【正文】 t speak the same kind of Engli sh. Look at thi s ki nd of exam pl e: British Bety: 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 apartment. So why has Engl ish changed over tim e? Actual y al l languages change and devel op when cultures meet and m unicate wi th each other. At fi rst the Engli sh spoken in Engl and between about AD 450 and 150 was very di ferent the Engl ish spoken today. It was based more on Germ an than the Engli sh we speak at present. Then gradual ly between about AD80 to 1150, Engli sh became l es li ke germ en because those who ruled Engl and spoke first Danish and l ater French. These new settl ers enri ched the Engl ish l anguage and especial y i ts vocabulary. So by the 160’s Shakespeare was able to m ake use of a wider vocabulary than ever before. In 1620 som e Bri ti sh setl ers m oved to Am eri can. Later i n the 18th century som e Bri ti sh peopl e were taken to Austral ia too. Engli sh began to be spoken in both countries. Fi nal y by the 19th century the l anguage was settl ed. At that tim e two bi g changes i n Engli sh spel li ng happened: first Samuel Johnson wrote hi s dicti onary and l ater N oah Webster wrote The Am eri can Di ctionary of the Engl ish Language. The l atter gave a separate i denti ty to Am erican Engli sh spel li ng. Engli sh now i s al so spoken as a forei gn or second l anguage in South Asi a. For exam pl e, Indi a has a very l arge num ber of fl uent 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 is al so spoken in Si ngapore and Mal aysi a and countri es in Afri ca such as South Afri ca. Today the num ber of peopl e learni ng Engl ish in Chi na i s i ncreasi ng rapi dl y. In fact, China may have the l argest num ber of Engl ish learners. Wil l Chi nese Engli sh devel op i ts own i denti ty? O nl y tim e wi l tel l. STAN DARD EN GLISH AN D DIALECTS What is standard Engl ish? Is i t spoken i n Bri tain, the US, Canada, Austral ia, India and N ew Zeal and? Bel ieve i t or not, there i s no such thi ng as standard Engli sh. Many peopl e bel ieve the Engl ish spoken on TV and the radio i s standard Engli sh. Thi s is 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 radio you wil hear di ferences i n the way people speak. When peopl e use words and expressions different from the “standard l anguage”, it is cal ed a dialect. American Engl ish has many dialects, especi al y the Mi dwestern, southern, Afri can Am eri can and Spanish di alects. Even in som e parts of the USA, two people from nei ghbouring towns speak a l ittl e differentl y. Am eri can Engli sh has so many di al ects because peopl e have e from al l over the worl d. Geography al so pl ays a part i n m aki ng dial ects. Som e peopl e who li ve i n the mountai ns of the eastern USA speak wi th an ol der ki nd of Engli sh di al ect. When Am ericans moved from one pl ace to another, they took their di al ects wi th them . So peopl e from the m ountai ns i n the southeastern USA speak wi th almost the sam e di al ects as peopl e i n the northwestern USA. The USA i s a l arge country in which many di fferent dialects are spoken. Al though m any Ameri cans m ove a l ot, they stil recognize and understand each other’s dial ects. TH E O XFO RD EN GLISH DICTION ARY You m ay think that Engl ish dicti onari es have been used for m any, m any centuri es. The speli ng of Engl ish has al ways been a probl em but i t was m ore of a probl em i n the days before a dicti onary. Then peopl e coul d spel l word i n di fferent ways which you m ight fi nd i t i nteresting. But i t made reading Engl ish much more difficul t. So dictionaries were i nvented to encourage everybody to spel the same. In fact, an English 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 could tel l everythi ng to, li ke your depest feeli 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? Ane Frank wanted the first ki nd, so she made her best friend. Ane li ved i n Am sterdam i n N etherl ands duri ng Woul d WarⅡ .H er famil y was Jewi sh so they had to hi de or they would be caught by the Germ an N azi . She and her famil y hid away for nearly 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 series of facts in a diary as most peopl e do ,but I want this diary itsel f to be my friend, and I shal cal l my friend Kitty . ”Now read how she fel t after bei ng i n the hi di ng pl ace si nce Jul y 1942. Thursday 15th June 1944 Dear Ki ty, I wonder if it’s because I haven’t been abl e to be outdoors for so l ong that I’ve grown so crazy about everything to do wi th nature. I can wel l remem ber that there was a time when a deep blue sky, the song of the birds, moonlight and fl owers coul d never have kept me spel bound. That’s changed si nce I was here. …For exampl e, one evening when it was so warm, I stayed awake on purpose until half past el even in order to have a good l ook at the mon by myself. But as the mon gave far too much l ight, I didn’t dare open a window. Another time five months ago, I hapened to be upstairs at dusk when the window was open. I didn’t go downstairs until the window had to be shut. The dark, rainy eveni ng, the wi nd, the thundering cl ouds hel d me enti rel y i n thei r power。 （ 1）以劍閣縣白龍鎮(zhèn)為中心 的 18個鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn) ， 從辣椒育種、 栽必修一 Uni t 1 ANNE’S BEST FRIEND Do you want a fri end whom you could tel l everythi ng to, li ke your depest feeli 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? Ane Frank wa