Have you ever heard of Noah Webster? No? But you should know him,especially when you are learning American English.When Webster was young, he was a teacher. But he quickly became tired of the books used in class. They were all about English people, places and history.Since he wanted books that would be interesting to the American children, he wrote
three books with many American examples. Webster worked hard to change the spelling of American English. He wanted words to be spelled in the same way they were pronounced. For example, he thought the word “laugh” should be spelled “laf.” And he asked people to help him do this in many ways.One day he walked into a print shop and gave the clerk a note. “Young man,”he said, “when you print any book in the future, please don’t spell the words like the
English people do. For instance, when you see these words: theatre, centre, colour,and labour, please always print them as theater, center, color and labor.” The boy studied it and said OK.With the money he made from his books, Webster could start his great work,which took him more than twenty years to finish. In 1828, the first American English dictionary was born. And today Webster’s dictionary was thought to be the
most important American English dictionary in the whole world.
23. ( ) Which of the following is an achievement (成就) of Webster?
(A) He made a lot of money by selling his dictionaries.
(B) He has changed the way Americans spell words like centre and labour.
(C) His dictionaries are sold worldwide.
(D) He taught his students to change the spelling system of English.
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