1. What do you think of the changes of women’s roles since 19th century? Can women nowadays live
independently with equal rights?
A: Do you remember the novel we have read on the textbook A Pair of Silk Stockings?
B: Yes, a wonderful story about Mrs.Sommers.
A: So what’s your feeling after reading this story?
B: After getting married, the role of Mrs.Sommers changed. She became her husband’s wife and their
children’ mother. She had to bear the family’s burden; she never considered her own needs.
A: She looked so pitiful. She was even afraid of recalling the past. This reflected the imprisonment
[ɪm'prɪz(ə)nm(ə)nt] and repression against women of the American society in 18th century. The women
was confined to the social role of wife and mother; they didn’t allow any of them to have
self-awareness and personal pursuits.
B: That’s inconceivable. I can’t imagine that if I live at that time. So what do you think of the
changes of women’s role since 19th century?
A: Since 19th century, women have been more and more independent. In most countries, they have common
rights and female rights. I think the society should go forward and women should be treated equally.
B: Yes, nowadays, you can see many women work for the government, some even served as the president
or other important positions. Female officials are recognized by more and more people.
A: And more and more jobs are available to women. Women can have more choices. They can have their
career and do what they like, and don’t need to depend on men to live.
B: That's right. In family, women’s role changed also. They can work to earn money for the family
the same as the man. Husband and wife are equal and they respect each other.
A: A lot of changes have taken place. Women’ life will become more colorful.
B: Of course. It’s getting better. But can women nowadays live independently with equal rights?
A:Not exactly so. Though the law has been established and everyone appeal to equality, women could
not truly live independently with equal right. For example, when you apply for a job as the programmer,
the company tend to choose the male candidates and refuse female’s application, even though they
are better.
B: It’s really unfair. What’s more, in many places around the world, women are not equal with men.
They don’t have right, and they can’t protect themselves through legal channels. In Iran and
other
Middle East areas, women are forbidden to exposing their face unless in their own family. And women
can not participate in the elections.
A: There is still a long way to go in protecting women’ right.
2. During the development of a language, there are periods of dramatic changes and minor changes. Why?
Give some specific examples to illustrate it.
A: Do you know anything about the English language?
B: Yes. English is the official language used by most countries and a lot of countries set the English
as the second language.
A: Yeah, and in 19th-20th century, English became an international language because of the leading
positions of British and American. Their culture, economy, military, politics and science have
influenced other countries in the world.
B: That’s right. English is important now in our life. And it does change a lot with the time.
A: Yeah, yeah. I agree with you. The language has always changed, but the rate of change has been
uneven; minor changes have slowly accumulated in every generation, but there have been periods of
dramatic change as well. You know some of them?
B: Of course. The most important of these periods occurred after the Normans Conquered England.
This
conquest brought new concepts from across the channel, like the French language, the Doomsday Book
and so on. All in all, the English absorbed about ten thousand new words from the Normans. This
greatly
enriched the English language.
A: Absolutely, cultural conflict bring new vitality. Also, some changes haven’t come from the
borrowing, but from the natural growing need. Such as Shakespeare’s poetry, Bible. They all did
a great contribution in English changing. Just as the dictionary shows, about 2000 new words and
phrases were invented by William Shakespeare. His poetry showed the world that English was a rich,
vibrant language with limitless expressive and emotional power.
B: Yeah, many new words occurred with the development of the world. As well, the science, the
Internet,
their development produced many words like gene, e-mail, download, etc. When new things appeared,
new words are invented to follow them.
A: Besides the vocabulary, the grammar is also different from the beginning. For example, people
now like to say “Let’s have a drink” or “Let’s take a swim”. We call them “empty” verbs.
Years ago, we say “Let’s drink” or “Let’s swim”.
B: There are various kinds of grammar changes, we are not sure how it began, but more and more
people
expressed like that, then it became a standard grammar.
A: Yeah, these minor changes happened slowly. However, many years later, when you compare the present
one with the former, you would find a big change.
B. You’re right. The expansion of our knowledge and experience requires the invention of new
words
or the adaptation of old ones. Meaning will depend more and more upon word order and context, and
spelling will become simpler, with fewer common variants. English is always changing!
