英语及其历史
有史以来，在不列颠共同生活着来自许多不 同国家和文化背景的人们。英语是由进入不列颠 的这些人所说的语言的语法和词汇构成的。这就 是为什么英语有这么多很难的困惑人们的规则的 原因。
Old English
Old English is very different from the English we speak nowadays. In fact, we would not be able to understand it if we heard it today. Before the middle of the 5th century, people in Britain all spoke a language called Celtic. Then two Germanic groups from the European mainland—the angles and the Saxons— occupied Britain. Old English consisted of a mixture of their languages. (Both the English language and the English people are named after the angles; the word Angle was spelt Engle in old English.) Aside from place names such as London, very few Celtic words became part of old English. At the end of the 9th century, the Vikings, people from Northern European countries such as Denmark and Norway, began to move to Britain. They brought with them their languages, which also mixed with Old English. By the 10th century, Old English had become the official language of England.
