题型：阅读理解 题类：常考题 难易度：普通
贵州省铜仁第一中学2020届高三上学期英语第三次月考试卷
Josh Katz works at the New York Times. His common job is to use information to tell interesting stories. In December 2013, Katz built a quiz on the Times website. It asked people about the words they used to describe things and events. It also asked how they pronounced common words. The quiz then used people's answers to decide where in the United States they were from.
The quiz got more than 350, 000 results. Katz turned the results into a book. In Speaking American, he studies regional differences in how Americans talk.
"A lot of people's language shows who they are and where they are from, in a very personal way", Katz said.
Katz says people are often surprised to learn that the way they talk can show where they grew up. Most Americans don't realize they use regionalisms — or words and phrases specific to a particular part of the country. But just about everyone does. Almost every major U.S. city has a few unique terms. For example, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the night before Halloween is known as Mischief Night. Anyone who calls it that is likely to be connected to the city.
Katz himself was surprised by how many common words are regional. "There are a lot of words I use that I just thought were standard words," he says. "Then I found out some of these words were actually a product of my upbringing."
For example, he says, "I thought everyone said 'sneakers' (运动鞋) and not 'tennis shoes'." But it turns out "sneakers" is connected mostly to the Northeast. That's where Katz is from.
Some scholars think that language in the U.S. is growing more homogeneous (同类的). But Katz disagrees. "These regional differences are here to stay." he says.
Not only are people still using common regionalisms, but there are new ones appearing all the time, according to Katz. There's no way to predict how language will change in the future. But Katz sees more changes coming. "The only sure thing about language is that it's going to keep moving." he says.
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