中科大综合英语听力教程Unit 1.doc

Unit One Language and Culture Part 1 English and Its Origin Task 3 Directions: Listen to the following passage about characteristics of English. The passage will be read only once. After listening, choose the best answer from the four suggested choices marked A, B, C, and D to each of the questions you hear. Part 1 English and Its Origin ? Task 3 English language is the most widely spoken language in the world. It is used as either a primary or secondary language in many countries. English has a larger vocabulary than any other language. There are more than 600,000 words in the largest dictionaries of the English language. Some English words have been passed on from generation to generation expressing basic ideas and feelings. Later, many words were borrowed from other languages, including Arabic, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. For example, algebra is from Arabic, fashion from French, piano from Italian, and canyon from Spanish. A number of English words were formed by combining other words. Words can also be shortened to form new words. Pronunciation and spelling in English sometimes seem illogical or inconsistent. Many words are spelled similarly though pronounced differently. Examples include cough, though, and through. Other words, such as blue, crew, to, too, and shoe, have similar pronunciations but are spelled differently. Many of these variations show changes that occurred during the development of English. The spelling of some words remained the same through the centuries, though their pronunciation changed. Grammar is the set of principles used to create sentences. These principles define the elements used to assemble sentences and the relationships between the elements. The elements include parts of speech and inflections. Some modern scholars divide the parts of speech into two categories, content words and function words. Content words are the main parts of speech--nouns, verbs, adverbs, and