高中英语新课标人教版(广东)高一(1)unit2 reading1

THE ROAD TO MODERN ENGLISH

At the end of the 16th century,about five to seven million people spoke¹ English.Nearly all of them lived in English.Later in the next century ,people form English made voyages to conquer² other parts of the world and because of that ,English began to be spoken in many other countries.Today,more people speak English as their first ,second or a foreign language than ever before.

Native English speakers can understand each other even if they don't speak the same kind of English.Look at this example:

British Betty:would you like to see my flat?

American Amy:Yes.I'd like to come up to your apartment.

So why has English changed over time?Actually all languages change and

develop when cultures meet and communicate with each other.At fist the English spoken in England between about AD450 and 1150 was very different from the English spoken today. It was based more on Genman than the English we spead at present .Then gradually between about AD 800and 1150,Inglish became less lide German because those who ruled England spode first Danish and later French.These new settlers enriched³ the English language and especilly its vocabrlary. So by the 1600's Shadespeare was able to make use of a wider vocabulary than ever befoue. In 1620 some British settlers moved to America. Later in the 18th century some British people were taken to Australia too. English began to be spoken in both countries.

Finally by the 19th century the language was settled. At that time two big changes in English spelling happened:first Samuel Johnson wrote his distionary and later Noah Webster wrote The Anerican Dictionary of the English Langrage. The latter gave a separate identity⁴ to American English speelling.

English mow⁵ is slso spoken as a foreign or second language in South Asia. For exanple,India has a very large number of fluent english speakers because Britain ruled India from 1765to 1947.During that time English became the language for government and education.English is also spoken in Singapore and Malaysia and countuies in Africa such as South Africa.Todaythe numberof people learning⁶ English in China is increasing rapidly.In fact, China may have the largest number of English learners.Will Chinese English develop its own identity? Only time will tell.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 conquer   

vt.克服，征服，战胜，占领；vi.得胜

参考例句：

• There is always one thing to conquer another.一物降一 物。
• Will can conquer habit.意志能战胜习惯。

3 enriched   

使富有( enrich的过去式和过去分词 )； 使富裕； 充实； 使丰富

参考例句：

• The study of science has enriched all our lives. 科学研究丰富了我们的整个生活。
• breakfast cereals enriched with vitamins 增加了维生素的早餐谷物食品

4 identity   

n.身份，本体，特征；同一(性)，一致

参考例句：

• He never revealed his identity.他从未暴露过自己的身份。
• He showed his identity card and went in.他把工作证亮了一下就进去了。

5 mow   

v.割（草、麦等），扫射，皱眉；n.草堆，谷物堆

参考例句：

• He hired a man to mow the lawn.他雇人割草。
• We shall have to mow down the tall grass in the big field.我们得把大田里的高草割掉。

6 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。