D. Grammatical differences

British English	American English
Absence of necessity:
needn’t / don’t need to	don’t need to
After demand, insist, etc.:
should do	subjubctive (should is not used)
Regular and irregular verb:
1. burn – burned – burned burn – burnt – burnt 2. spell – spelled – spelled spell – spelt – spelt 3. get – got – got	1. burn – burned - burned   2. spell – spelled – spelled   3. get – got – gotten
An action in the past with a result at the moment of speech:
Present Perfect	Present Perfect or Past Indefinite

 

Today English is increasingly being used as a global language. Non-native speakers of English now outnumber native speakers 3 to 1. The new English speakers aren’t just passively absorbing the language – they are shaping it. New Englishes are mushrooming all over the globe, ranging from “Englog,” spoken in the Philippines, to “Hinglish” the mix of Hindi and English that now crops up everywhere from fast food advertisements to South-Asian college campuses. In South Africa, many Blacks have adopted their own version of English as a sign of freedom – in contrast to Afrikaans, the language of oppression. The English-Spanish hybrid spoken in the United States and Mexico is known as Spanglish. All languages are works in progress. But English’s globalization, unprecedented in the history of languages will revolutionize it in ways we can only begin to imagine.

DO YOU KNOW THAT

· Elizabeth II is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known as the Commonwealth realms. All together, these countries have a combined population, including dependencies, of over 129 million. She holds each crown separately and equally in a shared monarchy, and carries out duties in and on behalf of all the states of which she is sovereign. In theory her powers are vast; however, in practice, and in accordance with convention, she rarely intervenes in political matters. · During World War II, Princes Elizabeth Windsor trained as a driver and mechanic, drove a military truck, and rose to the rank of Junior Commander. She is, at present, “the only living head of state who served in uniform during World War II”. · Although the first recorded proposal for a metric system was made in 1668 and the adoption of metric units has been discussed regularly by Parliament since 1818, the United Kingdom is still currently using non-metric units. The use of non-metric units as supplementary units is likely to continue beyond the projected end date of 2009. Informal usage of Imperial units remains widespread among people of all ages and the media, particularly for describing body measurements.

?

 

ASSIGNMENTS  (3)

I. Review the material of Section 3 and do the following test. Check yourself by the key at the end of the book.

Test 3

1. The Romantic writers and poets were

a. W. Scott; b. R. Burns; c. G. Byron; d. W. Wordsworth; e. O. Goldsmith

2. The Chartist movement appeared in the … century.

a. late 18^th; b. early 19^th; c. middle of the 19^th; d. late 19th

3. Florence Nightingale is the heroine of the … war.

a. Napoleonic; b. Crimean; c. Boer

4. The Victorian age falls on the … century.

a. late 18^th; b. early 19^th; c. late 19^th; d. 19th

5. Disraeli was

a. an artist; b. a prime minister; c. a musician

6. The writers of the Victorian age are

a. Goldsmith; b. Dickens; c. Maugham; d. Ch. Bronte; e. Milton; f. Thackeray

7. The women-writers are

a. G. Eliot; b. E. Gaskell; c. P. Shelley; d. J. Austen; e. A. Tennyson; f. E. Bronte

8. J. Constable and W. Turner were outstanding English

a. artists; b. writers; c. musicians; d. politicians

9. English policemen are called “bobbies” after

a. Robert Peel; b. Robert Browning; c. Robert Walpole

10. A workhouse was

a. a factory for poor workers; b. a prison for homeless children; c. a public institution for sheltering homeless people in return for work

11. The fall of the colonial system came

a. after World War I; b. after World War II; c. in the 1980s.

12. American English is

  a. a separate language; b. a variant of English; c. a dialect of English.

 

II. Get ready to speak on the following topics:

1. The Industrial Revolution and the development of England’s economy in the 18^th century.

2. English Enlightenment.

3. Britain in the two World Wars.

4. Great Britain between the two world wars. The development of the economy. The Great Depression. The general strike.

5. The fall of the colonial system and the British Empire.

6. Britain’s political an economic relations with European countries and the USA in the post-war period.

7. Literature and Arts in the 20^th century.

8. Changes in the English language. Variants of English. The spread of English.

III. Topics for presentations:

· The Industrial Revolution in England.

· The Victorian age.

· The 19^th century British society.

· The history of monarchy in Britain

· The Church of England.

· British society today.

GLOSSARY

Chapter 1