1 . “Colour” and “color”, “favourite” and “favorite”, “honour” and “honor”… Have you ever wondered why Americans spell those words without a “u”? Is it because they are lazy? Of course not. In fact, the difference in spelling was started by Noah Webster(1758 — 1843). He was a teacher who reformed (改革) English to make American identity (特征) stronger. Linguists (语言学家) celebrate his birthday on October 16 every year.
After the Revolutionary War (1775 — 1783), Webster believed that Americans should have their own dictionary, rather than rely on British dictionaries. He dropped the British “u” in some words. And he changed “centre” into “center” for children to learn English by spelling words more like what they sounded. He used “subway” instead of British word “underground”. Some other examples are “soccer” and “football”, “fall” and “autumn”.
Webster wasn’t shy about expressing his opinions. In defining (定义) preposterous(unreasonable), he wrote: “A republican government in the hands of female is preposterous.” Webster spent 28 years on the project before completing the 70,000-word dictionary with his American-style spelling in 1828. He also added local words.
His dictionary was widely used in schools. Linguists believed it helped a new country achieve unity (统一) and cultural independence at a time when most people cared about political freedom.
“He was the creator of our language and the creator of American identity,” said Joshua Kendall, who is working on a book about Webster. “He at last brought us together through our language.”
1. Which is NOT true about Webster’s dictionary?
| A．It has local words in it. |
| B．It is a 70,000-word dictionary. |
| C．All the words are spelled without “u”. |
| D．Its words are in American-style spelling. |
2. What does the underlined phrase “rely on” in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．Depend on. | B．Trust in. | C．Put up with. | D．Give up. |
3. What do people think of Webster’s dictionary?
| A．It is the only dictionary that Americans still use today. |
| B．It helped to bring Americans together besides its cultural influence. |
| C．It has no influence on the development of American English. |
| D．It helped to make American English more useful than British English. |
4. What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．The development of the British English. |
| B．American English is better than British English. |
| C．Noah Webster added local words to the dictionary. |
| D．Noah Webster wrote an American English dictionary and reformed English. |
