A few weeks ago, someone posted a photo on my small town’s community webpage. It was of the construction site of our new child-care facility, located at the elementary school. Crews had just finished fixing a very large, permanent sign. In all capital letters, it read: EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING CENTER.
My cheeks heated. Although I rarely post, my fingers itched. I had to comment. “Looks great,” I wrote, “but it’s spelled American! It should be centre’.”
About 15 years ago in Calgary, my two children started attending a brand-new elementary school. The door plate on the counsellor’s room read, “counselor”. I frowned (皱眉) every time I passed by. At the same school, my kindergarten-age daughter was sent home with a list of words to learn, with at least one word incorrect. I corrected the teacher. I didn’t bother correcting the “counselor”. But as a daily defender of Canadianisms, inaccuracies like these scream out to me. Worse, they feel like a punch to the gut — especially when they’re huge and can be clearly read from blocks away. We’re practically American as it is. If we proudly announce new “centers”, will our uniqueness continue to fade?
Languages are living things, always changing with the times. That is why educational settings must be careful — including a child-care facility being built by the school district itself. A habit set in childhood is a habit set for life. My own daughter, as she was about to graduate from high school, wrote an essay using “practice” as a verb. I tried to persuade her to change it to “practise”. She refused. She said that spelling it like that would best range.
That’s the point. If becoming Americanized makes us “normal”, I’m all for being strange. So whoever ordered the sign, please ask a worker to remove the final “e” and “r” and flip them the other way around. The effort would be slight but the impact would be grand.
16. Why did the author post comments about the school sign?
A.It was put in a wrong place. | B.The words couldn’t be read clearly. |
C.Americans were confused by the words. | D.It used the American spelling for one word. |
17. What can we learn from the third paragraph about the author?
A.She liked English as an American Canadian. |
B.She attached great importance to education. |
C.She tried to keep Canadian English unique. |
D.She hated correcting American spellings of words. |
18. What does the author think educational settings should be careful about?
A.Teaching the different spellings of words. |
B.Making changes with the times in teaching. |
C.Developing students’ habit of writing correctly. |
D.Requiring students to know about living languages. |
19. What is the text mainly about?
A.A trend for American English. | B.A defence of Canadian spelling. |
C.Away to change Canadian English. | D.A struggle to use English correctly. |