The Queen’s English is now sounding less upper-class, a scientific study of the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts had 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 ‘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.

The results were published in the Journal of Phonetics.

1.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.

2.Which of the following is an example of a less noble accent in English?

A. “dutay” B. “citee” C. “hame” D. “l(fā)orst”

3.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

4.What is the text mainly about?

A. The Queen’s Christmas speeches on TV.

B. The relationship between accents and social classes.

C. The changes in a person’s accent.

D. The recent development of the English language.

練習冊系列答案
相關習題

科目：高中英語 來源：2016屆天津第一中學高三上學期第二次月考英語試卷（解析版） 題型：單項填空

Every 40 minutes we will take a 20-minute break, ______ your guide will give a short talk on different aspect of the Great Wall.

A. during that B. and when C. which D. during which time

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2015-2016學年廣西武鳴縣高級中學高一上段考英語試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

閱讀理解

閱讀下列四篇短文，從每小題后所給的A、B、C、D四個選項中，選出最佳選項，并在答題卡上將該選項涂黑。

They wear the latest fashions with the most up-to-date accessories(配飾). Yet these are not girls in their teens or twenties but women in their sixties and seventies. A generation which would once only wear old-fashioned clothes is now favouring the same high street looks worn by those half their age.

Professor Julia Twigg, a social policy expert, said, “Women over 75 are now shopping for clothes more frequently than they did when they were young in the 1960s. In the 1960s buying a coat for a woman was a serious matter. It was an expensive item that they would purchase only every three or four years — now you can pick one up at the supermarket whenever you wish to. Fashion is a lot cheaper and people get tired of things more quickly. ”

Professor Twigg analyzed family expending（支出）data and found that while the percentage of spending on clothes and shoes by women had stayed around the same—and 5 or 6 per cent of spending—the amount of clothes bought had risen sharply.

The professor said, “Clothes are now 70 percent cheaper than they were in the 1960s because of the huge expansion of production in the Far East. In the 1960s Leeds was the heart of the British fashion industry and that was where most of the clothes came from, but now almost all of our clothes are sourced elsewhere. Everyone is buying more clothes but in general we are not spending more money on them.”

Fashion designer Angela Barnard, who runs her own fashion business in London, said older women were much more affected by celebrity(名流) style than in previous years .

She said, “When people see stars such as Judi Dench and Helen Mirren looking attractive and fashionable in their sixties, they want to follow them. Older women are much more aware of celebrities. There’s also the boom in TV programmes showing people how they can change their look, and many of my older customers do yoga to stay in shape well in their fifties. When I started my business a few years ago, my older customers tended to be very rich, but now they are what I would call ordinary women. My own mother is 61 and she wears the latest fashions in a way she would never have done ten years ago.”

1.Professor Twigg found that, compared with the 1960s, _______.

A. the price of clothes has generally fallen by 70%

B. the spending on clothes has increased by 5% or 6%

C. people spend 30% less than they did on clothes

D. the amount of clothes bought has risen by 5% or 6%

2.What can we learn about old women in terms of fashion？

A. They are often ignored by fashion designers.

B. They are now more easily influenced by stars.

C. They are regarded as pioneers in the latest fashion.

D. They are more interested in clothes because of their old age.

3. It can be concluded that old women tend to wear the latest fashions today mainly because .

A. they get tired of things more quickly

B. TV shows teach them how to change their look

C. they are in much better shape now

D. clothes are much cheaper than before

4.Which is the best possible title of the passage?

A. Age Is No Barrier for Fashion Fans

B. The More Fashionable, the Less Expensive

C. Unexpected Changes in Fashion

D. Boom of the British Fashion Industry

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2016屆湖北宜昌第一中學高三上12月月考英語試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

A store that sells husbands has just opened in Ottawa where a woman may go to choose a husband from many men.

The store consisted of 6 floors and the men increase in positive attributes（品質(zhì)，特點）as the shopper goes up the flights. There is, however, a catch（陷阱）. As you open the door to any floor you may choose a man from that floor, but if you go up a floor, you cannot go back down except to exit the building.

So a woman goes to the shopping center to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads: Floor 1— These men have jobs. The woman reads the sign and says to herself, “Well, that’s better than my last boyfriend, but I wonder what’s further up?”

So up she goes. The second floor sign reads: Floor 2 — These men have jobs and love kids. The woman remarks to herself, “That’s great, but I wonder what’s further up?”

And up she goes again. The third floor sign reads: Floor 3 — These men have jobs, love kids and are extremely good-looking. “Hmm, better.”

The fourth floor sign reads: Floor 4 — These men have jobs, love kids, are extremely good-looking and help with the housework. “Wow!” exclaims the woman, “Very tempting. But, there must be more, further up!”

And again she heads up another flight. The fifth floor sign reads: Floor 5 —These men have jobs, love kids, are extremely good-looking, help with the housework and have a strong romantic character. “ Oh, mercy me! But just think…what must be awaiting me further on?”

So up to the sixth floor she goes. The sixth floor sign reads: Floor 6 –You are visitor 3, 456, 789,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. Thank you for shopping Husband Mart and have a nice day.

1.Women tend to go up the floor until they reach the top floor because _____.

A. they think the husbands downstairs are not suitable

B. they are sure that the best husbands are on the top floor

C. they think even better husbands may be upstairs

D. they know the catch very well

2.The writer intends us to believe that _____.

A. husbands are hard to shop

B. women are hard to please

C. women think they are better than men

D. women can’t be too careful when choosing husbands

3.We can infer from the passage that _____.

A. women are not good at shopping husbands

B. more women will leave the shop alone

C. women are romantic

D.women are more kind than men

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2015-2016學年云南昆明第三中學高一上期中英語試卷（解析版） 題型：語法填空

語法填空

閱讀下面材料，在空白處填入適當?shù)膬?nèi)容或括號內(nèi)單詞的正確形式（不多于3個單詞）。

Everyone has a childhood and childhood experiences are often very 1. ____ (interest). Children often make us laugh.

I often remember my childhood, the years 2. ______ many funny things happened. When I was a two-year-old child, both my parents were always very busy3.______ their work. My mother worked as4.______ sales manager in a company while my father served in the army. So I 5._____ (live) with my grandma in a village. I was always waiting for my parents at home. Once my father sent us a photo of 6.______ ( he ) in a soldier’s uniform, which 7.____ (post) on the table reminding me of him.

Once my mother came to see me and we were 8._____ (go) to the downtown together. On the way we saw a group of9.____ (soldier). And when I saw them, I became very excited. I shouted in a big voice, “This is my father; that one is my father; and he is my father, too…”

Hearing this, my mother laughed and said10.______ she would remember that moment all her life.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2016屆寧夏銀川市高三上學期統(tǒng)練五英語試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

The largest land animal remaining on the earth, the African elephant is of much importance to African ecosystem. Unlike other animals, the African elephant is to a great extent the builder of its environment. As a giant plant-eater, it significantly shapes the forest-and-savanna (大草原) surroundings in which it lives, therefore deciding the conditions of existence for millions of other animals that live in its habitat.

It is the elephant’s great desire for food that makes it both a disturber of the environment and an important builder of its habitat. In its continuous search for the 300 pounds of plants it must have every day, it kills small trees and underbushes, as well as pulls branches off big trees. This results in numerous open spaces in not only deep tropical forests but also the woodlands that cover part of the African savannas. In these open spaces are numerous plants in various stages of growth, which attract a variety of other plant-eaters.

Take the rain forests for example. In their natural state, the spreading branches overhead shut out sunlight and prevent the growth of plants on the forest floor. By pulling down trees and eating plants, elephants create open spaces, allowing new plants to grow on the forest floor. In such situations, the forests become suitable for large-hoofed plant-eaters to move around and for small-sized plant-eaters to obtain their food as well.

Scientists are worried now that the African elephant has become an endangered species. If the elephant dies out, scientists say, many other animals will also disappear from vast areas of forest and savanna, greatly changing and worsening the whole ecosystem.

1.What is the passage mainly about?

A. Disappearance of African elephants.

B. Forests and savannas as habitats for African elephants.

C. The effect of African elephants' search for food.

D. The eating habit of African elephants.

2.The African elephant influences the ecosystem in the following ways except that .

A. it creates open areas in deep tropical forests as well as woodlands

B. it pulls off the branches and leaves, shutting out the sunshine

C. its eating habit can be made use of by large-hoofed and small-sized animals

D. it encourages some kinds of plants growing in an indirect way

3.According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

A. Numerous grown plants are the favorites of plant-eaters.

B. The extinction of the African elephant has nothing to do with the ecosystem.

C. Quantities of plants are consumed by African elephants, including branches and underbushes.

D. The forest floor in rain forests is scarcely dotted with new shoots.

4.The passage is developed mainly by .

A. presenting the changes in time order

B. making comparisons and giving examples

C. classifying similarities and differences

D. showing the effect and then explaining the reasons

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2016屆浙江臨海臺州中學高三上第三次統(tǒng)練英語試卷（解析版） 題型：單項填空

---Why are you so crazy about music?

--- Because I can always find in music _____ peace that is missing in _____ world full of challenges.

A. the; a B. the;/ C. /; a D. /; the

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2015-2016學年江西南昌二中高二上第三次月考英語試卷（解析版） 題型：單項填空

We hadn’t planned to meet. We met ______ chance.

A. of B. in C. for D. By

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2015-2016學年黑龍江哈爾濱六中高二上期末英語試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

As we grow old, we realize that we have so little time to read and there are so many great books that we’ve yet to get around to. Yet re-readers are everywhere around us. For certain fans, re-reading The Lord of the Rings is a conventional practice annually. One friend told me that Jane Austen’s Emma can still surprise him, despite his having read it over 50 times.

New sudden clear understandings can be gained from the process of re-reading. Journalist Rebacca Mead, a long-time Englishwoman in New York, first came across George Eliot’s Middlemarch at 17. Since then, she has read it again every five years. With each re-reading, it has opened up further; in each chapter of her life, it has resonated (引起共鳴) differently. Mead evidenced the large number of ways in which really good books not only stand the test of repeat reads, but also offer fresh gifts each time we crack their spines. These kinds of books grow with us.

Scientists have also recognized the mental health benefits of re-reading. Research conducted with readers in the US found that on our first reading, we are concerned with the “what” and the “why”. Second time round, we’re able to better appreciate the emotions that the plot continues to express. As researcher Cristel Russell of the American University explained, returning to a book “brings new or renewed appreciation of both the great book and its readers.”

It’s true that we often find former selves on the pages of old books (if we’re fond of making notes on the pages). These texts can carry us back to a time and place, and remind us of the kind of person that we were then. We’re changed not only by lived experience but also by read experience – by the books that we’ve discovered since last reading the one in our hand.

More so than the movie director or the musician, the writer calls upon our imaginations, using words to lead us to picture this declaration of love or that unfaithfulness in life. A book is a joint project between writers and readers, and we must pour so much of ourselves into reading that our own life story can become connected with the story in the book.

Perhaps what’s really strange is that we don’t re-read more often. After all, we watch our favorite films again and we wouldn’t think of listening to an album only once. We treasure messy old paintings as objects, yet of all art forms, literature alone is a largely one-time delight. A book, of course, takes up more time, but as Mead confirms, the rewards make it adequately worthwhile.

1.The two books are mentioned in Paragraph 1 mainly to __________.

A. attract the attention of readers

B. introduce the topic of the passage

C. provide some background information

D. show the similarity between re-readers

2. The underlined expression “crack their spines” in Paragraph 2 refers to ________.

A. recite them B. re-read them

C. recall them D. retell them

3. The purpose of the passage is to __________.

A. call on different understandings of old books

B. focus on the mental health benefits of reading

C. bring awareness to the significance of re-reading

D. introduce the effective ways of re-reading old books

4.It can be learned from the passage that __________.

A. reading benefits people both mentally and physically

B. readers mainly focus on feelings on their first reading

C. we know ourselves better through re-reading experience

D. writers inspire the same imaginations as film directors do

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習冊答案