【正文】 en 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 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 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 expressions 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, African 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 also pl ays a part i n making dialects. Some people who l ive in the mountai ns of the eastern USA speak with an ol der kind of Engli sh dial ect. When Am eri cans moved from one place to another, they took their dialects wi th them. So peopl e from the m ountains in the southeastern USA speak wi th al most the same di alects as people in the northwestern USA. The USA is a large country in whi ch m any different dialects are spoken. Al though many Americans move a lot, they stil recognize and understand each other’s dialects. THE OXFO RD EN GLISH DICTIONARY You may think that Engl ish di cti onari es have been used for m any, many centuries. The spel ing of English has always been a probl em but it was more of a probl em i n the days before a dictionary. Then peopl e could spel l word in different ways whi ch you mi ght find i t i nteresting. But it made reading Engl ish m uch more di ffi cult. So di cti onari 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 l everythi ng to, l ike your deepest 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? Anne Frank wanted the first ki nd, so she m ade her best fri end. Anne li ved i n Am sterdam i n N etherl ands duri ng Woul d WarⅡ .H er fam il y was Jewish 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 in a di ary as m ost peopl e do , but I want thi s diary itsel f to be my friend, 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 everythi ng to do wi th 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 i t was so warm, I stayed awake on purpose until hal f past el even i n order to have a good look at the m oon by m ysel 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 downstairs until the window had to be shut. The dark, rainy evening, the wind, the thundering cl ouds hel d me entirel y in their power。必修一 Uni t 1 ANNE’S BEST FRIEND Do you want a fri end whom you coul d tel l everythi ng to, l ike your deepest 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? Anne Frank wanted the first ki nd, so she m ade her best fri end. Anne li ved i n Am sterdam i n N etherl ands duri ng Woul d WarⅡ .H er fam il y was Jewish 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 in a di ary as m ost peo