【正文】 amples to help us predict what happens to a language when it achieves genuine world status. 然而，英語的未來無從預測。9 Finally, no English language central authority guards the standards of the language, therefore, many dialects have developed: American, British, Canadian, Indian, and Australian, to name a few. There is no standard pronunciation. But within this diversity is a unity of grammar and one set of core vocabulary. Thus, each country that speaks the language can introduce aspects of its own culture into the usage and vocabulary. 最后一點是，由于沒有英語語言中央權威機構維護英語標準，因此形成了許多方言：美國英語、英國英語、加拿大英語、印度英語和澳大利亞英語，就是眾多的方言中的幾種。 8 English, like many languages, uses a phonetic alphabet and fairly basic grammar. But most importantly, it has a large and extensive vocabulary, of which about 80% is foreign. It has borrowed and continues to borrow words from Spanish and French, Hebrew and Arabic, HindiUrdu and Bengali, Malay and Chinese, as well as languages from West Africa and Polynesia. This language characteristic makes it unique in history. 英語像許多語言一樣使用語音字母以及比較基本的語法。信息革命不再受地域與國界的限制，正在重新界定我們的世界。 6 In science, English replaced German after World War Ⅱ. (3)With this technical and scientific dominance came the beginning of overall dominance by the language, first in Europe and then globally. 在科學領域，英語在二戰(zhàn)之后取代了德語。游行示威者要引起世界關注他們的問題，就打著用英語書寫的標語。 4 When Mexican pilots land their airplanes in France, they and the ground controllers use English. When German physicists want to alert the international scientific munity to new discoveries, they first publish their findings in English. When Japanese executives conduct business with Scandinavian businessmen, they negotiate in English. When pop singers write their songs, they often use English. When demonstrators want to alert the world to their problems, they display signs in English. 墨西哥飛行員在法國降落飛機時，與地面控制人員用英語通話。這一趨勢無疑會對英語產(chǎn)生影響。全世界70%以上的科學家閱讀英語。s mail is written is English. And 90% of all information in the world39。這一過程在幾個方面都是前所未有的：英語使用人數(shù)的增加，英語在不同社會滲透的深度，以及英語功用的廣度。 by its depth of penetration into societies。 19 Indeed, the English language is not the special preserve of grammarians, language police, teachers, writers or the intellectual elite. English is, and always has been, the tongue of the mon man. 事實上，英語不是語法學家、語言衛(wèi)道士、教師、作家或知識精英的特殊領地?！? 18 I like that idea. Consider that the same cultural soil producing the English language also nourished the great principles of freedom and rights of man in the modern world. The first shoots sprang up in England, and they grew stronger in America. The Englishspeaking peoples have defeated all efforts to build fences around their language. 我喜歡這一觀點。幸運的是，他們的設想從未付諸實施。希臘羅馬經(jīng)典著作的譯文紛紛印成書冊，成千上萬的拉丁詞，如capsule （密封小容器；航天艙） 和 habitual （慣常的），希臘詞，如catastrophe （大災難） 和 thermometer（溫度計）等也隨之涌入。三個多世紀后，英語逐漸吞并了法語，到15世紀末，發(fā)展成為一種經(jīng)過改進，大大豐富了的擁有一萬多個“借來”的法語詞匯的語言——中古英語。這時英國三種語言并用：貴族使用法語，教會使用拉丁語，平民使用英語。但古斯堪的納維亞語和英語同時留傳下來，因此你可以說rear a child（英語），也可以說raise a child（斯堪的納維亞語）。 12 The next big influence on English was Christianity. It enriched the AngloSaxon vocabulary with some 400 to 500 words from Greek and Latin, including angel, disciple and martyr. 下一個對英語產(chǎn)生重大影響的是基督教。 10 New words came with the Germanic tribes the Angles, the Saxons, etc. that slipped across the North Sea to settle in Britain in the 5th century. Together they formed what we call AngloSaxon society. 新的詞匯隨日爾曼部落——盎格魯、薩克遜等部落——而來，他們在5世紀的時候越過北海定居在不列顛。這些人使用同樣的詞表達“雪”、“蜜蜂”和“狼”，但沒有表示“?！钡脑~。 8 Two centuries ago an English judge in India noticed that several words in Sanskrit closely resembled some words in Greek and Latin. A systematic study revealed that many modern languages descended from a mon parent langua