Question

Radio newsreaders and television hosts at Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE are mostly up in arms at being told to pronounce words according to the Queen’s English.

A report in The Irish Sun newspaper says that RTE’s workers have been given an A-Z style guide of words which instructs them on how to pronounce certain words in an effort to make sure they are clearly understood. The A-Z comes with videos containing lessons of how to “properly” pronounce the “problem” words. An official at RTE told the Irish Sun that producers gave the guide to keep up standards. “The guide is there for anyone who needs it.” he said, “RTE often get letters from the public over how certain words were mispronounced. The word ‘issue’ is a big one at the moment, people don’t like how it’s pronounced. There is an expectation that as the national broadcaster we are correct.”

However, Irish linguistics expert Professor Raymond Hickey, who took the side of most of the radio newsreaders and TV hosts, called the RTE’s actions “internalized colonialism (内化殖民主义)”. He expressed his disbelief that Irish speakers were being asked to use words with an English accent. He said: “The basic problem is RTE expects its workers to speak as if they were English. Why? We have our own form of English, which is different but fully reasonable and accepted worldwide.” Professor Hickey specially talked of some examples of the words Irish hosts are being asked to pronounce with a British English accent. He said: “The Irish don’t pronounce the TH [in ‘birthday’] as a fricative, but as a stop with no breath…. The same is true of ‘news’ — the Irish pronunciation is and always has been ‘nooze’.”

1.When told to speak the Queen’s English, RTE’s workers showed great ________.

A. anger

B. interest

C. curiosity

D. disappointment

2.RTE provides its workers with an A—Z style guide in order to ________.

A. instruct them to pronounce clearly

B. keep up pronunciation standards

C. meet their work demands

D. make sure that the public are correct

3.What’s the official’s in s intension of mentioning the letters from the public?

A. To warm the national broadcaster of the mispronunciation.

B. To show how “problem” words are mispronounced.

C. To explain why RTE take the actions.

D. To prove the public are believable.

4.According to Professor Raymond Hickey, the RTE’s actions ________.

A. are reasonable and acceptable

B. are impractical and foolish

C. will win the Irish trust

D. make no sense

Answer

1. A

2. B

3. C

4. D

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文，介绍了爱尔兰广播电台RTE要求电台播音员和电视节目主持人要按照女王的英语发音，此举受到了RTE工作人员的强烈反对，Raymond Hickey教授认为，爱尔兰有自己的英语形式，RTE的这种做法完全没有意义。

1.细节理解题。根据第一段“Radio newsreaders and television hosts at Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE are mostly up in arms at being told to pronounce words according to the Queen’s English.”可知，当爱尔兰广播电台RTE的电台播音员和电视节目主持人听到要按照女王的英语发音时，大多数都非常生气，故A项正确。

2.细节理解题。根据第二段中的“RTE’s workers have been given an A-Z style guide of words which instructs them on how to pronounce certain words in an effort to make sure they are clearly understood.”可知，RTE给工作人员发A-Z单词的风格指南是为了让他们准确地发音以保证能够被很好地理解，故B项正确。

3.推理判断题。根据第二段中的“RTE often get letters from the public over how certain words were mispronounced. The word ‘issue’ is a big one at the moment, people don’t like how it’s pronounced. There is an expectation that as the national broadcaster we are correct.”可知，RTE经常收到公众来信抱怨某些单词的发音错误，单词问题是个大问题，公众期望国家广播员的发音是正确的，由此可知，官员提到公众来信就是为了解释为什么RTE采取行动——要求电台播音员和电视节目主持人按照女王的英语发音，故C项正确。

4.推理判断题。根据最后一段中的“We have our own form of English, which is different but fully reasonable and accepted worldwide. ”可知，Raymond Hickey教授认为，爱尔兰有自己的英语形式，虽然和女王的口音有些不同，但完全合理，而且被全世界所接受，由此可知，Raymond Hickey教授认为RTE要求电台播音员和电视节目主持人按照女王的英语发音的这种做法完全没有意义，故D项正确。