【正文】 t speak the sam e ki nd of Engli sh. Look at thi s ki nd of exampl e: Bri ti sh Betty: Woul d you li ke to see m y fl at? Am eri can Am y: Yes. I’d l ike to e up to your apartm ent. So why has Engli sh changed over tim e? Actual y al l anguages change and devel op when cultures m eet and m uni cate wi th each other. At fi rst the Engl i sh spoken i n Engl and between about AD 450 and 1150 was very di fferent the Engl ish spoken today. It was based m ore on Germ an than the Engli sh we speak at present. Then gradual y between about AD800 to 1150, Engl i sh becam e l es l i ke germ en because those who rul ed Engl and spoke fi rst Danish and later French. These new settl ers enri ched the Engli sh l anguage and especial y i ts vocabul ary. So by the 1600’s Shakespeare was abl e to make use of a wider vocabul ary than ever before. In 1620 some British settl ers m oved to Ameri can. Later i n the 18th century som e Bri ti sh people were taken to Australi a too. Engl i sh began to be spoken i n both countri es. Fi nal y by the 19th century the l anguage was setl ed. At that ti me two bi g changes i n Engli sh spel ing happened: fi rst Sam uel Johnson wrote his di cti onary and l ater N oah Webster wrote The Ameri can Di ctionary of the Engli sh Language. The latter gave a separate i denti ty to Am eri can Engli sh spel li ng. Engl ish now i s al so spoken as a forei gn or second l anguage i n South Asi a. For exam pl e, Indi a has a very l arge num ber of fluent Engli sh speakers because Bri tai n rul ed Indi a from 1765 to 1947. duri ng that tim e Engli sh becam e the l anguage for governm ent and educati on. Engl ish i s al so spoken i n Si ngapore and Mal aysi a and countri es i n Afri ca such as South Afri ca. Today the num ber of peopl e learni ng Engli sh i n Chi na is i ncreasi ng rapi dl y. In fact, China m ay have the l argest num ber of Engl ish l earners. Wi l Chi nese Engl i sh devel op i ts own i denti ty? O nl y ti me wil l tel l. STAN DARD EN GLISH AN D DIALECTS What i s standard Engl i sh? Is it spoken i n Bri tai n, the US, Canada, Austral i a, Indi a and N ew Zeal and? Bel i eve i t or not, there is no such thi ng as standard Engl i sh. Many peopl e beli eve the Engli sh spoken on TV and the radi o i s standard Engli sh. Thi s i s because i n the earl y days of radi o, those who reported the news were expected to speak excel lent Engli sh. H owever, on TV and the radi o you wi l hear di fferences i n the way peopl e speak. When peopl e use words and expressi ons di fferent from the “standard l anguage”, it is cal ed a dial ect. American Engl ish has many dial ects, especial y the Midwestern, southern, Afri can Am eri can and Spani sh di al ects. Even i n som e parts of the USA, two peopl e from nei ghbouri ng towns speak a li ttl e di fferently. Am eri can Engl i sh has so m any di alects because peopl e have e from al over the worl d. Geography al so pl ays a part in m aking di alects. Som e people who li ve i n the m ountains of the eastern USA speak wi th an ol der kind of Engl i sh dial ect. When Am eri cans m oved from one pl ace to another, they took thei r di al ects wi th them . So peopl e from the m ountains i n the southeastern USA speak wi th alm ost the sam e di al ects as peopl e i n the northwestern USA. The USA i s a l arge country i n whi ch m any di fferent di al ects are spoken. Al though many Americans move a l ot, they stil l recognize and understand each other’s dial ects. TH E O XFO RD EN GLISH DICTION ARY You m ay thi nk that Engli sh di cti onari es have been used for m any, m any centuri es. The spel li ng of Engli sh has al ways been a probl em but i t was m ore of a probl em i n the days before a di cti onary. Then peopl e coul d spel word in di fferent ways which you m i ght fi nd i t i nteresting. But i t made reading Engl ish much more di fficult. So di ctionari es were i nvented to encourage everybody to spel l the same. In fact, an Engl ish dictionary like the kind you use today wasn’t made 必修一 Uni t 1 ANNE’S BEST FRIEND Do you want a fri end whom you coul d tel everythi ng to, l i ke your deepest feli ngs and thoughts? O r are you afrai d that your fri end woul d l augh at you, or woul d not understand what you are goi ng through? Anne Frank wanted the first ki nd, so she m ade her best fri end. Anne l ived i n Am sterdam in N etherl ands duri ng Woul d WarⅡ . Her fami l y was Jewi sh so they had to hi de or they woul d be caught by the Germ an N azi . She and her fam il y hi d away for nearl y twentyfive months before they were discovered. During that time the onl y true friend was her diary. She said ,”I don’t want to set down a seri es of facts i n a di ary as m ost peopl e do , but I want this diary itsel f to be my friend, and I shal l cal l my friend Kity . ”Now read how she felt after being in the hiding pl ace si nce Jul y 1942. Thursday 15th June 1944 Dear Ki tty, I wonder if it’s because I h。 必修一 Uni t 1 ANNE’S BEST FRIEND Do you want a fri end whom you coul d tel everythi ng to, l i ke your deepest feli ngs and thoughts? O r are you afrai d that your fri end woul d l augh at you, or woul d not understand what you are goi ng through? Anne Frank wanted the first ki nd, so she m ade her best fri end. Anne l ived i n Am sterdam in N etherl ands duri ng Woul d WarⅡ . Her fami l y was Jewi sh so they had to hi de or they woul d be caught by the Germ an N azi . She and her fam il y hi d away for nearl y twentyfive months before they were discovered. During that time the onl y true friend was her diary. She said ,”I don’t want to set down a seri es of facts i n a di ary as m ost peopl e do , but I want thi s di ary i tsel f to be my friend, and I shal l cal l my friend Kity . ”Now read how she felt after being in the hiding pl ace since Jul y 1942. Thursday 15th June 1944 Dear Ki tty, I wonder if it’s because I haven’t been abl e to be out