30. Extracurricular activities mainly help students __________.

A. build up healthy bodies B. develop friendships

C. develop their interests D. improve their learning ability

31. This passage is written for __________.

A. freshmen at high school B. freshmen’s parents

C. middle school students D. upper-classmen in high school

D

Americans think that everything we British people say sounds smart. We think that they sound low-class, but secretly we think they sound cool. These are just old beliefs about British and American English, but there is some truth in them.

What is certainly true is that the differences between British and American English continue to interest us.

When the US was only about 20 years old, people were already saying that British accents sounded

more intelligent, according to Erin Moore’s book That’s Not English: Britishisms, Americanisms, and What Our English Says About Us.

However, there are many different accents in Britain – Moore says the UK may have just as many regional (地区的) accents as the US, even though the population is almost one-fifth the size. In the UK, accents have a lot to do with class (阶层), but to many Americans, even an accent that British people think is “low class” is thought of as intelligent and better, according to MPR News.

American slang (俚语) has been part of British people’s vocabulary for a long time – the number of American television, movies and music enjoyed in the UK means that British people have been using words like “cool” and “awesome” for years now. But sometimes words from the UK make it to the US – like “gobsmacked”.

“Gobsmacked” started as slang from northern England. “Gob” means mouth, so the word means “surprised as if someone smacked (掌掴) yoin the mouth”. Reality television brought it to the US, Moore said. When the singer Susan Boyle became famous for her unlikely great singing voice on the show Britain’s Got Talent, she used it all the time. “I’m gobsmacked,” she repeated, and it got popular.

“Americans love a colorful piece of slang as much as anyone else,” said Moore. And this is just one example of how Britons and Americans can leave each other “gobsmacked” with their different types of English!

32. What do American people think of British English?

A. Cool. B. Low-class. C. Intelligent. D. Interesting.

33. What can we know from the passage?

A. There are more accents in Britain than in the US.

B. The UK is a large country with a small population.

C. American slang is the most important part of British people’s vocabulary.

D. In the UK, people of different classes speak differently.

34. The word “gobsmacked” became widely used because of __________.

A. MPR News and the US B. Erin Moore and northern England

C. Susan Boyle and Britain’s Got Talent D. Reality television and American slang

35. What is the best title for the passage?

A. American slang and British slang

B. British people and American people

C. British accents and American accents

D. Differences between British and American English