The 20 simple words Brits are unable to spell:
20个英国人最易拼错的简单词汇：
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1. Questionnaire 2. Accommodate 3. Definitely 4. Liaison 5. Existence 6. Occurrence 7. Referring
8. Occurred 9. Millennium 10. Embarrass 11. Calendar 12. Receive 13. Necessary 14. Separate
15. Cemetery 16. Library 17. Accidentally 18. Independent 19. Occasionally 20. Receipt




Millions of adults are unable to spell basic everyday words, a study suggests.
一项调查研究显示，数百万的成年人都无法正确拼写出一些日常生活中的基本单词。
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Of 2,500 surveyed, 40 per cent could not spell "questionnaire", 38 per cent were stumped by "accommodate" and 37 per cent were defeated by "definitely".
一项对2,500人进行的调查显示，40%的受访者都被questionnaire（问卷调查）这个词难倒。另外两个“ 难词”是accommodate（适应、留宿或招待）和definitely（绝对、肯定），分别有38%和37%的受访者不能正确拼写。
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Around a third of those questioned were unable to spell "liaison", "existence" or "occurrence".
还有大约1/3的受访者会栽在liaison（联络）、existence（存在）和occurrence（发生、出现）这三个词上。
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Other simple words which caused problems were "calendar", "embarrass", "library" and "receipt".
其他一些容易出错的单词包括：calendar（日历）, embarrass（困窘）, library（图书馆）和 receipt（收据）。
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Two-thirds blamed their inability to get words right on the predictive text function on their mobile phones.
三分之二的受访者将不会拼写归咎于发送手机短信，因为现在短信的输入都有单词提示功能。
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Despite the embarrassing results, almost a third claimed their spelling was excellent, while 46 per cent said it was good.
尽管调查的结果令人尴尬，但是将近1/3的人宣称“我的拼写很不错”，46%的人表示“我的拼写挺好” 。
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Alarmingly, 14 per cent did not think it was important to spell properly, and 11 per cent were not bothered by colleagues' spelling mistakes.
令人担忧的是，14%的人认为拼写错误并没有什么大不了，而11%的人不会介意同事错误的拼写。
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Twenty per cent said they avoided writing documents by hand because their spelling was poor, and 59 per cent said they relied on their computer's spell checker to get things right--even though some are programmed with American English.
20%的人表示由于拼写能力不强，他们会避免手写的文档。59%的人表示他们写东西时会依赖电脑的自动拼写检查功能，即使需要鉴别一些美式英语和英式英语的拼写差异。
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Six per cent said their spelling was so bad they had lost a job because of it.
6%的受访者表示，他们由于拼写能力差而丢掉了饭碗。
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The study was carried out on behalf of www.whitesmoke.com, which provides software to help with English grammar and writing.
这项调查是由提供英语语法和写作软件的网站www.whitesmoke.com进行的。
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A spokesman said: "It's worrying how weak our spelling has become, especially with regard to simple, everyday words.
该公司的一名发人说：“我们的拼写技能已经越来越差，尤其在拼写一些非常简单的日常单词时也是如此，这种现象是令人担忧的。”
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"It's interesting to see that despite getting basic words wrong, a huge majority still regard their spelling skills as excellent or good.
“有趣的是，尽管很多人连一些基本单词的拼写都弄错了，但绝大多数人仍旧认为自己的拼写能力很好、很出色。”