Mother tongue

江西贛州三中 賴麗霞

精彩導讀

作者發現自己在外面說著標準英語，而在家卻說著不同的英語。后來她寫作時，也試著用通俗的語言進行寫作，讓媽媽之類的人能看懂，同時也讓作者體驗了成功。

Recently,I was aware of the different Englishes I do use．I was giving a talk to a large group of people,the same talk I had already given to other groups．The talk was going along well enough,until I realized one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong．My mother who grew up in China was also in the room．I was saying things with the forms of standard English that I had learned in school,the

Just last week,I was walking down the street with my mother,and I again found I was using a different English．We were talking about the price of furniture and I heard myself saying this∶“Not waste money that way．” My husband was with us as well,and he didn’t notice any switch in my English．And then I realized why．It’s because over the twenty years we’ve been together I’ve often used that same kind of English with him,and sometimes he even uses it with me．It has become a different sort of English that relates to family talk,the language I grew up with．

In 1985 I began to write fiction．And at first I wrote using what I thought to be standard English．Fortunately,I later decided I should consider the reader．And the reader was my mother．So with this reader in mind—and in fact she did read my early drafts—I began to write stories using the English I grew up with．Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing,I knew I had succeeded when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her opinion:“So easy to read．”

Reading check

Read the text carefully and find the correct answers.

1．Why did the author feel the whole talk sound wrong?

A．Because she had ever given the talk to the audience．

B．Because suddenly she found she used a different English．

C．Because she made some simple mistakes in her speech．

D．Because her mother can’t understand her standard English．

Simonsen E等[8]通過研究認為，土體的彈性模量在經歷一個完整的凍融循環后會降低20%～60%，而土顆粒的粗細程度會對凍融前后土彈性模量變化的幅度值產生一定的影響。土體強度的增大或者減小一方面常被認為是凍結過程土體密度的變化和凍融作用對土的結構性改變；另一方面跟土的狀態和試驗條件也有關,如果凍融導致土體含水量增大, 則土體強度就會降低，含水量不變時強度會增大。因此，在研究凍融循環引起土顆粒的強度變形等變化時，就不得不考慮含水率的影響。而在一些研究中也考慮了前期固結狀態、凍結溫度、凍融循環次數、圍壓等方面的影響作用。

2．While the author said “Not waste money that way”,____________________．

A．the shop assistant felt confused

B．her mother agreed with her

C．she tried to use standard English

D．her husband was used to her expression

3．We can infer from the last paragraph that the author_________________．

A．used to write using English spoken at home

B．decided to write using standard English at last

C．wrote mainly for such readers like her mother

D．became famous after her first fiction was born

Language study

Ⅰ.Vocabulary

1．standard adj.標準的

2．critic n.評論家

3．succeed v.成功

4．grow up 長大

5．have difficulty doing sth做……有困難

6．relate to 和……有關系

7．apart from 除了

Ⅱ.Difficult sentence

復雜的主從復合句

Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing,I knew I had succeeded when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her opinion∶“So easy to read．”

翻譯：____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

【點石成金】apart from后跟了一個what引導的賓語從句，主句I knew后跟了一個省略that的賓語從句，句子還包括一個when引導的時間狀語從句。