2021年11月20日雅思考试机经回忆完整版(5)

2021年11月20日雅思考试机经回忆完整版(5) 关于这个问题下面小编就来为各个考生解答下。

2021年11月20日雅思考试机经回忆完整版(5) 

2021.11.20

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Passage3

Topic

The causes of linguistic changes

Mechanism of Linguistic Change

The changes that have aused the most disagreement are those in pronunciation. We have varlous sources of evidence for the pronundations of earlier times, such as the spelings.

the treatment of words borrowed from other languages or borrowed by them, the descriptions of contemporary, grammanians and spelling-reformers, and the modem pronuncialions in all the languages and dialeds concermed. From the middle of the siteenth century, there are in England writers who attempt to descrbe the postion of the speech-organs for the production of English phonemes, and who invent what are in effect systems of phonetic symbols. These various kind of evidence, combined with a knowledge of the mechanisms of speech-produdion, can often give us a very good idea of the pronunciation of an eartier age, though absolute certainty is never possible.

When we study the pronunciaton of a language over any period of a few generations or more, we find there are always large-scale regularities in the changes: for example, over a

certain period of time, just about all the long [] vowels in a language may change into long[e:] vowels, or all the [bloconsonants in a certain position (for example at the end of a

word) may change into [p] consonants. Such regular changes are often caled sound laws. There are no universal sound laws (even though sound laws often reflect universal

tendencies), but simply particular sound laws for one given language (or dialect) at one given period.

It is also possible that fashion plays a part in the process of change. It certainly plays a part in the spread of change: one person imitates another, and people with the most prestige

are most lkely to be imitated, so that a change that takes place in one social group may be imitated (more or less acurately) by speakers in another group. When a social group goes

up or down in the world, s its pronuncation may gain or lose prestige. It is salid that, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, the upper-class pronundation of Russian, which had

formertly been considered desirable, became on the contrary an undesirable kind of accent to have, so that people tried to disguise it. Some of the changes in accepted

English pronunciation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have been shown to consist in the replacement of one style of pronunciation by another style already existing. and it is Ikely that such subsitutions were a result of the great social changes of the period: the increased power and wealth of the middle classes, and their steady infitration upwards into the ranks of the' landed gentry, probably carried elements of middle-class pronunciation into upper-dass speech.

A less specifc variant of the argument is that the imitation of children s is imperfect: they copy their parents' speech, but never reproduceit exacty. This is true, but it is also true

that such deviations from adult speech are usually corrected in later childhood. Perhaps it is more significant that even。adults show a certain amount of random variation in their

pronunclation of a gven phone me, even if the phonetic context is kept unchanged. This, however, cannot explain changes in pronunciation unless it can be shown that there is some systematic trend in the failures of imitation: if they are merely random deviations they will cancel one another out and there will be no net changein the language.

One such force which is often invoked is the principle of ease, or minimization of ffort. The change from fussy to fuzzy would be an example of assimilation. which is a very common kind of change. Assimilation is the changing of a sound under the infuence of a neighbouring one. Fon example, the word scant was once skamt，but the /mhas been changed to m/ under the infuence of the folowing Itw. Greater efficiency has hereby been achieved, because In/ and IV are articulated in the same place(with the tip of the tongue against the teth-ridge), whereas /m/ is articulated esewhere (with the two lips). So the place of articulation of the nasal consonant has been changed to confom with that of the fllowing plosive. A more recent example of the same kind of thing is the common pronunciaion of fooball as foball.

Assimilation is not the only way in which we change our pronunciation in order to increase effciengy. It is very common for consonants to be lost af the. end of a word: in Middle

English, word-final [-η] was often lost in unstressed sylables, so that baken "to bake'changed from [bak?n] t.and. later to.. Consonant-clusters are oten simplfied. At onetime

there was a [t in words like castle and Christmas, and an intial [K] in words like knight and know. Sometimes a whole sllable is dropped out when two successive syllables begin with the same consonant (haplology): a recent example is temporary, which in Britain s oten pronounced as i建were temporary.

27-30为填空题.

The pronunciation of living language undergo changes throughout thousands of years.

Large scale regular Changes are usually caled 27. sound laws. There are three reasons for these changes. Firsty, the infuence of one language on another; another aspect which

affect accent is 28.fashion.Secondly, 29.Children jimitate the words imperfect,and may also contibute to this change if there are insignificant deviations tough later they may be

corrected Finally, for those random variations in pronunciation, the deeper evidence lies in the 30. assimilation.

31-37为判断题

31. It is impossible for modem people to find pronunialion of words in an eartier age.False

32. The great change of language in Russian history is related to the nising status and fortune of middle classes. Not Given

33. AI the children learn speeches from aduts while they assume that certain language is difoult to imitate exactly. Not Given

34. Pronunciation with causal inaccuracy wll not exert big infuence on language changes.True

35. The link of 'mt can be infuenced being pronounced as. True

36. The [g] in gnat not being pronounced will not be spelt out in the future. Not Given

37. The sound of temporary' cannot wholly present its spelling. True

38- 40为匹配题

A Since the speakers can pronounce it with less effort

B Assimiation of a sound under the ifluence of a neighbouring one

C It is a trend for changes in pronunciation in a large scale in a given period

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