【正文】 he 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 in a di ary as m ost peopl e do , but I want thi s di ary i tsel f to be m y fri end, and I shal l cal l my friend Kitty . ”Now read how she fel t after being in the hiding pl ace since Jul y 1942. Thursday 15th June 1944 Dear Kitty, 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 with nature. I can wel rem em ber that there was a ti m e when a deep bl ue sky, the song of the bi rds, m oonli ght and fl owers coul d never have kept me spel bound. That’s changed since I was here. …For exampl e, one evening when it was so warm, I stayed awake on purpose until hal f past el even in order to have a good look at the moon by mysel f. But as the moon gave far too much light, I didn’t dare open a window. Another time five months ago, I happened to be upstairs at dusk when the window was open. I didn’t go downstai rs unti l the wi ndow had to be shut. The dark, rainy eveni ng, the wi nd, the thunderi ng cl ouds hel d me enti rel y i n thei r power。t speak the sam e ki nd of Engli sh. Look at this ki nd of exam pl e: Bri ti sh Betty: Woul d you li ke to se m y fl at? Am eri can Am y: Yes. I’d l i ke to e up to your apartment. So why has Engl ish changed over tim e? Actual l y al l l anguages change and devel op when cul tures m eet and m uni cate wi th each other. At fi rst the Engl ish spoken i n England between about AD 450 and 1150 was very di fferent the Engli sh spoken today. It was based m ore on Germ an than the Engl i sh we speak at present. Then gradual ly between about AD800 to 150, Engli sh becam e l ess l i ke germ en because those who rul ed Engl and spoke fi rst Dani sh and later French. These new settl ers enri ched the Engli sh l anguage and especial y its vocabul ary. So by the 1600’s Shakespeare was abl e to make use of a wider vocabul ary than ever before. In 1620 som e Bri ti sh settl ers moved to Am eri can. Later i n the 18th century som e Bri ti sh peopl e were taken to Australi a too. Engl ish 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 Engl i sh spel li ng happened: fi rst Sam uel Johnson wrote hi s di cti onary and l ater N oah Webster wrote The Am eri can Di cti onary of the Engl i sh Language. The l ater gave a separate i dentity to Am erican Engli sh spel ing. Engl i sh now i s also spoken as a forei gn or second language in South Asia. For exampl e, Indi a has a very l arge num ber of fl uent Engli sh speakers because Bri tai n ruled Indi a from 1765 to 1947. duri ng that ti m e Engl i sh becam e the l anguage for governm ent and educati on. Engli sh i s also 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 l earni ng Engli sh i n China i s i ncreasing rapi dl y. In fact, Chi na m ay have the l argest num ber of Engl i sh learners. Wil Chi nese Engli sh devel op i ts own i denti ty? O nl y ti me wil tel l. STAN DARD EN GLISH AN D DIALECTS What i s standard Engl ish? Is i t spoken i n Britai n, the US, Canada, Australi a, India and N ew Zeal and? Beli eve i t or not, there i s no such thing as standard Engli sh. Many peopl e bel ieve the Engli sh spoken on TV and the radi o is 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 l ent Engl ish. However, 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 diferent from the “standard l anguage”, it is cal l ed a dial ect. American English has many dial ects, especial ly the Midwestern, southern, Afri can Am eri can and Spanish di alects. Even i n som e parts of the USA, two peopl e from nei ghbouring towns speak a l i tl e di ferentl y. Am erican Engli sh has so m any 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 di al ects. Som e peopl e who l i ve in the m ountai ns of the eastern USA speak with an ol der ki nd of Engli sh di al 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 mountai ns i n the southeastern USA speak with al most the same di al ects as peopl e in the northwestern USA. The USA is a large country i n whi ch m any di fferent dial 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 may thi nk that Engl i sh dicti onaries have been used for m any, m any centuri es. The spel i ng of Engli sh has al ways been a probl em but it was m ore of a probl em i n the days before a di cti onary. Then peopl e coul d spel word i n di fferent ways whi ch you m ight fi nd i t interesti ng. But i t m ade readi ng Engl i sh m uch m ore di fficul t. So di cti onari es were i nvented to encourage everybody to spel the same. In fact, an English dictionary l ike the kind you use today wasn’t made nt wort h Lane, was def eat ed i n t he r ecent el ect i ons. He i s now r et i r i ng f r om pol i t i cal l i f e and has gone abr oad. My f r i end, Cr awl ey, has al ways been a f anat i cal opponent of Mr Lane39。t speak the sam e ki nd of Engli sh. Look at this ki nd of exam pl e: Bri ti sh Betty: Woul d you li ke to se m y fl at? Am eri can Am y: Yes. I’d l i ke to e up to your apartment. So why has Engl ish changed over tim e? Actual l y al l l anguages change and devel op when cul tures m eet and m uni cate wi th each other. At fi rst the Engl ish spoken i n England between about AD 450 and 1150 was very di fferent the Engli sh spok