The United Kingdom（Period 3 Reading and Writing）
almost everyone who has heard of london has heard of the term“cockney(倫敦佬)”.strictly speaking, in order to call oneself a cockney, one should have been born“within the sound of bow bells”, that is to say, within the sound of the bells of the church of st mary-le-bow, which stands nearly in the centre of the city of london.but, in fact, all london’s citizens who were born and bred in the city may call themselves cockneys if they like.however, the term is generally reserved for the londoner with a“cockney accent”.they cockney accent is not a particularly pleasant or melodious（悅耳的）one, and the cockney’s distortion（扭曲, 變形） of the english language is such that the foreigner often finds it impossible to understand the speaker until his ear has become acclimatized（適應） to the peculiar tones.the principal characteristics of the cockney accent consist in a general slurring of consonants and a distortion of vowel sounds.the best known example of cockney speech is modern english literature is that of eliza doolittle, the heroine of bernard shaw’s play, “pygmalion”and of the musical adapted from, “my fair lady”.but if cockney speech is unpleasant, the cockney himself is usually far from being so.the average cockney is distinguished（區分, 辨別） by his quick wit, his ready sense of humor, his ability to“carry on”under unusual or difficult conditions and by his willingness to be of help if he can.the cockney’s humor is often satirical（諷刺的） but it is never vicious（邪惡的）; he is always ready to laugh at other people’s peculiarities（怪癖） but he is equally ready to laugh at his own.he often makes jokes under the most difficult conditions, a quality that was very apparent during world war ⅱ.this rather lugubrious type of humor is well exemplified（舉例證明） by the title of an old cockney music hall song: “ain’t it grand to be blooming well dead.”nowadays, as the tempo of life in big cities grows ever faster (although the cockney opposes this process when he can), the opportunities for the cockney to exercise his wit and humor diminish(減少, 變小).but if one keeps one’s ears open on buses, in railway stations, in street markets and similar places, it will soon become evident that the spirit of cockney humor is still very much alive, although the old cockney pronunciation is less common until now.most people who call themselves cockneys usually do so with some pride.and, by and large, they are justified.famous buildings in london hyde park