【正确答案】The North American continent, consisting of the United States and Canada, covers about 7,300,000 square miles with the population of 266 million. Therefore, there are various differences in this vast area. Among them, the biggest one is people's ways of speaking English. Besides, there are also some differences in grammar and many differences in vocabulary. To begin with the pronunciation, certain accents contain features unique to a particular region, and, therefore, are easy to recognize. Take the sound of ou for instance. The Americans say out and around, while Canadians/owt/and/arownd/. Next are the differences in grammar, which are mainly spoken ones. For example, in some areas people may say I catched a fish rather than I caught a fish. Written English, however, is the same everywhere. The third is the differences in vocabulary. For instance, green beans, string beans, and snap beans are used to refer to the same thing across different geographical areas. To summarize, these are only a handful of examples, and there are hundreds of such differences. In spite of this, North Americans from different areas can still communicate with each other easily and effectively.

【答案解析】[听力原文] The North American continent, consisting of the United States and Canada, covers an area of approximately 7,300,000 square miles. Within this area live about 266 million people, 240 million in the United States, and 25 and a half million in Canada. So many people, living in such a great area, are naturally different in many ways. If you have traveled around North America, or you have talked with people from different parts of the continent, then surely you have noticed that one of the biggest differences among people is the way they speak English. The most obvious differences are in people's pronunciation, but there are also some differences in grammar and many differences in vocabulary from region to region. In today's lecture we are going to look at some interesting examples of all three types of differences, beginning with the pronunciation, or what you might call "accent". Certain accents are easy to recognize because they contain features that are unique to a particular region of the continent. Let me give you three examples. You can almost always recognize English-speaking Canadians because they have a special way of pronouncing the sound that is usually spelt ou. So, while people in the United States say out, about and around, Canadians pronounce these words as /owt/, /a'bowt/ and /a'rownd/. Can you hear the difference? Another accent that is fairly easy to identify is that of New York City. Many New Yorkers pronounce the /a/ sound almost as if it were spelled owu. Listen to the difference: coffee, /kowufi/; dog, /dowug/; because, /bi 'kowuz/. Some New Yorkers also add an /r/ sound to many vowel sounds, such as law and order, pronouncing it lawr and order. New Yorkers also say ideer instead of idea and Afriker instead of Africa. People from Boston, on the other hand, say aant and haaf the way the British do, but in most other places people say aunt and half. Bostonians also drop most of their r's. Have you ever heard someone say he was going to pahk the cah? This person was probably from the Boston area. Let's go on now to some differences in grammar. Actually, there isn't much variation in grammar from region to region. Some variation in spoken grammar, as in the use of the simple past tense, is acceptable: for example, in some areas it's normal for people to say I catched a fish instead of I caught a fish. But I want to emphasize that we are dealing here with spoken grammar, since, as you know, written English is the same everywhere; it is what we call standard English. Finally, let's talk about some vocabulary differences. These are fun to examine. For example, when you go to the supermarket, what do you carry your groceries home in? In California, your answer would be "a paper bag". In the eastern United States, you would call it "a paper sack"; but in the area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you would call it "a poke"! Another example: for dinner, do you like to eat "green beans", "string beans", or "snap beans"? They are, in fact, the same thing, but each name is used in different geographical areas. As you can see, in North America, differences in the names of objects are determined by geography and not by social or economic class as they are in some other countries. I want to say, in conclusion, that I have given you just a handful of examples of regional differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary in the United States and Canada. There are naturally hundreds of such differences. But in spite of these differences, North Americans do not have much trouble understanding one another, even if they come from places that are as far apart as, say, the northern part of Canada and south Texas. The linguistic differences are simply not great enough to interfere with our ability to communicate with one another.