【正文】 tion is closing the gap between spoken and written English. It encourages more informal conversational language and a tolerance for diversity and individual style. 今天，信息時代已經(jīng)取代了工業(yè)時代，并縮短了時間和距離。 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(xué)領(lǐng)域，英語在二戰(zhàn)之后取代了德語。 the ability to integrate vocabulary from other languages。游行示威者要引起世界關(guān)注他們的問題，就打著用英語書寫的標語。日本經(jīng)理與斯堪的納維亞商人做生意時，雙方用英語談判。 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。英語的詞匯，語法形式，以及說寫方式演變深受科技發(fā)展、經(jīng)濟狀況，以及管理、文學(xué)、娛樂的影響。這一趨勢無疑會對英語產(chǎn)生影響。世界上各種電子檢索系統(tǒng)90%的信息用英語儲存。全世界70%以上的科學(xué)家閱讀英語。世界人口的五分之一講英語。s mail is written is English. And 90% of all information in the world39。s population speaks some English. And at present one in five over one billion people are learning English. Over 70% of 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。A by its depth of penetration into societies。 Wondering whether all the time and effort spent learning English is worthwhile? Here are some good reasons why it is. 你懷疑費那么多時間和精力學(xué)英語是不是值得？本文列舉充分理由說明完全值得。 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(xué)家、語言衛(wèi)道士、教師、作家或知識精英的特殊領(lǐng)地。最初的根芽在英國萌發(fā)，接著在美國生長壯大?！? 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。丹麥學(xué)者奧托幸運的是，他們的設(shè)想從未付諸實施。 16 As settlers landed in North America and established the United States, English found itself with two sources American and British. Scholars in Britain worried that the language was out of control, and some wanted to set up an academy to decide which words were proper and which were not. Fortunately their idea has never been put into practice. 隨著移民在北美登陸并建立美國，英語出現(xiàn)了兩個源頭——美式英語和英式英語。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(zāi)難） 和 thermometer（溫度計）等也隨之涌入?？怂诡D在英國制造了一臺印刷機，由此掀起了一場信息傳播技術(shù)的革命。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。例如，盎格魯－薩克遜語有kingly一詞，但諾曼人入侵后，royal 和 sovereign作為替代詞進入了英語。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。每一個類似的詞的增添都使英語更加豐富，更加多樣化。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）。 13 Then into this relatively peaceful land came the Vikings from Scandinavia. They also brought to English many words that begin with sk, like sky and skirt. But Old Norse and English both survived, and so you can rear a child (English) or raise a child (Norse). Other such pairs survive: wish and want, craft and skill, hide and skin. Each such addition gave English more richness, more variety. 接著北歐海盜從斯堪的納維亞來到了這塊相對和平的土地。 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。