2015年高考英语广东卷 - 阅读理解D

It was once common to regard Britain as a society with class distinction. Each class had unique characteristics.
英国曾经认为是一个有阶级区别的社会，每个阶级都有独特的特点。

In recent years, many writers have begun to speak the 'decline of class' and 'classless society' in Britain. And in modern day consumer society everyone is considered to be middle class.
近年来，许多作家开始谈论英国的“阶级衰落”和“无阶级社会”。在现代消费社会，每个人都被认为是中产阶级。

But pronouncing the death of class is too early. A recent wide-ranging society of public opinion found 90 percent of people still placing themselves in particular class; 73 percent agreed that class was still a vital part of British society; and 52 percent thought there were still sharp class differences. Thus, class may not be culturally and politically obvious, yet it remains an important part of British society. Britain seems to have a love of stratification.
但宣布阶级消亡还为时过早。最近一个广泛的社会调查发现，90%的人仍然把自己放在特定的阶级；73%的人认为阶级仍然是英国社会的重要组成部分；52%的人认为仍然存在明显的阶级差异。因此，阶级在文化和政治上可能并不明显，但它仍然是英国社会的重要组成部分。英国似乎喜欢分阶层。

One unchanging aspect of a British person's class position is accent. The words a person speaks tell her or his class. A study of British accents during 1970s found that a voice sounding like a BBC newsreader was viewed as the most attractive voice, Most people said this accent sounded 'educated' and 'soft'. The accents placed at the bottom in this study, on the other hand, were regional city accents. These accents were seen as 'common' and 'ugly'. However, a similar study of British accents in the US turned these results upside down and placed some regional accents as the most attractive and BBC English as the least. This suggests that British attitudes towards accent have deep roots and are based on class prejudice.
英国人阶级地位的一个不变的方面是口音，口音暴露了他的阶级。20世纪70年代对英国口音的一项研究发现，听起来像BBC新闻播报员的声音被认为是最吸引人的声音。大多数人说，这种口音听起来“有教养”和“柔和”。另一方面，这项研究中位于底层的口音是地区城市口音，这些口音被视为“普通”和“丑陋”。然而，在美国对英语口音的一项类似研究却与此相反，一些地区口音认为最吸引人，而BBC英语最不吸引人。这表明英国人对口音的态度根深蒂固，并且基于阶级偏见。

In recent years, however, young upper middle-class people in London, have begun to adopt some regional accents, in order to hide their class origins. This is an indication of class becoming unnoticed. However, the 1995 pop song 'Common People' puts forward the view that though a middle-class person may 'want to live like common people' they can never appreciate the reality of a working-class life.
然而，近年来，伦敦的年轻上层中产阶级开始采用一些地区口音，以隐藏他们的阶级出身。这表明阶级正在被忽视。然而，1995年的流行歌曲《普通人》提出了这样一种观点，即尽管一个中产阶级可能“想像普通人一样生活”，但他们永远无法体会工人阶级生活的现实。