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9月21日雅思阅读原题详解：A Brief History of Chocolate9月21日的雅思阅读考试考到了教主刘洪波老师编著的《雅思阅读真经5》中的两篇原文！分别是《A Brief History of Chocolate》和《From Novices to Experts》。
今天我们先来看第一篇《A Brief History of Chocolate》的详细解析~AWhen most of us hear the word chocolate, we picture a bar, a box of bonbons, or a bunny. The verb that comes to mind is probably “eat,” not “drink,” and the most apt adjective would seem to be “sweet.” But for about 90 percent of chocolate’s long history, it was strictly a beverage, and sugar didn’t have anything to do with it. “I often call chocolate the best-known food that nobody knows anything about,” said Alexandra Leaf, a selfdescribed “chocolate educator” who runs a business called Chocolate Tours of New York City. B The terminology can be a little confusing, but most experts these days use the term “cacao” to refer to the plant or its beans before processing, while the term “chocolate” refers to anything made from the beans, she explained. “Cocoa” generally refers to chocolate in a powdered form, although it can also be a British form of “cacao.” Etymo logists trace the origin of the word“chocolate” to the Aztec word “xocoatl,” which referred to a bitter drink brewed from cacao beans. The Latin name for the cacao tree, T h e o b r o m a c a c a o , means “food of the gods.”Word & Expression1. picture1) ① n.照片；图画；相片；描绘② v. 想象；描述；描写；设想My visits enabled me to build up a broad picture of the culture.参观游览使我对这个文化有了大致的了解。
A Brief History of the English LanguageEnglish is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. This broad family includes most of the European languages spoken today. The Indo-European family includes several major branches:Latin and the modern Romance languages (French etc.);the Germanic languages (English, German, Swedish etc.);the Indo-Iranian languages (Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit etc.);the Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, Czech etc.);the Baltic languages of Latvian and Lithuanian;the Celtic languages (Welsh, Irish Gaelic etc.); Greek. The influence of the original Indo-European language can be seen today, even though no written record of it exists. The word for father, for example, is vater in German, pater in Latin, and pitr in Sanskrit. These words are all cognates, similar words in different languages that share the same root.Of these branches of the Indo-European family, two are, as far as the study of the development of English is concerned, of paramount importance, the Germanic and the Romance (called that because the Romance languages derive from Latin, the language of ancient Rome). English is a member of the Germanic group of languages. It is believed that this group began as a common language in the Elbe river region about 3,000 years ago. By the second century BC, this Common Germanic language had split into three distinct sub-groups:•East Germanic was spoken by peoples who migrated back tosoutheastern Europe. No East Germanic language is spokentoday, and the only written East Germanic language thatsurvives is Gothic.•North Germanic evolved into the modern Scandinavian languages of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic (butnot Finnish, which is related to Hungarian and Estonian and isnot an Indo-European language).•West Germanic is the ancestor of modern German, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and English.Old English (500-1100 AD)CLICK HERE TO SEE A MAP OF ANGLO-SAXON ENGLANDWest Germanic invaders from Jutland and southern Denmark: the Angles (whose name is the source of the words England and English), Saxons, and Jutes, began to settle in the British Isles in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. They spoke a mutually intelligible language, similar to modern Frisian - the language of the northeastern region of the Netherlands - that is called Old English. Four major dialects of Old English emerged, Northumbrian in the north of England, Mercian in the Midlands, West Saxon in the south and west, and Kentish in the Southeast.These invaders pushed the original, Celtic-speaking inhabitants out of what is now England into Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland, leaving behind a few Celtic words. These Celtic languages survive today in the Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland and in Welsh. Cornish, unfortunately, is, in linguistic terms, now a dead language. (The last native Cornish speaker died in 1777) Also influencing English at this time were the Vikings. Norse invasions and settlement, beginning around 850, brought many North Germanic words into the language, particularly in the north of England. Some examples are dream, which had meant 'joy' until the Vikings imparted its current meaning on it from the Scandinavian cognate draumr, and skirt, which continues to live alongside its native English cognate shirt. The majority of words in modern English come from foreign, not Old English roots. In fact, only about one sixth of the known Old English words have descendants surviving today. But this is deceptive; Old English is much more important than these statistics would indicate. About half of the most commonly used words in modern English have Old English roots. Words like be, water, and strong, for example, derive from Old English roots.Old English, whose best known surviving example is the poem Beowulf, lasted until about 1100. Shortly after the most important event in the development and history of the English language, the Norman Conquest.The Norman Conquest and Middle English (1100-1500)William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England and the Anglo-Saxons in 1066 AD. The new overlords spoke a dialect of Old French known as Anglo-Norman. TheNormans were also of Germanic stock ("Norman" comes from "Norseman") and Anglo-Norman was a French dialect that had considerable Germanic influences in addition to the basic Latin roots. Prior to the Norman Conquest, Latin had been only a minor influence on the English language, mainly through vestiges of the Roman occupation and from the conversion of Britain to Christianity in the seventh century (ecclesiastical terms such as priest, vicar, and mass came into the language this way), but now there was a wholesale infusion of Romance (Anglo-Norman) words.The influence of the Normans can be illustrated by looking at two words, beef and cow. Beef, commonly eaten by the aristocracy, derives from the Anglo-Norman, while the Anglo-Saxon commoners, who tended the cattle, retained the Germanic cow. Many legal terms, such as indict, jury , and verdict have Anglo-Norman roots because the Normans ran the courts. This split, where words commonly used by the aristocracy have Romantic roots and words frequently used by the Anglo-Saxon commoners have Germanic roots, can be seen in many instances.Sometimes French words replaced Old English words; crime replaced firen and uncle replaced eam. Other times, French and Old English components combined to form a new word, as the French gentle and the Germanic man formed gentleman. Other times, two different words with roughly the same meaning survive into modern English. Thus we have the Germanic doom and the French judgment, or wish and desire.It is useful to compare various versions of a familiar text to see the differences between Old, Middle, and Modern English. Take for instance this Old English (c. 1000) sample:Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonumsi þin nama gehalgod tobecume þin rice gewurþe þin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofonumurne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dægand forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendumand ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele soþlice. Rendered in Middle English (Wyclif, 1384), the same text is recognizable to the modern eye:Oure fadir þat art in heuenes halwid be þi name;þi reume or kyngdom come to be. Be þi wille don in herþe as it is doun in heuene.yeue to us today oure eche dayes bred.And foryeue to us oure dettis þat is oure synnys as we foryeuen to oure dettouris þat is to men þat han synned in us.And lede us not into temptacion but delyuere us from euyl.Finally, in Early Modern English (King James Version, 1611) the same text is completely intelligible:Our father which art in heauen, hallowed be thy name.Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen. Giue us this day our daily bread.And forgiue us our debts as we forgiue our debters.And lead us not into temptation, but deliuer us from euill. Amen.For a lengthier comparison of the three stages in the development of English click here!In 1204 AD, King John lost the province of Normandy to the King of France. This began a process where the Norman nobles of England became increasingly estranged from their French cousins. England became the chief concern of the nobility, rather than their estates in France, and consequently the nobility adopted a modified English as their native tongue. About 150 years later, the Black Death (1349-50) killed about one third of the English population. And as a result of this the labouring and merchant classes grew in economic and social importance, and along with them English increased in importance compared to Anglo-Norman.This mixture of the two languages came to be known as Middle English. The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Unlike Old English, Middle English can be read, albeit with difficulty, by modern English-speaking people.By 1362, the linguistic division between the nobility and the commoners was largely over. In that year, the Statute of Pleading was adopted, which made English the language of the courts and it began to be used in Parliament.The Middle English period came to a close around 1500 AD with the rise of Modern English.Early Modern English (1500-1800)The next wave of innovation in English came with the Renaissance. The revival of classical scholarship brought many classical Latin and Greek words into the Language. These borrowings were deliberate and many bemoaned the adoption of these "inkhorn" terms, but many survive to this day. Shakespeare's character Holofernes in Loves Labor Lost is a satire of an overenthusiastic schoolmaster who is too fond of Latinisms.Many students having difficulty understanding Shakespeare would be surprised to learn that he wrote in modern English. But, as can be seen in the earlier example of the Lord's Prayer, Elizabethan English has much more in common with our language today than it does with the language of Chaucer. Many familiar words and phrases were coined or first recorded by Shakespeare, some 2,000 words and countless idioms are his. Newcomers to Shakespeare are often shocked at the number of cliches contained in his plays, until they realize that he coined them and they became cliches afterwards. "One fell swoop," "vanish into thin air," and "flesh and blood" are all Shakespeare's. Words he bequeathed to the language include "critical," "leapfrog," "majestic," "dwindle," and "pedant."Two other major factors influenced the language and served to separate Middle and Modern English. The first was the Great Vowel Shift. This was a change in pronunciation that began around 1400. While modern English speakers can read Chaucer with some difficulty, Chaucer's pronunciation would have been completely unintelligible to the modern ear. Shakespeare, on the other hand, would be accented, but understandable. Vowel sounds began to be made further to the front of the mouth and the letter "e" at the end of words became silent. Chaucer's Lyf (pronounced "leef") became the modern life. In Middle English name was pronounced "nam-a," five was pronounced "feef," and down was pronounced "doon." In linguistic terms, the shift was rather sudden, the major changes occurring within a century. The shift is still not over, however, vowel sounds are still shortening although the change has become considerably more gradual.The last major factor in the development of Modern English was the advent of the printing press. William Caxton brought the printing press to England in 1476. Books became cheaper and as a result, literacy became more common. Publishing for the masses became a profitable enterprise, and works in English, as opposed to Latin, became more common. Finally, the printing press broughtstandardization to English. The dialect of London, where most publishing houses were located, became the standard. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the first English dictionary was published in 1604.Late-Modern English (1800-Present)The principal distinction between early- and late-modern English is vocabulary. Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling are largely the same, but Late-Modern English has many more words. These words are the result of two historical factors. The first is the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the technological society. This necessitated new words for things and ideas that had not previously existed. The second was the British Empire. At its height, Britain ruled one quarter of the earth's surface, and English adopted many foreign words and made them its own.The industrial and scientific revolutions created a need for neologisms to describe the new creations and discoveries. For this, English relied heavily on Latin and Greek. Words like oxygen, protein, nuclear, and vaccine did not exist in the classical languages, but they were created from Latin and Greek roots. Such neologisms were not exclusively created from classical roots though, English roots were used for such terms as horsepower, airplane, and typewriter.This burst of neologisms continues today, perhaps most visible in the field of electronics and computers. Byte, cyber-, bios, hard-drive, and microchip are good examples.Also, the rise of the British Empire and the growth of global trade served not only to introduce English to the world, but to introduce words into English. Hindi, and the other languages of the Indian subcontinent, provided many words, such as pundit, shampoo, pajamas, and juggernaut. Virtually every language on Earth has contributed to the development of English, from Finnish (sauna) and Japanese (tycoon) to the vast contributions of French and Latin.The British Empire was a maritime empire, and the influence of nautical terms on the English language has been great. Phrases like three sheets to the wind have their origins onboard ships.Finally, the military influence on the language during the latter half of twentieth century was significant. Before the Great War, militaryservice for English-speaking persons was rare; both Britain and the United States maintained small, volunteer militaries. Military slang existed, but with the exception of nautical terms, rarely influenced standard English. During the mid-20th century, however, a large number of British and American men served in the military. And consequently military slang entered the language like never before. Blockbuster, nose dive, camouflage, radar, roadblock, spearhead, and landing strip are all military terms that made their way into standard English.American English and other varietiesAlso significant beginning around 1600 AD was the English colonization of North America and the subsequent creation of American English. Some pronunciations and usages "froze" when they reached the American shore. In certain respects, some varieties of American English are closer to the English of Shakespeare than modern Standard English ('English English' or as it is often incorrectly termed 'British English') is. Some "Americanisms" are actually originally English English expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost at home (e.g., fall as a synonym for autumn, trash for rubbish, and loan as a verb instead of lend).The American dialect also served as the route of introduction for many native American words into the English language. Most often, these were place names like Mississippi, Roanoke, and Iowa.Indian-sounding names like Idaho were sometimes created that had no native-American roots. But, names for other things besides places were also common. Raccoon, tomato, canoe, barbecue, savanna, and hickory have native American roots, although in many cases the original Indian words were mangled almost beyond recognition. Spanish has also been great influence on American English. M ustang, canyon, ranch, stampede, and vigilante are all examples of Spanish words that made their way into English through the settlement of the American West.A lesser number of words have entered American English from French and West African languages.Likewise dialects of English have developed in many of the former colonies of the British Empire. There are distinct forms of the Englishlanguage spoken in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and many other parts of the world.Global EnglishEnglish has now inarguably achieved global status. Whenever we turn on the news to find out what's happening in East Asia, or the Balkans, or Africa, or South America, or practically anywhere, local people are being interviewed and telling us about it in English. To illustrate the point when Pope John Paul II arrived in the Middle East recently to retrace Christ's footsteps and addressed Christians, Muslims and Jews, the pontiff spoke not Latin, not Arabic, not Italian, not Hebrew, not his native Polish. He spoke in English.Indeed, if one looks at some of the facts about the amazing reachof the English language many would be surprised. English is used in over 90 countries as an official or semi-official language. English is the working language of the Asian trade group ASEAN. It is the de facto working language of 98 percent of international research physicists and research chemists. It is the official language of the European Central Bank, even though the bank is in Frankfurt and neither Britain nor any other predominantly English-speaking country is a member of the European Monetary Union. It is the language in which Indian parents and black parents in South Africa overwhelmingly wish their children to be educated. It is believed that over one billion people worldwide are currently learning English.One of the more remarkable aspects of the spread of English around the world has been the extent to which Europeans are adopting it as their internal lingua franca. English is spreading from northern Europe to the south and is now firmly entrenched as a second language in countries such as Sweden, Norway, Netherlands and Denmark. Although not an official language in any of these countries if one visits any of them it would seem that almost everyone there can communicate with ease in English. Indeed, if one switches on a television in Holland one would find as many channels in English (albeit subtitled), as there are in Dutch.As part of the European Year of Languages, a special survey of European attitudes towards and their use of languages has just published. The report confirms that at the beginning of 2001 English is the most widely known foreign or second language, with 43% ofEuropeans claiming they speak it in addition to their mother tongue. Sweden now heads the league table of English speakers, with over 89% of the population saying they can speak the language well or very well. However, in contrast, only 36% of Spanish and Portuguese nationals speak English. What's more, English is the language rated as most useful to know, with over 77% of Europeans who do not speak English as their first language, rating it as useful. French rated 38%, German 23% and Spanish 6%English has without a doubt become the global language.A Chronology of the English Language449Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain begins450-480Earliest Old English inscriptions date from this period597St. Augustine arrives in Britain. Beginning of Christian conversion731The Venerable Bede publishes The Ecclesiastical History of the English People in Latin792Viking raids and settlements begin871Alfred becomes king of Wessex. He has Latin works translated into English and begins practice of English prose. TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle is begun911Charles II of France grants Normandy to the Viking chief Hrolf the Ganger. The beginning of Norman Frenchc. 1000The oldest surviving manuscript of Beowulf dates from this period1066The Norman conquestc. 1150The oldest surviving manuscripts of Middle English date from this period1171Henry II conquers Ireland1204King John loses the province of Normandy to France1348English replaces Latin as the medium of instruction in schools, other than Oxford and Cambridge which retain Latin1362The Statute of Pleading replaces French with English as the language of law. Records continue to be kept in Latin. English is used in Parliament for the first time1384Wyclif publishes his English translation of the Bible c. 1388Chaucer begins The Canterbury Tales1476William Caxton establishes the first English printing press 1492Columbus discovers the New World1549First version of The Book of Common Prayer1604Robert Cawdrey publishes the first English dictionary, Table Alphabeticall1607Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, established1611The Authorized, or King James Version, of the Bible is published1702Publication of the first daily, English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, in London1755Samuel Johnson publishes his dictionary 1770Cook discovers Australia1928The Oxford English Dictionary is published。
American Brief HistoryBefore Colonial periodForty thousand years ago, a group of Rangers from Asia through North America to Central and South America, these people are the ancestors of the Indians. Indians living in the Americas when Columbus reached the New World ,There are about 30 million, of which about 20 million people live in Canada and the United States, north-central, the rest of the vast majority live in Mexico and the United States south. About 10,000 years ago, there are another group of Asians migrated to northern North America, which is later Eskimos. The earliest American Caucasian may be Vikings, they are a group of adventurous fishing, some people think that 1,000 years ago, they have been to the east coast of North America.Colonial periodIn 1607, one of about 100 people of colonial groups in Chesapeake Beach Jamestown, which is the first permanent colony built by the British in North America, after 150 years, one after another coming Many colonists settled in the coastal areas, many of them from the United Kingdom, and also in part from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and other countries. The mid-18th century, the 13 British colonies gradually formed, they have their own government and Parliament in the highest British sovereignty. The 13 colonial area due to the differences of climate and geographical environment, resulting in economic patterns around, the difference between the political system and the concept.Independence MovementThe mid-18th century, the British colonies in the Americas and the United Kingdom, the existing cracks. With the continuous expansion of the colony, and gradually make them aware of the seriousness of the developments, which sprouted the idea of an independent.In 1773, the Boston Tea Party, anti-British colonists dumping.In 1774, representatives from 13 states gathered in Philadelphia, convened the First Continental Congress, hoping to solve the problem peacefully and the United Kingdom. King, however, adhere to the colony must unconditionally surrender to the British king, and accept the punishment. 1775, in Massachusetts, to Lexington flames of war, the outbreak of the War of Independence in North America.Held in Philadelphia in May 1776, the Second Continental Congress, staunch war with the independent determination, and published his famous "Declaration of Independence", put forward a good reason to fight the battle. Issued the "Declaration of Independence" is considered to be the beginning of the establishment by the United States, this day (July 4) was also the United States as a National Day.In October 1777, Saratoga victory, reversing the negative trend of the war of independence early. The campaign to make the American people's confidence, and international support.France and the United States signed a military alliance treaty in February 1778, France officially recognized the United States. France, Spain, the Netherlands have war.In 1781, the Battle of Yorktown Victory, the U.S. military has won a decisive victory. Yorktown after the battle, in addition to the sea there are several warring and sporadic fighting on land, the war of the North American continent has basically stopped.The success of the revolution, the American people have the opportunity to express their political ideas in legislative form. Federal Assembly 1787, held in Philadelphia, in Washington pushed for President, they take a matter of principle, that the central authority is a general, but there must beprudent regulations and instructions, at the same time, they also accept the fact that national government must tax, coin money, to adjust the commercial, a declaration of war and the power to enter into treaties. In addition, in order to prevent the central authority is too large, and to take the politics Montesquieu doctrine, that the Government set three equal cooperation with the department, that the three powers of the legislative, executive, and judicial checks and balances to reconcile checks and balances, rather than make any rights accounted for controlling position.In 1812, Britain again invaded the newly established United States, known as the Second War of Independence, the post-war U.S. states more united.Westward expansionThe early 19th century, thousands of people across the Appalachian Mountains, moved west. Some pioneers, emigrated to the United States border, belong to the territory of Latin America north of Mexico, between Alaska and California, Oregon and even depth.In 1846, the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, the United States expanded their area.Civil WarThe cause of the Civil War, not only economic, political, military and ideological conflict. The civil war has exposed the weakness of the United States. The existence of this country, and made some test. After the test, the United States was moving towards the royal road to a centralized modern state. Slavery issue between the North and the South would disagree, the main policy of the South in national politics, in the protection and expansion of the interests represented by the system of cotton and slaves; northern states, mainly manufacturing, commercial and financial center These production without relying on slaves.This economic and political conflict is long-standing. The early 1860s, 11 Southern states seceded from the Union, and another group of government, said of the North, will be willing to pay any price in order to unify. In 1861, civil war broke out in this bloody war Americans face-to-face, after four years. April 9, 1865, the southern government failed, this victory is not only the U.S. recovery unified, but also from all over the country is no longer the purposes of slavery. Industrialization and reformThe early 19th century, the United States began to industrialization after the civil war entered a mature stage. Become urbanized country in less than 50 years from the Civil War to World War I, the United States from a rural republic. From the 1890-1917 year for the past 30 years, is known as the so-called "progressive period". In 1914, the outbreak of World War I; 1917, the United States was involved in World War whirlpool, and try to play a new role in the world.Great Depression and World War IIAffected by the Great Depression is not just the United States, the countries of the world have been implicated. Great Depression, millions of workers are unemployed, a large number of farmers were forced to give up farmland, factory shops closed, and bank failures in a recession. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt (1882 to 1945) was elected president, he advocated that the government should take action to end the Great Depression, and then launched a series of policies to a temporary solution to alleviate many difficulties, but the economy of the United States or to the Second World World War II after waking up. After World War II, with the defeat of the Axis powers, Britain and France, the strength of the recession, the United States and the Soviet Union became a superpower, the world was divided into two camps of the East and the West. The United States and the Soviet Union and their respective camps were busy preparing the various aspects ofthe military, political, economic, and propaganda, as in wartime. This state is known as the "Cold War".During the Cold WarThe history of the United States since 1960, many ways is still a continuation of the post-war development. Economic aspects in addition to the cyclical downturn is still expanding; moved from the city to the suburbs of the population continues to increase, and in 1970, ranking rural population of more than the home city population. Early 1960, blacks become the main problem within the United States.The mid-1960s, many Americans began to be dissatisfied with the government's foreign policy. In addition, due to the concentration of industrial development and population, the late 1960s, the ecological environment pollution wide attention. Since the early 1970s, the recession caused by the energy crisis of the worst. The mid-1970s, the U.S. economy once recovery. But not period in the 1970s, and inflation.In 1976, the 200th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the country held various celebrations. The United States in the Cold War eventually caused the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States as the world's only superpower, the ideological barriers between the two camps in the world is broken. April 12, 1981, the United States launched the space shuttle Columbia, humans have brought in another space a new era. Terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism policy9.11 in New York and Washington in 2001, "have an enormous impact on the United States and the world, this event is by far the most serious terrorist attacks in human history. The U.S. government condemned this incident and stand by the sympathy and support of most countries; around the world after the events in a variety of commemorative activities. The incident also led to a U.S. foreign policy focused on dealing with the threat of terrorism. The U.S. government started the war on terror and action to overthrow the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in October 2001. In 2003, the United States launched the war in Iraq, the overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi interim government. • May 1, 2011, the Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, the U.S. Navy Seals killed.。
Unit one A Brief History of EnglishPaul McHenry Roberts (1917- 1967) was an American author and journalist. He taught college English for over twenty years，first at San Jose State College and later at Cornell University. He published numerous books on linguistics, including Understanding Grammar (1954)，Patterns of English (1956)，and Understanding English (1958). In this selection excerpted from the book Understanding English (1958)，Roberts recounts the major events in the English history and discusses their implications for the development of the English language.No understanding of the English language can be very satisfactory without a notion of the history of the language. But we shall have to make do with just a notion. The history of English is long and complicated, and we can only hit the high spots.The history of our language begins a little after A.D. 600. Everything before that is pre-history, which means that we can guess at it but cannot prove much. For a thousand years or so before the birth of Christ our linguistic ancestors, the Anglo-Saxons, were wandering through the forests of northern Europe. Their language was a part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European Family.Not much is surely known about the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in England. We do know, however, that they were a long time securing themselves in England. Fighting went on for as long as a hundred years before the Celts in England were all killed, driven into Wales, or reduced to slavery. This is the period of King Arthur, who was not entirely mythological. He was a Romanized Celt, a general, though probably not a king. He had some success against the Anglo-Saxons, but it was only temporary. By 550 or so the Anglo-Saxons were firmly established. English was in England.It is customary to divide the history of the English language into three periods: Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. Old English runs from the earliest records—i.e., seventh century— to about 1100 ; Middle English from 1100 to 1450 or 1500; Modern English from 1500 to the present day. Sometimes Modern English is further divided into Early Modern,1500-1700, and Late Modern.1700 to the present.When England came into history, it was divided into several more or less autonomous kingdoms, some of which at times exercised a certain amount of control over the others. In the sixth century themost advanced kingdom. Northumbria, developed a respectable civilization, the finest in Europe. It was in this period that best of the Old English literature was written, including the epic poem Beowulf.In the eighth century. Northumbrian power declined, and the center of influence moved southward to Mercia, the kingdom of the Midlands. A century later the center shifted again, and Wessex the country of the West Saxons, became the leading power. The most famous king of the West Saxons was Alfred the great, whose military accomplishment was his successful opposition to the Viking invasions. In the ninth and tenth centuries, the Norsemen emerged in their ships from their homelands in Denmark and the Scandinavian Peninsula. The linguistic result of all this was a considerable injection of Norse into the English language. Norse was at this time not so different from English as Norwegian or Danish is now. Probably speakers of English could understand, more or less, the language of the newcomers who had moved into eastern England. At any rate, there was considerable interchange and word borrowing. Examples of Norse words in the English language are sky, give, law. egg, outlaw, leg. ugly, scant, sly, crawl, scowl, take, thrust. There are hundreds more. We have even borrowed some pronouns from Norse-they, their and them.These words were borrowed first by the eastern and northern dialects and then in the course of hundreds of years made their way into English generally.In grammar, Old English was much more highly inflected than modern English is. That is, there were more case endings for nouns, more person and number endings for verbs, a more complicated pronoun system, various endings for adjectives, and so on. Present-day English has only two cases for nouns- common case and possessive case. Adjectives now have no case system at all. On the other hand, we now use a more rigid word order and more structure words (prepositions, auxiliaries, and the like) to express relationships than Old English did. In vocabulary, most of the Old English words are what we may call native English: that is, words which have not been borrowed from other languages but which have been a part of English ever since English was a part of Indo-European. Old English did certainly contain borrowed words. We have seen that many borrowings were coming in from Norse. Rather large numbers had been borrowed from Latin, too. Some of these were taken while the Anglo-Saxons were still on the Continent (cheese, butter, bishop, kettle, etc.). But the greatmajority of Old English words were native English. Now, on the contrary, the majority of words in English are borrowed，and only about 14 percent are native.Sometime between the years 1000 and 1200 various important changes took place in the structure of English, and Old English became Middle English. The political event which facilitated these changes was the Norman Conquest. The Normans, as the name shows, came originally from Scandinavia. In the early tenth century they established themselves in northern France, adopted the French language, and developed a vigorous kingdom and a very passable civilization. In the year 1066, led by Duke William, they crossed the Channel and made themselves masters of England. For the next several hundred years, England was ruled by kings whose first language was French.One might wonder why, after the Norman Conquest, French did not become the national language, replacing English entirely. The reason is that the Conquest was not a national migration, as the earlier Anglo -Saxon invasion had been. Great numbers of Normans came to England, but they came as rulers and landlords. French became the language of the court, the language of the nobility, the language of polite society, the language of literature . But it did not replace English as the language of the people. There must always have been hundreds of towns and villages in which French was never heard except when visitors of high station passed through.But English, though it survived as the national language, was profoundly changed after the Norman Conquest. It is in vocabulary that the effects of the Conquest are most obvious. French ceased, after a hundred years or so, to be the native language of very many people in England, but it continued - and continues still ---to be a zealously cultivated second language, the mirror of elegance and civilization . When one spoke English, one introduced not only French ideas and French things but also their French names. This was not only easy but socially useful. To pepper one’s conversation with French expressions was to show that one was well- bred, elegant, au courant. The last sentence shows that the process is not yet dead. By using au courant instead of, say , abreast of thing the writer indicates that he is no dull clod who knows only English but an elegant person aware of how things are done in le haunt monde.Thus French words came into English, all sorts of them. These words to do with government：parliament , majesty, treaty , alliance , tax ,government ; church words：parson, sermon, baptism, incense, crucifix, religion; words for foods : veal , beef ，mutton , bacon , jelly，peach, lemon, cream, biscuit; colors : blue , scarlet , vermilion ; household words : curtain , chair , lamp , towel , blanket , parlor ; play words : dance , chess , music, leisure , conversation ; literary words : story , romance , poet, literary ; learned words : study, logic , grammar , noun , surgeon , an atomy , stomach ; just ordinary words of all sorts : nice, second ,very, age bucket, gentle , final , fault , flower , cry , count, sure , move , surprise , plain．All these and thousands more poured into the English vocabulary between 1100 and 1500 until, at the end of that time, many people must have had more French words than English at their command. This is not to say that English became French. English remained English in sound structure and in grammar, though these also felt the ripples of French influence. The very heart of the vocabulary, too, remained English. Most of the high-frequency words -- the pronouns, the preposition, the conjunctions , the auxiliaries , as well as a great many ordinary nouns and verbs and adjectives---were not replaced by borrowings.Middle English, then, was still a Germanic language, but it differed from Old English in many ways. The sound system and the grammar changed a good deal. Speakers made less use of case systems and other inflectional devices and relied more on word order and structure words to express their meanings. This is often said to be a simplification, but it is not really. Languages don ' t become simpler; they merely exchange one kind of complexity for another. Modern English is not a simple language, as any foreign speaker who tries to learn it will hasten to tell you.The period of Early Modern English --that is , the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries --was also the period of the English Renaissance，when people developed , on the one hand , a keen Interest in the past and , on the other , a more daring and imaginative view of the future. New ideas multiplied, and new ideas meant new language. Englishmen had grown accustomed to borrowing words from French as a result of the Norman Conquest; now they borrowed from Latin and Greek. As we have seen, English had been raiding Latin from Old English times and before, but now the floodgates really opened, and thousands of words from the classical languages pouredin.Pedestrian,bonus,anatomy,controdict,climax,dictionary,benefit,multiply,exist,paragraph,initiate,sc ene,inspire are random examples. Probably the average educated American today has more words from French in his vocabulary than from native English sources, and more from Latin than from French.The greatest writer of the Early Modern English period is of course Shakespeare, and the best-known book is the King James Version of the Bible, published in 1611. The Bible (if not Shakespeare) has made many features of Early Modern English perfectly familiar to many people down to the present time, even though we do not use these features in present-day speech and writing. For instance, the old pronoun thou and thee have dropped out of use now, but they are still familiar to us in prayer and in Biblical quotations, such as “Whither thou goest, I will go.”The history of English since 1700 is filled with many movements and countermovement, of which we can notice only a couple. One of these is the vigorous attempt made in the eighteenth century, and the rather half-heated attempts made since, to regulate and control the English language. Many people of the eighteenth century, not understanding very well the forces which govern language, proposed to polish and prune and restrict English, which they felt was proliferating too widely. There was much talk of an academy which would rule on what people could and could not say and write. The academy never came into being, but the eighteenth century did not succeed in establishing certain attitudes which, though they ha ven’t had much effect on the development of the language itself, have certainly changed the native speaker’s feeling about the language.In part, a product of the wish to fix and establish the language was the development of the dictionary. The first English dictionary was published in 1603; it was a list of 2500 words briefly defined. Many others were published his English Dictionary in 1755. This, steadily revised, dominated the field in England for nearly a hundred years. Meanwhile in America, Noah Webster published his dictionary in 1828, and before long dictionary publishing was a big business in this country. The last century has seen the publication of one great dictionary: the twelve-volume Oxford English Dictionary, compiled in the course of seventy-five years through the labors of many scholars. We have also, of course, numerous commercial dictionaries which are as good as the public wantsthem to be if not, indeed, rather better.Another product of the eighteenth century was the invention of “English grammar.” As English came to replace Latin as the language of scholarship, it was felt that one should also be able to control and dissect it, parse and analyze it, as one could Latin. What happened in practice was that the grammatical description that applied to Latin was removed and superimposed on English. This was silly, because English is an entirely different kind of language, with its own forms and signals and ways of producing meaning. Nevertheless, English grammars on Latin model were worked out and taught in the schools. In many schools they are still being children, but it is sometimes an interesting and instructive exercise in logic. The principal harm in it is that it has tended to keep people from being interested in English and has obscured the real features of English structure.But probably the most important force on the development of English in the modern period has been tremendous expansion of English-speaking peoples. In 1500 English was a minor language, spoken by a few people on a small island. Now it is perhaps the greatest language of the world, spoken natively by over a quarter of a billion people and as a second language by many millions more. When we speak of English now, we must specify whether we mean American English, British English, Australian English, Indian English, or what, since the differences are considerable. The American cannot go to England or the Englishman to America confident that he will always understand and be understood. It is only because communication has become fast and easy that English in this period of its expansion has not broken into a dozen mutually unintelligible languages.。
Chapter One A Brief IntroductionⅠ. Introduction1. Questionnaires (extra hand-outs)These two questionnaires are presented as the warming up exercises to check how the students can handle communications in daily practice. Discuss the communicative problems with students and analyze the relevant reasons. Then ask the students some questions.2. Lead-in Questionsⅰ. What do you usually communicate with other people?ⅱ. Have you ever been embarrassed when talking with strangers? Why is that?ⅲ. Do you know how to communicate with foreigners?Tell their conversation partner something concrete and significant about themselves.Look for common interests and shared opinions for a more solid basis of relationship.Individualize the foreigners.ⅳ. Have you come across the cultural shock in communication?3. DiscussionDiscuss the different ways of cultural communication and found out the reasons by analyzing some cases.4．Introduction of Intercultural Communicationa.Cross-cultural communication is also called intercultural communication. “Intercultural Communication”is communication between members of different cultural backgrounds. Intercultural Communication involves different perceptions, attitudes, and interpretations. Intercultural Communication is an interdisciplinary field which includes anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, and communication.Anthropology(from the Greek word ἄνθρωπος, "human" or "person") consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all humans at all times and with all dimensions of humanity. In principle, it isconcerned with all institutions of all societies.Cultural studies combines sociology, social theory, literary theory, media theory, film/video studies, cultural anthropology,philosophy and art history/criticism to study cultural phenomena in industrial societies. Cultural studies researchers often concentrate on how a particular phenomenon relates to matters of ideology, race, social class, and/or gender.Cultural studies concerns itself with the meaning and practices of everyday life. Cultural practices comprise the ways people do particular things (such as watching television, or eating out) in a given culture. Particular meanings attach to the ways people in particular cultures do things.Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the study of the human mind, brain, and behavior. Psychology also refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including problems of individuals' daily lives and the treatment of mental illness.For instance, if you talk with your American teacher, intercultural communication takes place. If you interact with a Japanese student, there is intercultural communication.It takes place everywhere.Intercultural communication dates back to thousands of years ago. A long time ago, when people started intermingling with each other, when people were having trade relations with each other, there was intercultural communication. A very good example is the Silk Road.b. Reasons for us to learn cross-cultural communication:Modern means of communicationNow jet planes fly everywhere. It used to take a month to travel from Shanghai to Los Angeles. But now, it takes only twelve hours. It is much easier for people to move from one country to another. People of different countries and races get together much oftener than before. Besides, people get in touch with each other in various ways, including the telephone, the internet, the satellite, etc.Sophisticated communication systems have also helped to increase intercultural communication.Global villageThis means multinational companies now operate in many countries in the world.They employ people of different ethnic groups and of different countries.Actually some multinational companies make a point of employing people from different countries. They don't use people from just one country because their company is a multinational company and they want to use people from different countries. People everywhere need to learn about other cultures. They need to know their neighbors. They need to know how to get along with them and how to solve problems that inevitably arise. To do this it is necessary to learn how to communicate across cultures or how to do culture.Mass migrationMillions of people now move across national boarders every year. All these contribute to the fact that intercultural communication is now a daily occurrence.Its importance is now being recognized by an increasing number of people. The United States is a “melting pot”. Many young Americans no longer accept the melting pot image, because it includes the idea that people lose their home cultural identities, traditions, and values when they become Americans. We now replace the melting pot with mosaic. A mosaic is made up of diverse materials or elements that keep their original character when they are combined to create a new design. This new image expresses the idea that part of the American way of life is respect for cultural diversity.c. ApplicationIt can be applied in the training of business executives and technicians, particularly for those who go overseas. And they have to encounter a lot of cultural problems, so they have to be trained before they are sent overseas.Otherwise they would not be able to work effectively.And then there is the training of new immigrants and foreign students. This is done both in the United States, and also in countries like Australia.And then there is multicultural education because at American schools and also at some of the British schools, the pupils, the students are from different ethnic groups, and they have different cultures. So they have to be given what is calledmulticultural education. And also in foreign language teaching, intercultural communication is very important. Finally, it is useful for improving general cultural awareness.Ⅱ. Communication1.Types of Communicationa)human communicationHumans communicate in various ways. We speak, use body languages,intentionally or unintentionally communicate each other in either formal orinformal ways. (formal&informal, oral&written, intentional&unintentional,verbal&nonverbal)b)animal communicationResearchers have discovered that animals share with humans a number ofcharacteristics, including those associated with attraction and mating,territoriality, rivalry and play, familial ties, colony organization, division oflabor, and numbers of other traits that we once assumed were uniquely“human”. (animal language)c)human-animal communicationnon-word soundbody languaged)human-computer communicationInformation that was once conveyed verbally through stories and myths inancient times is now transmitted through high-tech media. (artificiallanguage)e) machine-machine communicationartificial language: codes2. Compare and ContrastGreetingsDialogue 1Friend: Hi, George, have you met Bill?George: No, I haven’t. Hi, Bill.Bill: Hi! How ya doing?Dialogue 2香港人到現在一見面還是會問：“食咗飯未？”意思就是吃過飯了嗎。
