事实：英语是牙买加国家的官方语言-English is Jamaica’s Official Language

Pre-Listening Vocabulary

Western Hemisphere: the half of the globe that lies west of the prime meridian¹

colony: a region that is partly controlled by another nation

patois²: any non-standard language

Creole: mixed European and African ancestry³; often refers to people or food in the Caribbean

English is Jamaica’s Official Language 

 

Jamaica is the third-largest English-speaking country in the Western Hemisphere. Jamaica uses British English because it was a British colony. Like Canadians, however, Jamaicans have adopted many American words, phrases and spellings in recent years. English is Jamaica’s official language and is taught in schools, but Jamaica also has its own informal language called Jamaican Patois (also spelled Patwa or Patwah). This is an English-based Creole language with West African influences. In Jamaica, Patois is mainly a spoken language. The structure is different from English in many ways. For example, there is no subject-verb agreement.

1 meridian   

adj.子午线的；全盛期的

参考例句：

• All places on the same meridian have the same longitude.在同一子午线上的地方都有相同的经度。
• He is now at the meridian of his intellectual power.他现在正值智力全盛期。

2 patois   

n.方言；混合语

参考例句：

• In France patois was spoken in rural,less developed regions.在法国，欠发达的农村地区说方言。
• A substantial proportion of the population speak a French-based patois.人口中有一大部分说以法语为基础的混合语。

3 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。