Module4WhichEnglishTherearemanyevolvingregionalBritishandAmericanaccents,sotheterms“Britishaccent”and“Americanaccent”aretoosimple.WhatmanyAmericansthinkofasthetypical“Britishaccent”isReceivedPronunciation(RP),alsoknownasBBCEnglish.Whatmostpeoplethinkofasan“Americanaccent”，ormostAmericansthinkofas“noaccent”，istheGeneralAmerican(GenAm)accent.EnglishcolonistsarrivedinAmericain1607.BythetimewehadrecordingsofboththeAmericansandtheBritish,thesoundsofEnglishspokenintheOldWorldandNewWorldwerequitedifferent.We'relookingatasilentgapofabout300years,sowecan'tsayexactlywhenAmericansfirststartedtosoundnoticeablydifferentfromtheBritish.OnebigdifferenceintheaccentsisthattheGeneralAmericanaccentisrhotic(发r音的)andspeakerspronouncethe“r”inwords.TheBBCtypeBritishaccentisnonrhotic,andspeakersdon'tpronouncethe“r”，leaving“hard”soundingmorelike“hahd”.BeforeandduringtheAmericanRevolution,theEnglish,bothinEnglandandinthecolonies,mostlyspokewitharhoticaccent.Aroundtheturnofthe19thcentury,notlongaftertherevolution,non-rhoticspeechtookoffinsouthernEngland,especiallyamongtheupperanduppermiddleclasses.Itwasasignifierofclassandstatus.BecausetheBritishaccentwaseasytounderstand,itspreadacrossEnglandandtheempire.Withlanguagechangingquickly,theGeneralAmericanaccentisnowhardtofindinthisregion.WithNewYork,Philadelphia,Pittsburgh,andChicagodevelopingtheirownuniqueaccents,GenAmnowgenerallyexistsinasmallsectionoftheMidwestofAmerica.Ofcourse,thereareregionalexceptionstoboththesegeneralAmericanandBritishsounds.SomeoftheaccentsofsoutheasternEngland,plustheaccentsofScotlandandIreland,arerhotic.SomeareasoftheAmericanSoutheast,plusBoston,arenonrhotic.Section_ⅠIntroduction&Reading—Prereading[原文呈现]WhichEnglish?Whenyoureceiveaphonecallfromafriend,howlongdoesittakeyoutoknowwhoitis？①Afewseconds,perhaps.Thequalityofsomeone'svoiceandtheirchoiceofwordsmakeapersoninstantly②recognisable③，eventhoughyoucan'tseehimorher④.Inthissense⑤everybody'suseoflanguage—whetherEnglish,Chinese,oranyother—isdifferent.Youcouldsaythatthereareasmanyvarietiesof⑥English,oranyotherlanguageforthatmatter⑦，astherearespeakersofit.Englishisspokenasanofficiallanguageinmorethan⑧60countriesacrosstheworldanditcansound⑨verydifferentfromplacetoplace⑩.Pronunciation,aswellas⑪grammarandvocabulary,canchangeveryquicklyfromoneareatoanother.Forexample,withinLondonthemostfamousdialect⑫iscockney⑬.Itisonlyusuallyspokenbypeoplefromtheeastofthatcityso⑭itisnottheonlyformofEnglishyouwillhear⑮.YoucanusuallytellwhichpartoftheEnglishspeakingworldsomeonecomesfrombytheiraccent⑯，andtherearesomeveryrecognisableaccentsalloverBritain.⑰ItisalsoquiteeasytotellBritishandAmericanEnglishapart⑱.AlthoughmostpeoplebelievethereisarightandawrongwaytospeakEnglish⑲，thereisnotreallyastandardform⑳thateveryonecanagreeon○.Englishspreadacrosstheworldoverhundredsofyearsbecauseof○trade,explorationandbusiness,andthisprocessproducedmanydifferentEnglishes.Professorsoflinguistics○，writersandteachersallworryaboutprovidingaperfectmodeltofollow○butasitissowidelyspoken○，ithasbecomeimpossibletosaywhichEnglishis“correct”andwhichis“incorrect”○.Perhapscorrectnessdoesn'tmatter○—aslongas○speakerscanunderstandeachother—○it'scommunicationthatcounts○.[读文清障]①When引导时间状语从句，主句中含有固定句式：Ittakessb.sometimetodosth.“某人花多长时间...
