Mother tongue

江西赣州三中 赖丽霞

精彩导读

作者发现自己在外面说着标准英语，而在家却说着不同的英语。后来她写作时，也试着用通俗的语言进行写作，让妈妈之类的人能看懂，同时也让作者体验了成功。

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]通过研究认为，土体的弹性模量在经历一个完整的冻融循环后会降低20%～60%，而土颗粒的粗细程度会对冻融前后土弹性模量变化的幅度值产生一定的影响。土体强度的增大或者减小一方面常被认为是冻结过程土体密度的变化和冻融作用对土的结构性改变；另一方面跟土的状态和试验条件也有关,如果冻融导致土体含水量增大, 则土体强度就会降低，含水量不变时强度会增大。因此，在研究冻融循环引起土颗粒的强度变形等变化时，就不得不考虑含水率的影响。而在一些研究中也考虑了前期固结状态、冻结温度、冻融循环次数、围压等方面的影响作用。

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.标准的

2．critic n.评论家

3．succeed v.成功

4．grow up 长大

5．have difficulty doing sth做……有困难

6．relate to 和……有关系

7．apart from 除了

Ⅱ.Difficult sentence

复杂的主从复合句

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．”

翻译：____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

【点石成金】apart from后跟了一个what引导的宾语从句，主句I knew后跟了一个省略that的宾语从句，句子还包括一个when引导的时间状语从句。