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AquestionfromBritneyintheUnitedStatesofAmerica：IamanAmericancollegestudentwhoisplanningtoapply①forworkintheUnitedKingdomafterIgraduate,andIwaswonderinghowbigthelanguagebarrier②wouldbe.AlexGoochanswers：HiBritney.differencesbetweenBritishandAmericanEnglish,butthesedifferenceswon'tcause③youanyseriousproblemsifyoucomeandworkinBritain.Thereareafewnoticeable④GRAMMARdifferencesbetweenBritishandAmericanEnglish.I'lltalkaboutthetwomostimportantones.Firstofall⑤，whenAmericansmakesentencesusing“just”，“already”or“yet”，theynormally⑥usethepastsimpletense,whileinBritain,weusethepresentperfect.SoanAmerican,forexample,mightsay,“Ialreadyhadlunch.”AndaBritishpersonwouldsay,“I'vealreadyhadlunch.”Secondly,therearelotsofexamplesofslightdifferenceofspelling,suchasmetre(BrE)/meter(AmE),favour(BrE)/favor(AmE),organise(BrE)/organize(AmE),etc,butBritishandAmericanpeoplecanunderstandeachotherwithoutanytrouble⑦atall.Britney,myadvicetoyouis:don'tworryabout⑧thelanguage,andyou'llbefine.[多积词汇]①applyv．申请，应用②barriern．障碍③causev．引起；导致④noticeableadj.显而易见的⑤firstofall首先；第一⑥normallyadv.通常；正常情况下⑦troublen．困难；问题⑧worryabout担心；忧虑SectionⅠIntroduction&Reading—Prereading[原文呈现]Words,words,wordsBritishandAmericanEnglisharedifferentin①manyways.Thefirstandmostobvious②wayisinthevocabulary.TherearehundredsofdifferentwordswhicharenotusedontheothersideoftheAtlantic,orwhichareusedwithadifferentmeaning③.Someofthesewordsarewellknown—Americansdriveautomobilesdown④freewaysandfillupwith⑤gas;theBritishdrivecarsalongmotorways⑥andfillupwithpetrol⑦.Asatourist,youwillneedtousetheunderground⑧inLondonorthesubway⑨inNewYork,ormaybeyouwillpreferto⑩getaround⑪thetownbytaxi(British)orcab(American)．[读文清障]①bedifferentin在……方面不同bedifferentfrom与……不一样②obvious/'ɒbviəs/adj.显然的，显而易见的③which引导两个定语从句，均修饰words。④drive...down...沿……驾驶……；相当于drive...along...⑤fillup(with)(用……)装满，填满⑥motorway/'məʊtəˌweI/n.(英)高速公路⑦petroln．(英)汽油，gasn．(美)汽油⑧underground/'ʌndəˌɡraʊnd/n.(英)地铁⑨subway/'sʌbˌweI/n.(美)地铁⑩prefertodo...更愿意/喜欢做……prefer...to...意为“喜欢……胜过……”。其中to为介词。⑪getaround四处走动(旅行)[第1段译文]词，词，词英式英语和美式英语在很多方面是不同的。首先最明显的是在词汇方面。有数以百计的不同的词在大西洋彼岸不被使用，或者以一种不同的意思被使用着。其中一些单词是人们所熟知的——美国人在freeways上驾驶的是automobiles，给车加gas；英国人在motorways上驾驶的是cars，给车加petrol。作为游客，你在伦敦要乘坐的地铁叫underground，而在纽约则叫subway，或者你更愿意乘坐taxi(英式)或者cab(美式)游览城市。ChipsorFrenchfries?Butotherwordsandexpressionsarenotsowellknown.Americansuseaflashlight⑫，while⑬fortheBritish,it'satorch.TheBritishqueue⑭up;Americansstandinline⑮.Sometimesthesamewordhasaslightly⑯differentmeaning,which⑰canbeconfusing⑱.Chips,forexample⑲，arepiecesofhotfriedpotatoinBritain;intheStateschipsareverythinandaresoldinpackets.TheBritishcallthesecrisps.ThechipstheBritishknowandloveareFrenchfriesontheothersideoftheAtlantic.⑫flashlight/'flæʃˌlaIt/n.(美)手电筒；火把⑬while为并列连词，意为“而，然而”，此处表示前后两种情况的对比。⑭queue/kjuː/vi.(英)排队(等候)queueup(for...)排队(等候……)⑮standinline排队等候⑯slightlyadv.略微，稍微，此处修饰different。⑰which引导非限制性定语从句，指代上文提到的内容。⑱confusing/kən'fjuːzIŋ/adj.令人困惑的；难懂的⑲forexample例如，常作插入语，可位于句首、句中或句末。[第2段译文]Chips还是Frenchfries?但是其他词和表达方式却没有这么广泛地为人所知。美国人把手电筒称为flashlight，而英国人则叫它torch。“排队”在英式英语中用queueup，而在美式英语中用standinline。有时候同一个单词的含义有微小的差别，这让人很困惑。例如，chips在英国是指热的炸薯条，在美国却指非常薄而且装在纸袋里出售的薯片——英国人把这种东西称为crisps。英国人熟悉而且喜欢的薯条在大西洋彼岸被称为Frenchfries。Haveorhavegot?Thereareafewdifferencesingrammar,too.TheBritishsayHaveyougot...?whileAmericanspreferDoyouhave...?AnAmericanmightsayMyfriendjustarrived,butaBritishpersonwouldsayMyfriendhasjustarrived.Prepositions⑳，too,canbedifferent:compare○21ontheteam○22，ontheweekend○23(American)withintheteam,attheweekend(British).TheBritishuseprepositionswhere○24Americanssometimesomit○25them(I'llseeyouMonday;Writemesoon！)．⑳preposition/ˌprepə'zIʃn/n.介词○21compare/kəm'peə/vt.比较compare...with...把……与……相比该结构常用其非谓语形式comparedwith作状语，此时可与comparedto互换。compare...to...把……与……相比；把……比作……○22ontheteam(美)是队里的一员intheteam(英)是队里的一员○23ontheweekend(美)在周末attheweekend(英)在周末○24where引导地点状语从句。○25omit/əʊ'mIt/vt.省略[第3段译文]Have还是havegot?在语法上，英式英语和美式英语也有一些区别。英国人说“Haveyougot...？”，而美国人更喜欢说“Doyouhave...？”，美国人可能会说“Myfriendjustarrived”，但是英国人会说“Myfriendhasjustarrived”。介词的用法也有所不同：比较一下ontheteam,ontheweekend(美式)和intheteam,attheweekend(英式)。英国人用介词的地方美国人有时候会省略(I'llseeyouMonday;Writemesoon！)。Colourorcolor?Theothertwoareasinwhichthetwovarieties○26differ○27arespellingandpronunciation○28.Americanspellingseems○29simpler:center,colorandprograminsteadof○30centre,colourandprogramme.Manyfactorshaveinfluenced○31Americanpronunciationsincethefirstsettlers○32arrivedfourhundredyearsago.Theaccent,whichismostsimilarto○33BritishEnglish○34，canbeheardontheEastCoastoftheUS.WhentheIrishwriterGeorgeBernardShawmadethefamousremark○35thattheBritishandtheAmericansaretwonationsdividedbyacommonlanguage,hewasobviouslythinkingaboutthedifferences.Butaretheyreallysoimportant?Afterall,thereisprobablyasmuchvariation○36ofpronunciationwithinthetwocountriesasbetweenthem.ALondonerhasmoredifficultyunderstanding○37aScotsmanfromGlasgowthanunderstandingaNewYorker.○26variety/və'raIəti/n.种类avarietyof/varietiesof各种各样的○27differ/'dIfə/vi.不同，有区别differ常与介词from,in连用。○28“in＋关系代词which”引导定语从句，修饰先行词areas，其中differin中