistakes because everyone makes mistakes.”
小题1:What should you do in learning English?

A．Be careful not to make any mistake.	B．Write as quickly as you can.
C．Speak English as much as you can.	D．Laugh all the way.

小题2:When people laugh at your mistakes, you should______.

A．not care　

B．be happy

C．feel worried

D．be unhappy

小题3:When you make a mistake, you should______.

A．keep quiet

B．get angry

C．be kind

D．keep your sense of humor

小题4: The story tells us: “________”

A．Only foolish people make mistakes	B．Few people make mistakes
C．People never make mistakes	D．There is no one who doesn’t make mistakes

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Light travels at a speed which is about a million times faster than the speed of sound. In one second, light travels about 300,000km, but sound travels only 344m. You can get some idea of this difference by watching the start of a race. If you stand some distance away from the starter, you can see smoke come from his gun before the sound reaches your ears. This great speed of light produces some strange facts. Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach us. If you look at the light of the moon tonight, remember that the light rays（光线）left the moon 1.3 seconds before they reached you. The nearest star is so far away that the light which you can see from it tonight started to travel towards you four years ago at a speed of nearly 2 million km per minute. In some cases the light from one of tonight’s stars started on its journey to you before you were born.
Thus, if we want to be honest, we cannot say “ The stars are shining tonight.” We have to say, “ The stars look pretty. They were shining four years ago but their light has only just reached Earth.”
小题1: Light speed is ________ than sound speed.

A．millions times faster	B．a million times slower
C．about millions of times faster	D．about a million times faster

小题2:If you stand 200 meters away from a man who is firing a gun to start a race, you will find out that _____.

A．you can hear the gun before you see the smoke.

B．sound does not travel as fast as light.

C．the sound of the gun will reach you before the man fires his gun.

D．sound travels about a million times faster than light.

小题3:What does “ it” refer to?

A．moon light

B．light rays

C．the nearest star

D．the moon

小题4:The scientific way of saying “ The stars are shining tonight” should be________.

A．the stars have been shining all the time.

B．the stars seen tonight will be shining four years later.

C．the stars were shining long ago but are seen tonight.

D．the starlight seen today could be seen four years ago.

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The saying that children don’t like reading any more has been proved untrue. A new study finds that 75 percent of kids between five and 17 say that although they love technology, they still want to read books．
The Kids & Family Reading Report also says that 62 percent of kids prefer reading printed books rather than those on a computer．At the same time, those who search an author’s website or use the Internet to find books by a particular author, are more likely to read books for fun every day．
The study also once again proves that the time kids spend reading books for fun decreases after the age of eight and continues to drop through the teen years．The report is a follow-up to a 2006 study．But this time the focus is on the role of technology and when kids’ interest in reading starts to drop．
“Despite the fact that after the age of eight more children go online daily than read for fun daily, high frequency Internet users are more likely to read books for fun every day,” says Heather Carter, a writer of the report．
One in four kids between five and 17 say they read books for fun every day and more than half of kids say they read books for fun at least two to three times a week．One of the key reasons kids say they don’t read more often is that they have trouble finding books they like - a requirement that parents underestimate(低估)．
The study also finds that parents have a strong influence on kids’ reading, but only about half of all parents begin reading to their kids before their first birthday．The percent of children who are read to every day drops from 38 percent among five-to eight-year-olds to 23 percent among nine-to 11-year-olds - exactly the same time that kids’ daily reading for fun starts to drop．
“Parents’ engagement in their child’s reading from birth all the way through the teen years can have a great influence on how often their children read and how much they enjoy reading,” adds Carter．
小题1:What can we learn from the text?

A．Children don’t like reading any more after the age of 8.

B．Most children like reading as well as going online.

C．All kids like reading e – books instead of printed ones.

D．Most children like going online instead of reading.

小题2:It can be inferred from the passage that .

A．the study of kids’ reading has been made before

B．most parents begin reading to their kids from their birth

C．all kids like to get information using the Internet

D．nowadays all children still like to read books

小题3:Which of the following is true according to the text?

A．The kids who often go online don’t like reading books.

B．Parents should teach their kids reading from an early age.

C．Sometimes it is difficult for kids to get the books they like.

D．When kids get older, parents spend more time with them.

小题4:According to the text, contributes a lot to children’s interest in reading.

A．the Internet	B．parents’ engagement
C．short supply of books	D．new technology

小题5:What’s the best title of the passage?

A．Do kids still like reading?	B．Kids’ interest in reading drops
C．New technology on kids’ reading	D．Parents’ influence on kids’ reading

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