British English and American English are almost the same. But there are slight differences between British and American English in vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling and grammar.
The first difference between British and American English is in vocabulary. Almost all of the words used in British English and American English are exactly the same. Only a very small number of words are used disparately. For example, Americans would say “apartment”, but the British would say “flat” to talk about the place where they live. In addition to some common words, many idiomatic（惯用的）expressions are different. In England people might say “I’ll ring you up tonight”, but in the US, people might say “I’ll call you up tonight”.
The second difference between British and American English is in Pronunciation. The main difference in pronunciation concerns the vowels（元音）. Some American dialects and some British dialects use vowels in different ways. Sometimes, Americans and the British don’t understand each other’s pronunciation. But most of the time, the British and Americans do understand each other’s pronunciation because most of the sounds of the two dialects are the same.
The third difference is very small. This is the difference in spelling. A few types of words are spelled differently in British and American English. The most common example is in a word like “center”. In British English, this word would be spelled C-E-N-T-R-E, while in American English the same word would be spelled C-E-N-T-E-R. Another example is “or” vs “our”. The word “color”is spelled C-O-L-O-U-R in Britain but C-O-L-O-R in the US.
There are a few differences in grammar, too. The British may say “Have you got..?” while Americans prefer “Do you have..?” An American might say “my friend just arrived”, but a British would say “my friend has just arrived”. Sometimes function words are used differently: the British may say “at the weekend”, but Americans would say “on the weekend”.
小题1:What is this passage mainly about?
A．The development of American English
B．Differences between British and American English
C．The influences of British English on American English
D．The causes of the differences between British and American English小题2:What does the underlined word “disparately” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A．Frequently
B．Regularly
C．Eventually
D．Differently小题3:According to Paragraph 3, Americans and the British may find it hard to understand each other because of .
A．the different ways of using vowels
B．the different idiomatic expressions they use
C．the differences in grammar
D．the differences in spelling小题4:Which of the following words probably belong to the American English vocabulary?
a. flavour b. theater c. humor d. centre e. kilometer f. honour g. color
A．abce
B．bcde
C．bceg
D．defg小题5:Which of the following sentences is most probably used by Americans?
A．I’ll learn with you at the weekend
B．Have you got a dictionary?
C．I’ll ring her up tonight.
D．Do you have a pen?
