When I was growing up in America, I was ashamed of my mother’s Chinese English. Because of her English, she was often treated unfairly. People in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.
My mother has realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on phone to pretend I was she. I was forced to ask for information or even to yell at people who had been rude to her. One time I had to call her stockbroker (股票经纪人). I said in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, “This is Mrs. Tan.”
And my mother was standing beside me, whispering loudly, “Why he don’t send me cheek, already two weeks late.”
And then, in perfect English I said : “I’m getting rather concerned. You agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.”
Then she talked more loudly. “What he want? I come to New York tell him front of his boss.” And so I turned to the stockbroker again, “I can’t tolerate any more excuse. If I don’t receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your manager when I am in New York next week.”
The next week we ended up in New York. While I was sitting there red-faced, my mother, the real Mrs. Tan , was shouting to his boss in her broken English.
When I was a teenager, my mother’s broken English embarrassed me. But now, I see it differently. To me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It is my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, and full of observation and wisdom. It was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed ideas, and made sense of the world.
【小题1】Why was the author’s mother poorly served?| A．She was unable to speak good English. | B．She was often misunderstood. |
| C．She was not clearly heard. | D．She was not very polite. |
| A．they forgave the stockbroker | B．they failed to get the check |
| C．they went to New York immediately | D．they spoke to their boss at once |
| A．It confuses her. | B．It embarrasses her. |
| C．It helps her understand the world. | D．It helps her tolerate rude people. |
| A．is clear and natural to non-native speakers | B．is vivid and direct to non-native speakers |
| C．has a very bad reputation in America | D．may bring inconvenience in America |
Shakespeare wrote in his great play Hamlet, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” But it seems that not everyone agrees with this. Micro-blog has canceled its 140-character limit for posts, meaning users can now write as many words as they like. And now Twitter, a US social media site that’s similar to Micro-blog, also announced that it plans to double its character limit from 140 to 280.
Twitter has its reasons for the changes. It’s a pain to have to edit your thoughts to less than 140 characters when you have so much to say. And a big problem for English writers is that it requires more space than character-based languages such as Chinese to express the same thing. According to The Atlantic, while the average English-language tweet is 34 characters, a Japanese one, for example, is only 15.
But still, Twitter users don’t seem to be happy with the new move.
Our reading habits have changed over time, and we’re used to keeping up to date with what’s happening in the world by reading just a couple of lines of text. For this, 140 characters are more than enough.
“Micro-blogs are almost always faster and more efficient than television, radio, newspapers, or any other source,” wrote Knight, a reporter for The Guardian. “It’s like gathering in the town square… in an instant.”
Trying to fit your thoughts into a limited space is also a good way to come up with smart comments, which is why micro-blogs are often where the best humor is found. For example, during former US President Donald Trump’s election campaign in 2016 a Twitter user wrote: “If Trump can seriously win the presidency of this nation, I don’t want to see a job description with ‘experience required’ ever again.” And another wrote, “England: Nothing can be more embarrassing than Brexit. America: Watch this.” These tweets expressed people’s upset louder and quicker than any long articles ever could.
So perhaps we should pay attention to Shakespeare’s words. After all, he only needed 6 characters to make his famous point.
【小题1】Why does Twitter plan to change its character limit for each post?| A．Twitter users always have a lot to say. |
| B．Users are not satisfied with the current character limit. |
| C．More characters are needed when writing in English than in Chinese. |
| D．Twitter saw that the benefit after Micro-blog changed the character limit. |
| A．People want to know what is happening around the world. |
| B．People prefer to look through short posts rather than read long articles. |
| C．People are used to reading short posts in order to get the latest news. |
| D．People’s new reading habits make it hard to read long posts. |
| A．To show that the US presidential election attracted more attention than Brexit. |
| B．To explain how British people and Americans show their sense of humor. |
| C．To prove that Twitter is a platform where you can express your own opinions freely. |
| D．To offer evidence that limited characters can inspire smart posts. |
| A．It should be lifted because it makes it difficult for people to express thoughts. |
| B．It should be abandoned because it doesn’t fit people’s current reading habits. |
| C．It should be kept as Shakespeare argued that using the fewest words is the best. |
| D．It is meaningful because short texts fit people’s reading habits and help create the best humor. |
How to Learn Vocabulary in a Foreign Language
It is not unusual that language learners regard vocabulary learning as the biggest block, especially in foreign language learning.
Trust flashcards. While they seem a little bit out of date, flashcards are still an effective way to learn vocabulary. They’re also cheap and easy to make. You can keep some flashcards on you and quiz yourself whenever you have a few spare minutes throughout the day. Traditional written cards are useful.
Employ multimedia sources to enrich your learning. Watching films and other videos in foreign languages gives you chances to learn new vocabulary and to hear how it is used in authentic speech. If you are interested in the sources, you are more likely to pay attention and learn.
Work with new words rather than just look at them. Studies show that learners need to encounter words several times in different contexts before they really stick. To speed this process up, whenever you learn a new word, look at how it is used in context, and then follow a series of steps. Pronounce the word and spell it. Refer to a dictionary for the meaning of it.
| A．Communicate with a fluent speaker. |
| B．So get the kind of the best quality. |
| C．However, it doesn’t have to be so painful! |
| D．Make up a sentence with it in your own words. |
| E．Practice copying it as often as you can to memorize it. |
| F．Creating virtual ones through apps is also a wise option. |
| G．Therefore, it is of importance to choose some you prefer! |
There are some differences between American English and British English. Some differences are quite interesting.
When my friend Lily from London used the word “larder”, I didn’t know what it meant. Realizing I didn’t follow her, she used another word. I finally knew she wanted to find something to keep some food. The next word came up when we were planning a lunch date. She jotted down the date and time in her diary, while I marked my calendar. If she called me on the phone, she would ring me up. But if the line was busy, she would say the line was engaged.
Most times, I can know what Lily means. Last week, she regretted sending her boys to watch an early morning tennis game without their fleeces. I thought that she meant without their jackets or something like that. Other times, we have to ask each other. She recently told me a funny tale about a pissed woman. I wondered what had made the lady angry. It turns out that pissed means drunk.
Here is one more example. My British friend Jane was filling out a ticket at the grocery store recently. She asked the young man to help her if he had a rubber. When she noticed he didn’t follow her, she quickly asked for an eraser, which, in England, is often called a rubber. In order to communicate well with British people, we Americans should learn some words that the British use differently. And I think people who learn English as a second language should also realize that there are differences between American English and British English.
【小题1】What does the underlined phrase “jotted down” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Wrote down. | B．Cared about. |
| C．Looked for. | D．Settled down |
| A．the word “pissed” means angry | B．the word “jacket” is often used |
| C．the word “engaged” means tired | D．the word “rubber” means eraser |
| A．The British way of using words. |
| B．Some new words the writer’s British friends taught her |
| C．The reasons why Americans can’t followed the British at times. |
| D．Some words used differently in British English and American English |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Negative. |
| C．Positive. | D．Mutual. |
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