请教各位两个句子 English translation of two sentences

[anonymoose]

Sorry again for the offense.

Don't worry. I wasn't really offended. My response was tongue-in-cheek.

But yes, Randy is a funny name.

[HashiriKata]

Incidentally, in British English we rarely say "semester" either.

I'm British and I often do, and I'm afraid you're a little "out of date"!

[chrix]

correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that this semester business was dependent on how the university sets up its academic year. In the US you get colleges using "quarter", "term" and "semester" etc...

[Kenny同志]

I don't think the average American is at all aware of the usage of phrases like "maths books." Not knowing what audience Kenny2006woo had in mind, I wanted to point out that the choice was significant.

Although it usually makes little difference to anyone what standard you pick, there are a few usages that are quite jarring across dialects. I think that advanced learners of English would want to know about these.

The differences between British English and American English frighten me, let alone there are Canadian English, Australian English, Singaporean English, and Indian English, etc.. As a Chinese I have never had the chance to go abroad and rarely have had the chance to speak to a native English speaker face to face, so it is unimaginable for me to know all the differences; terrifying! :)I would like to know whether there is any book dealing with the difference between British English and American English. If there is any, I think, it will help me speak in a more British way or American way, instead of a mixed way.

[chrix]

It depends on what you're after, pronunciation, orthography, vocabulary or grammar.... but here's a blog by an American linguist living in the UK: http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/

Good grammar books do point out differences between AE and BE (I believe the Routledge grammar does, and I believe the huge grammar by Quirk et al. does too). Wikipedia has some word lists as well....

[Kenny同志]

Thanks very much, Chrix, but unfortunately, it was blocked.

[anonymoose]

I'm British and I often do, and I'm afraid you're a little "out of date"!

I didn't say British people never say "semester", but I still think you're in the minority. In all the schools and universities I've been to in the UK, we've always said "term" and not "semester". The other thing is that most academic institutions in the UK divide the year into three terms. Semester, in its original sense at least, implies the year is divided into two semesters. Otherwise it should be called trimester.

[HashiriKata]

You've got it completely wrong there, anonymoose! How do you know I'm in the minority? and this "In all the schools and universities I've been to in the UK, we've always said "term" and not "semester", how many decades ago was this?

correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that this semester business was dependent on how the university sets up its academic year.

You're absolutely correct, chrix. And once a university has changed its system from a 3-term into a 2-semester one, everyone concerned has to modify the way they use these two terms. In the last twenty years or so, a large number of universities in the UK have adopted the modular, 2-semester system in favour of the traditional 3-term system and therefore, the way we use "semster" and "term" to refer to 学期 has also changed (Allowances should made for people who're still out of touch, of course! )

[anonymoose]

You've got it completely wrong there, anonymoose! How do you know I'm in the minority? and this "In all the schools and universities I've been to in the UK, we've always said "term" and not "semester", how many decades ago was this?

And once a university has changed its system from a 3-term into a 2-semester one, everyone concerned has to modify the way they use these two terms. In the last twenty years or so, a large number of universities in the UK have adopted the modular, 2-semester system in favour of the traditional 3-term system and therefore, the way we use "semster" and "term" to refer to 学期 has also changed (Allowances should made for people who're still out of touch, of course! )

Rather than just throw childish insults around, I thought I'd let facts speak for themselves. Not wanting to waste too much time on this argument, I checked the top 10 univerisities on the TimesOnline UK university rankings to see how they refer to their 学期. Results (with links to the universities' official pages) as follows:

Oxford University - 3 "terms" per year

Cambridge University - 3 "terms" per year

Imperial College - 3 "terms" per year

St. Andrews - 2 "semesters" per year

University College London - 3 "terms" per year

Warwick - 3 "terms" per year

LSE - 3 "terms" per year

Durham University - 3 "terms" per year

University of Exeter - 3 "terms" / 2 "semesters" per year

University of Bristol - 3 "terms" / 2 "semesters" per year

As can be seen, of the top 10 universities in the UK, 9 divide the year into 3 terms. 3 universities also divide the year into 2 semesters (two of which also use terms). I'm sure checking further down the list, there may be some more universities which use "semester" instead of "term", but I think these results demonstrate clearly enough that "term" is still the preferred term in the UK.

Thank you.

Edited November 28, 2009 at 11:03 AM by anonymoose

[HashiriKata]

You seem to be hiding something there, anonymoose!

When I said many have changed, no one should take it as to mean "all have changed". Furthermore, the more traditional universities are comparatively less likely to change (didn't I even hinted at this word "traditional" in my previous post?) and you chose to pick precisely these and hide the rest, which is the majority!

Anyway, I know your game, so let's drop it!