综合英语教程4(高等教育出版社)unit15 part2

Book 4-Unit 15
4. What does the writer think of the remark in the guidebook An Anglo-American Interpreter?
Though he thinks it is an exaggeration and does not believe it, the writer admits that differences in vocabulary can make the communication between Britons and Americans difficult and cause endless confusion.
Book 4-Unit 15
Book 4-Unit 15
Probe the Text
1. Why do many Americans find themselves linguistically uncomfortable when they arrive in the UK?
The English language used in America is not the same as the one used in the British Isles. It is linguistically uncomfortable to the Americans when they find that their mother tongue seems to be inadequate in dealing with the complexity of the English language. Their utterance is merely a sort of vocal noise, and is regarded as quaint and imprecise, and at worst as misleading and noisy.
Book 4-Unit 15
3. What does the writer mean by “half a beat behind in almost any conversation”? What causes the situation to arise?
It means that the Americans have to take a longer time than usual to make out the exact meaning of what their British partners have uttered, because of the Britons' strange ways of pronouncing certain vowels and consonants.
Book 4-Unit 15
6. What is the peculiar habit of the British people in their discourse?
The peculiar habit of the British in their discourse is that they never say what they mean. Their speech is often characterized by studied ambiguity. Sometimes the meaning could be far from its literal meaning (a flight from literalness); sometimes the meaning could be precisely opposite to what is said.
Book 4-Unit 15
About the Author Probe the Text Essay Questions
Difficult Sentences
Book 4-Unit 15
Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. A backpacking expedition in 1973 brought him to England where he met his wife and decided to settle. He wrote for the English newspapers The Times and The Independent for many years, writing travel articles to supplement his income. He lived with his family in North Yorkshire before moving back to the States in 1995, to Hanover, New Hampshire, with his wife and four children. In 2003 he and his family moved back to England, where they currently reside.
about
Book 4-Unit 15
Bill Bryson’s Books
The Lost Continent, Bill Bryson's hilarious first travel book, chronicles a trip in his mother's Chevy around small town America. Since then, he has written several more, including notable bestsellers, A Walk in the Woods, I'm A Stranger Here Myself (published in Britain as Notes from a Big Country), and In a Sunburned Country (published in Britain as Down Under). His other books include Bill Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words, Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe, Made in America, The Mother Tongue and Bill Bryson's African Diary. His latest book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, was published in Spring 2003.
Part II Reading Comprehension
Book 4-Unit 15
Reading Comprehension
Pre-reading Task Comprehension Work Language Work
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Book 4-Unit 15
Discuss the following questions.
Book 4-Unit 15
5. How does the writer argue for the superiority of American English in its clarity of meaning?
The writer claims that American expressions are nearly always self-explanatory. Even if you have never been to the Unite States, you are very likely to figure out the meaning of an expression. For example, the meaning of the word "sidewalk" is self-evident, but "pavement", its equivalent in British English, offers no clue to what its meaning can be.
1. To be a good communicator in cross cultural communication, what elements are important besides having a good command of pronunciation, vocabulary and sentence patterns of a foreign language? 2. Which variety of English do you speak? American, British or other? Why do you learn that special variety?
Book 4-Unit 15
The person should have a broad knowledge of culture which may include the knowledge of the following aspects:
• • • • • • • • • • • •
customs history religion philosophy geography politics literature holiday science education economy social conventions, etc.
Book 4-Unit 15
2. According to the writer, who is responsible for the linguistic gap within the same language—the British? Why?
According to the writer, it is entirely the fault of the British. First of all, they always take delight in perplexing foreigners, even those who speak the same language as they do. In addition, many of the differences were intentionally created by the British because they wanted to create some linguistic differences to distance themselves as parent nation from their colonial offspring. Refer to the text for examples.
Book 4-Unit 15
Suggested Points for Discussion


Every language or variety of language has its own characteristic. There is no best language in terms of the communicative function. Each variety is capable of meeting the needs of its native speakers. Personal accent is acceptable if only it can be understood. The content of speech is far more important than fluency. The students of English do not have to be obsessed with the goal to sound exactly like a native speaker from the UK, US, Australia, Canada, or New Zealand. But they must attain a certain degree of acceptability by the native speakers of English.