专业八级改错练习第15期

【练习】

There are great impediments to the general use of a standard in pronun-ciation comparable to that existing in spelling (orthography). One is the fact that pronunciation is learnt ‘naturally’ and unconsciously, and orthography __1

is learnt deliberately and consciously. Large numbers of us, in fact, remain 　throughout our lives quite unconscious with what our speech sounds __2

like when we speak out, and it often comes as a shock when we __3

firstly hear a recording of ourselves. It is not a voice we recognize at once, __4

whereas our own handwriting is something which we almost always know. We __5

begin the "natural" learning of pronunciation long before we start learning to read or write, and in our early years we went on unconsciously imitating and __6

practicing the pronunciation of those around us for many more hours per every __7

day than we ever have to spend learning even our difficult English spelling.

This is "natural", therefore, that our speech-sounds should be those of our im- __8

mediate circle; after all, as we have seen, speech operates a means of holding a community and to give a sense of "belonging". We learn quite early to recognize a __9

"stranger", someone who speaks with an accent of a different community—perhaps only a few miles far. __10