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1、Unit 7Learning about English.Part I Pre-Reading Task Listen to the recording two or three times and then think over the following questions:1.What is the passage about?2.Whats your impression of the English language?3.Can you give one or two examples to illustrate（说明）the messiness of the English lan
2、guage?4.Can you guess what the texts in this unit are going to be about?The following words in the recording may be new to you:eggplant n.茄子 pineapple n.菠萝 hamburger n.汉堡牛肉饼，汉堡包 Part II Text A Some languages resist the introduction of new words.Others,like English,seem to welcome them.Robert MacNeil
3、 looks at the history of English and comes to the conclusion that its tolerance for change represents deeply rooted ideas of freedom.THE GLORIOUS MESSINESS OF ENGLISH Robert MacNeil The story of our English language is typically one of massive stealing from other languages.That is why English today
4、has an estimated vocabulary of over one million words,while other major languages have far fewerWalkman is fascinating because it isnt even English.Strictly speaking,it was invented by the Japanese manufacturers who put two simple English words together to name their product.That doesnt bother us,bu
5、t it does bother the French.Such is the glorious messiness of English.That happy tolerance,that willingness to accept words from anywhere,explains the richness of English and why it has become,to a very real extent,the first truly globallanguage.How did the language of a small island off the coast o
6、f Europe become the language of the planet more widely spoken and written than any other has ever been?The history of English is present in the first words a child learns about identity(I,me,you);possession(mine,yours);the body(eye,nose,mouth);size(tall,short);and necessities(food,water).These words
7、 all come from Old English or Anglo-Saxon English,the core of our language.Usually short and direct,these are words we still use today for the things that really matter to us.Great speakers often use Old English to arouse our emotions.For example,during World War II,Winston Churchill made this speec
8、h,stirring the courage of his people against Hitlers armies positioned to cross the English Channel:We shall fight on the beaches,we shall fight on the landing grounds,we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,we shall fight in the hills.We shall never surrender.Virtually every one of those wo
9、rds came from Old English,except the last surrender,which came from Norman French.Churchill could have said,We shall never give in,but it is one of the lovely and powerful opportunities of English that a writer can mix,for effect,different words from different backgrounds.Yet there is something dire
10、ct to the heart that speaks to us from the earliest words in our language.When Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 B.C.,English did not exist.The Celts,who inhabited the land,spoke languages that survive today mainly as Welsh.Where those languages came from is still a mystery,but there is a theory.T
11、wo centuries ago an English judge in India noticed that several words in Sanskrit closely resembled some words in Greek and Latin.A systematic study revealed that many modern languages descended from a commonparent language,lost to us because nothing was written down.Identifying similar words,lingui
12、sts have come up with what they call an Indo-European parent language,spoken until 3500 to 2000 B.C.These people had common words for snow,bee and wolf but no word for sea.So some scholars assume they lived somewhere in north-central Europe,where it was cold.Traveling east,some established the langu
13、ages of India and Pakistan,and others drifted west toward the gentler climates of Europe,Some who made the earliest move westward became known as the Celts,whom Caesars armies found inThe extraordinary thing was that French did not replace English.Over three centuries English gradually swallowed Fre
14、nch,and by the end of the 15th century what had developed was a modified,greatly enriched language Middle English with about 10,000 borrowed French words.Around 1476 William Caxton set up a printing press in England and started a communications revolution.Printing brought into English the wealth of
15、new thinking that sprang from the European Renaissance.Translations of Greek and Roman classics were poured onto the printed page,and with them thousands of Latin words like capsule and habitual,and Greek words like catastrophe and thermometer.Today we still borrow from Latin and Greek to name new i
16、nventions,like video,television and cyberspace.As settlers landed in North America and established the United States,English found itself with two sources American and British.Scholars in Britain worried that the language was out of control,and some wanted to set up an academy to decide which words
17、were proper and which were not.Fortunately their idea has never been put into practice.That tolerance for change also represents deeply rooted ideas of freedom.Danish scholar Otto Jespersen wrote in 1905,The English language would not have been what it is if the English had not been for centuries gr
18、eat respecters of the liberties of each individual and if everybody had not been free to strike out new paths for himself.I like that idea.Consider that the same cultural soil producing the English language also nourished the great principles of freedom and rights of man in the modern world.The firs
19、t shoots sprang up in England,and they grew stronger in America.The English-speaking peoples have defeated all efforts to build fences around their language.Indeed,the English language is not the special preserve of grammarians,language police,teachers,writers or the intellectual elite.English is,an
20、d always has been,the tongue of the common man.(1155 words)New Words and Expressions messiness n.杂乱状况 messy a.massive a.large in scale,amount,or degree 大量的，大规模的 invent vt.发明 invention n.fascinating a.of great interest or attraction 迷人的，有极大吸引力的 manufacturer n.制造商 product n.产品 tolerance n.容忍，宽容；忍耐 to
21、a(very real,certain,etc.)extent to the degree specified 在（极大，某种）程度上 necessity n.必需品；必要（性）inhabit vt.live in(a place)居住于 Welsh a.,n.威尔士语（的），威尔士人的 mystery n.神秘的事物 Sanskrit n.梵语 resemble vt.be like or similar to 与相似 Greek n.希腊语 Latin n.拉丁语 systematic a.done according to a system 有系统的 descend e down(fro
22、m a source);go down 起源于；下来 linguist n.a person who studies languages 语言学家 Indo-European a.印欧语系的 wolf n.狼 scholar n.学者 establish vt.cause to be,set up 建立，确立 drift vi.move or go somewhere in a slow casual way 漂泊 disciple n.信徒，门徒 martyr n.殉难者，烈士 Norse n.（古）斯堪的纳维亚语 addition n.a person or thing added 增加的
23、人（或物）Norman n.,a.诺曼人（的），诺曼语（的），诺曼文化的 conquer v.take possession and control by force;defeat 征服 kingly a.国王（般）的 royal a.国王或女王的；皇家的 sovereign a.(of power)without limit,highest;(of a nation)fully independent 拥有最高统治权的，至高无上的；拥有主权的 alternative n.one of two or more possibilities 供选择的东西 modify vt.change slig
24、htly 修改，更改 enrich vt.make rich or richer;improve 使富裕，使丰富 Renaissance n.（欧洲14-16世纪的）文艺复兴 translation n.译本，译文；翻译 Roman a.古罗马的，拉丁语的 classic n.a work of art recognized as having lasting value 经典作品 capsule n.密封小容器；胶囊；航天舱 habitual a.done as a habit,regular,usual 惯常的 catastrophe n.a sudden great disaster 大
25、灾难 thermometer n.温度计 video n.,a.录像（的）cyberspace n.the notional environment in which communication over computer networks occurs 网络空间，虚拟空间 independent a.not controlled by other people or things 独立的，自主的 source n.源，来源 out of control 失去控制，不受约束 academy n.学会，学院，研究院 fortunately ad.by good luck 幸运地，幸亏 put i
26、nto practice 将付诸实施 Danish a.丹麦（人）的，丹麦语的 liberty n.freedom 自由 strike out create,produce 创造，开创 cultural a.of or involving culture 文化的 nourish vt.滋养，培育 preserve n.独占的地区或范围；禁猎地 vt.keep from harm,damage,etc.,protect;save 保护，保存 grammarian n.语法学家 India 印度 Pakistan 巴基斯坦 Viking（8 10世纪时劫掠欧洲西北海岸的）北欧海盗 Scandina
27、via 斯堪的纳维亚 England 英格兰 William Caxton 威廉卡克斯顿（英国印刷商、翻译家）Otto Jespersen 奥托叶斯柏森（1860 1943）Language sense Enhancement 1.Read aloud paragraphs 17-19 and learn by heart.2.Read aloud the following poem:Languages Carl Sandbury There are no handles upon a language Whereby men take hold of it And mark it with
28、 signs for its remembrance.It is a river,this language,Once in a thousand years Breaking a new course Changing its way to the ocean.It is a mountain effluvia Moving to valleys And from nation to nation Crossing borders and mixing.3.Read the following quotations.Learn them by heart if you can.You mig
29、ht need to look up new words in a dictionary.The English language is the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.Ralph Waldo Emerson Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.Georqe Orwell England and America are two countries separated by the same language.Georqe Bernard Shaw