Занимательное лингвострановедение. Текст 8

Mr. Second: I cannot pretend to classify all such differences between English and its American variant. . It has been done by those who have given special attention to the science of language. However, to give you an idea, I might mention such word as the American “underpass” for the English “subway” or “underground passage”. The American “subway”, however is the English “underground” or “tube”.

Mr. First: You mean the underground electric railway?

Mr. Second: Yes. As far as I remember, the American “traffic circle” is called a “roundabout” in England.

Mr. First: What is a roundabout?

Mr. Second: It is a place where a number of roads or streets meet and traffic must follow a circular course.

Mr. First: One must spend years in England and then in the United States to overcome such linguistic difficulties.

Mr. Second: I think so. Incidentally, the English expression “to overcome difficulties” has an American equivalent “to make the grade”. As a matter of fact, the word “grade” has various different meanings in England an in America.

Mr. First: Good Havens!

Mr. Second: If a school-girl is the first-year class, John Bull1 will say that she is in the first form while Uncle Sam2 may remark that she is in the first grade. By the way, do you know that such an expression as the “public school” is used in America in our Continental sense?

Mr. First: Why shouldn’t it? Is something is public, it is for the public.

Mr. Second: Well, in England public schools are not opened to the children of the general public and are not supported by the government.

Mr. First: Sounds strange.

Mr. Second: It does. Nevertheless, an English public school is one of the numerous large schools, like Eaton, Harrow, Winchester, to mention but a few. Such schools are very exclusive. They are controlled by a board of governors, and are supported partly by endowments…

Mr. First: What is that?

Mr. Second: It means that they are supported by sums of money or pieces of property to those schools by private persons. Another part comes from the high fees paid by pupil’s parents.

Mr. First: So such schools are private, in fact.

Mr. Second: You are right.

Mr. First: Why do they call them “public””?

Mr. Second: Probable because even today the schools prepare their pupils for public services.

Ключи:

Найти примеры слов и словосочетаний английского языка и его американского варианта:

Underpass (Am) – Tube (Eng)

Underground passage (Am) – Underpass (Eng)

Traffic circle (Am) – Roundabout (Eng)

Предложить отвечающему определить еще несколько подобных пар:

Fall (Am)                                       Autumn (Eng)

Streetcar (Am)                             Tram (Eng)

Drug store (Am                            Chemist′ s (Eng)

Secondary school (Eng)             High school (Am)

Zebra  (Am)                                  Crossing (Eng)

Hardware store  (Am)                Ironmonger′ s (Eng)

Przybyla J. In London, Warsaw and elsewhere. Talks and jokes. — 2009