Unit 7
Learning about English
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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. What's your impression of the English language?
3. Can you give one or two examples to illustrate（说明）the messiness of the
English language?
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 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 has an estimated vocabulary of over one
million words, while other major languages have far fewer
French, for example, has only about 75,000 words, and that includes
English expressions like snack bar and hit parade. The French, however,
do not like borrowing foreign words because they think it corrupts their
language. The government tries to ban words from English and declares
that walkman is not desirable; so they invent a word, balladeur, which
French kids are supposed to say instead — but they don't.
Walkman is fascinating because it isn't even English. Strictly speaking, it was
invented by the Japanese manufacturers who put two simple English words
together to name their product. That doesn't bother us, but 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 of 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 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 speech, stirring the courage
of his people against Hitler's 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 words 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 direct 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.
Two 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, linguists have come up with what they call an IndoEuropean 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 languages 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 Caesar's armies found in
New words came with the Germanic tribes — the Angles, the
Saxons, etc. — that slipped across the North Sea to settle in Britain
in the 5th century. Together they formed what we call Anglo-Saxon
society.
The Anglo-Saxons passed on to us their farming vocabulary,
including sheep, ox, earth, wood, field and work. They must have
also enjoyed themselves because they gave us the word laughter.
The next big influence on English was Christianity. It enriched the
Anglo-Saxon vocabulary with some 400 to 500 words from Greek
and Latin, including angel, disciple and martyr.
Then into this relatively peaceful land came the Vikings from
Scandinavia. They also brought to English many words that begin
with sk, like sky and skirt. But Old Norse and English both survived,
and so you can rear a child (English) or raise a child (Norse). Other
such pairs survive: wish and want, craft and skill, hide and skin.
Each such addition gave English more richness, more variety.
Another flood of new vocabulary occurred in 1066, when the
Normans conquered England. The country now had three
languages: French for the nobles, Latin for the churches and
English for the common people. With three languages competing,
there were sometimes different terms for the same thing. For
example, Anglo-Saxons had the word kingly, but after the Normans,
royal and sovereign entered the language as alternatives.
The extraordinary thing was that French did not replace English. Over three centuries
English gradually swallowed French, 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 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 inventions, 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 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 great 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 first 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, and 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
vocabulary
n. 词汇（量）
snack▲
n. a small meal 快餐，点心
Britain.
snack bar
快餐柜，小吃店
parade
n. 游行；阅兵队列
hit parade
a weekly listing of the current best-selling pop records 流行唱片目录
corrupt▲
vt. cause errors to appear in; cause to act dishonestly in return for personal gains 讹用，
赂
ban
vt. forbid (sth.) officially 禁止，取缔
walkman
n. a small cassette player 随身听
strictly speaking
严格地讲
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 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）
Anglo-Saxon
n. 盎格鲁—萨克逊人
arouse
vt. provoke (a particular feeling or attitude) 唤起，激起
channel
n. 海峡；渠道；频道
surrender
v. give in 投降
virtually
ad. for the most part, almost 差不多，几乎
invade
vt. enter with armed forces 侵入，侵略
Celt
n. 凯尔特人
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
vi. come down (from 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
climate
n. (an area or a region with) a regular pattern of weather conditions 气候（区）
Germanic
a. 日耳曼（人）的，日耳曼语的，德国（人）的
tribe▲
n. 部落
pass (sth.) on to (sb.)
hand or give (sth.) to (sb.) 将…传给…
influence
n. 影响
Christianity
n. 基督教
Christian
a. 基督教的
n. 基督教徒
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 slightly 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
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 into 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
intellectual
n., a. 知识分子（的）
elite▲
n. the group regarded as the best （总称）出类拔萃的人，精英
Proper Names
Robert MacNeil
罗伯特·麦克尼尔
Winston Churchill
温斯顿·丘吉尔（1874 — 1965，英国政治家、首相）
Hitler
希特勒（1889 — 1945，纳粹德国元首）
Julius Caesar
尤利乌斯·凯撒（100 — 44BC，古罗马将军、政治家）
Britain
英国
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
Scandinavia
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 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
might 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
4. Read the following joke and see if you can tell what caused the
misunderstanding of the technician's words by the woman. You might
need to look up new words in a dictionary.
An office technician got a call from a user. The user told the technician
that her computer was not working. She described the problem and the
technician concluded that the computer needed to be brought in and
serviced.
He told her to "Unplug the power cord and bring it up here and I will fix
it."
About fifteen minutes later she showed up at his door with the power
cord in her hand.
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