山东自考英语二（课文）.doc

Unit 1 Text AHow Difficult Is English? 英语有多难Like the national push for Asian literacy （n.有文化，有教养，有读写能力） in Australia，there has been foreign languages fervor in China，with English on top of the list. 就如澳大利亚在全国推行学亚洲语言一样，中国也掀起一股外语热，在这股热潮中，英语高居榜首。English is not only taught at schools，colleges and universities，but also at evening classes，on radio and TV．不仅各级学校教英语，夜校、电台、电视台也都设有英语课程。Parents hire private tutors for their school children；adult English learners would sacrifice the weekend at an English corner in a public park practicing their spoken English with peop1e of the same interest and determination.父母为学龄的孩子聘请英语家教，成年英语学习者会牺牲周末休息日，到公园参加英语角，与志趣相投的英语学习者练习口语。Is English such a difficult language that it really demands people to invest a large amount of time and energy before it is mastered ?英语真的有这么难，需要人们投入大量的时间和精力才能掌握吗? The answer，if I am asked to offer，is undoubtedly，yes．如果我被问及这个问题，那么毫无疑问，我的答案是：是的。From my personal experience, I think learning English means far more than learning its pronunciation，its grammatical rules，its words，etc．从我个人的经验来看，英语学习不仅仅是学习英语发音、语法规则、词汇等，It involves learning everything about the countries where it is used and the people who use it．它包括学习与使用该语言的国家和民族有关的所有内容。Without such a complete understanding of the language, the English a foreigner speaks will inevitably sound strange or even unintelligible though there is not anything wrong with his pronunciation，sentence structure and the words he uses．对英语没有这样全面的理解，即使发音、句子结构、措辞毫无错误，一个外国人所讲的英语也难免听起来稀奇古怪甚至难以理解。The social customs and habits of the English-speaking people contribute a lot to the difficulty a foreigner has in learning it．讲英语民族者的社会风俗习惯增加了外国人学习英语的难度。Take the Chinese English learners for example．以学英语的中国人为例， Hello and Good morning may sound a little bit simple to Chinese people．你好和早上好是非常简单的。It is totally beyond the understanding of a Chinese English learner that native English speakers would be annoyed when theyre addressed Where are you going?，which is a commonly used addressing among the Chinese．