[originaltext] What’s in a surname? You may ask. A new website project has b

游客2024-04-12  15

问题  
What’s in a surname? You may ask. A new website project has been released, that helps you locate your past. Have you ever wondered why your ancestors gathered where they did, or where others with your surname live? A research project investigating the distribution of surnames in Britain answers these questions. And another study has found the surnames are still extremely regional.
    Smith, for example, remains the most common surname in Britain, used by more than half a million people. It has exactly the same concentration it always did in Lerwick, in the Scottish Shetland Islands. Jones is the No. 2 surname, and is the most common among hill farmers in north Wales.
    The data used for this project comes partly from electoral register. A number of other files are held by Ex-pairing, which is probably Britain’s largest collector of data about individuals.
    There are some of us who are fairly predictable. Campbell, for example, as you might expect, is somewhat concentrated in the northern parts of Scotland, and it appears really bizarre to be found somewhere else.
    Well, with 25,000 names as difficult to generalize, what you can do is put them in general categories, if, for example, you look at names which are people’s work. Like the name, Webber, you might find it is much more common in the Midlands than in the south of England. If you go to Wales, most people get their names from their ancestors and in Yorkshire for example, a lot of people have names based on the places that they originally lived in or at least their ancestors did.
    Well, we only have 25,000 names on this website, but there are another 50,000 names now found in Britain and they’re particularly interesting, for they are non-British names. Most British names are fairly common and about what we can now do as such is looking for the frequency of all names from different parts of the world and different faiths, religions and languages. And what there is in names is actually extremely useful for researchers in anthropology and sociology may find a lot about different immigrant groups and their descendants now living in this country.
19. What remains the most common surname in Britain?
20. What is probably Britain’s largest collector of data about individuals?
21. Why is it particularly interesting about another 50,000 names found in Britain?

选项 A、Jones.
B、Smith.
C、Campbell.
D、Webber.

答案 B

解析 录音开头提到,已有研究表明姓氏的分布有一定的地域性。接着举例说史密斯(Smith)是目前不列颠最常见的姓氏,拥有大约50万左右的人口。由此得出B项正确。A项“琼斯”是英国的第二大姓氏,是北威尔士山地农民最常用的姓氏:C项“坎贝尔”是北苏格兰人的常用姓氏;D项“韦伯”在英国中部更常见。A、C和D项虽在文中都有提及。但均不是英国最常用的姓氏。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3552419.html
最新回复(0)