【正文】 ts in will help you improve your English if you write your diary in not have a try?寫日記對你來說是一個好習慣。你還可以在日記中表達你的情感和思想。為什么不試一試呢？第二單元Reading 閱讀THE ROAD TO MODERN ENGLISH At the end of the 16th century, about five to seven million people spoke all of them lived in in the next century, people from England made voyages to conquer other parts of the world and because of that, English began to be spoken in many other , more people speak English as their first, second or foreign language than ever 在16世紀末，大約有五至七百萬人講英語。在其后的一個世紀中，英格蘭人為征服世界航海到了世界其他一些地方，結果世界的其他地方的人們也開始說英語了。Native English speakers can understand each other even if they don’t speak the same kind of at this example: British Betty: Would you like to see my flat? American Amy: Yes, I’d like to e up to your ，即使他們所講不是同一種英語，他們也能彼此聽懂。So why has English changed over time? Actually all languages change and develop when cultures meet and municate with each first the English spoken in England between about AD 450 and 1150 was very different from the English spoken was based more on German than the English we speak at gradually between about AD 800 and 1150, English became less like German because those who ruled England spoken first Danish and later new settlers enriched the English language and especially its by the 1600’s Shakespeare was able to make use of a wider vocabulary than ever 1620 some British settlers moved to in the 18th century some British people were taken to Australia began to be spoken in both ，隨著時間的推移英語為什么發(fā)生了變化呢？實際上，當不同文化相互交流滲透時，所有的語言都會有所發(fā)展和變化。當時的英語更多的是以德語為基礎的，不像我們現(xiàn)在說的英語。這些新來的定居者豐富了英語語言，尤其是豐富了英語詞匯。1620年一些英國定居者來到了美洲，后來到了18世紀的時候，一些英國人還被帶到了澳大利亞。Finally by the 19th century the language was that time two big changes in English spelling happened: first Samuel Johnson wrote his dictionary and later Noah Webster wrote The American Dictionary of the English latter gave a separate identity to American English ，英語這種語言就變得穩(wěn)定了。約翰遜編寫了他的英語詞典，后是諾亞后者使得美式英語的拼寫有了其獨特的個性。比如，印度就有很多人說英語說得很流利，因為在1765年到1947年之間英國統(tǒng)治著印度。在新加坡和馬來西亞以及像非洲的南非，人們現(xiàn)在也說英語。中國式英語是否也能發(fā)展成一種具有自己獨特個性的語言？這還有待時間去證明。許多人認為，電視和收音機里所說的英語就是標準英語，這是因為在早期的電臺節(jié)目里，人們期望新聞播音員所說的英語是最好的英語。當人們使用不同于“標準語言”的詞語和表達時，那就叫做方言。即使在美國有些地區(qū)，兩個相鄰城鎮(zhèn)的人所說的方言也可能稍有不同。地理位置對方言的形成也有所影響。當美國人從一個地方搬到另一個地方時，他們也就把他們的方言隨著帶去了。美國是一個大國，有著許許多多彼此不同的方言。Reading and speaking 讀與說Amy and her American friends are visiting plan to visit Amy’s aunt and decide to go there by underground, but cannot find the nearest underground she asks directions and then tells her the dialogue and circle the words that mean the 艾米和她的美國朋友正在參觀倫敦。所以她問問了路，然后告訴她的朋友。AMY: Excuse me, Ma’ you tell me where the nearest subways is?LADY: Er...the underground? Well, go round the corner on your lefthand side, straight on and cross two ’ll be on your righthand : Thanks so : What did she say, Amy? AMY: She told us to go around the corner on the left and keep going straight for two subway will be on our ：對不起，夫人，你能告訴我去最近的地鐵站怎么走嗎？夫人：呃??地鐵？哦，往左邊拐過去，一直往前走，走過兩條街，地鐵就是右邊。朋友：艾米，她說什么？艾米：她叫我們往左邊拐過去，一直往前走，走過兩條街，地鐵就是右邊。t know the best way of getting to places, she insisted that she organize the trip , I know that the proper way is always her kept asking her, “When are we leaving and when are we ing back?” I asked her whether she had looked at a map course, she hadn39。my sister doesn39。從高中起，我姐姐和我就一直夢想作一次偉大的自行車旅行。去年她去看望了我們的表兄弟—在昆明讀大學的刀偉和宇航。很快，王薇使表兄弟也對騎車旅行產生了興趣。我問姐姐：“我們要去哪里？”首先想到要沿湄公河從源頭到終點騎車旅行的是我的姐姐。我很喜歡我姐姐，但是她有一個嚴重的缺點，她有時確實很固執(zhí)?，F(xiàn)在我知道了這個盡善盡美的方式總是她的方式。當然她并沒有看過，我的姐姐是不會考慮細節(jié)的。她給了我一個堅定的眼神—這種眼神表明她是不會改變主意的。當我告訴她那里空氣稀薄，呼吸會很困難，而且天氣會很冷時，她卻說這將是一次很有趣的經歷。最后，我只好讓步了。我們找到了一本大型的地圖冊，里面有一些世界地理的明細圖。起初，河很小，河水清澈而冷冽，然后它開始快速流動。流經云南西部。我們驚奇的發(fā)現(xiàn)這條河有一半是在中國境內。河水也變成了黃褐色。最后，湄公河三角洲的各支流流入中國南海。s what we looked like!Along the way children dressed in long wool coats stopped to look at the late afternoon we found it was so cold that our water bottles ,the lakes shone like glass in the setting sun and looked Wei rode in front of me as is very reliable and I knew I did39。T SLEEPStrange things were happening in the countryside of northeast three days the water in the village wells rose and fell,rose and noticed that the well walls had deep cracks in smelly gas came out of the the farmyards,the chickens and even the pigs were too nervois to ran out of the fields looking for places to jumped out of their bowls and about 3:00 am on july 28,1976,some people saw bright lights in the sound of planes could be heard outside the city of Tangshan even when no planes were in the the city,the water pipes in some buildings cracked and the one million people of the city,who thiught little of these events,were asleep as usual that 3:42 am everything began to seemed as if the world was at an end!Eleven kilometres directly below the city the greatest earthquake of the 20th century had was felt in Beijing,which is more than two hundred kilometres of the nation felt huge crack that was eight kilometres long and thirty metres wide cut across houses,roads and burst from holes in the hills of rock became rivers of fifteen terrible seconds a large city lay in suffering of the people was of them died or were left without number of people who were killed or injured reached more than 400, how could the survivors believe it was natural?Everywhere they looked nearly everything was of the city39。when this was not allowed…only then did we decide to answer violence with a matter of fact, I do not like violence…but in 1963 I helped him blow up some government was very dangerous because if I was caught I could be put in I was happy to help because I knew it would help us achieve our dream of making black and white people REST OF ELIAS39。s best artists about ten years to fact , the room was not made to be a was designed for the palace of Frederick Ⅰ.However, the next King of Prussia , Frederick William Ⅰ,to whom the amber room belonged, decided not to keep 1716 he gave it to Peter the return , the Czar sent him a troop of his best the Amber Room because part of the Czar39