大学英语2Unit7分析和总结.pdf

大学英语 2 Unit 7 The story of our English language is typically one of massive stealing from other languages. That is why English today has an estimated vocabulary of over one million words, while other major languages have far fewer. 2 French, for example, has only about 75,000 words, and that includes English expressionslike snack bar and hitparade. The French, however, do not like borrowing foreign words because they think it corrupts their language. The government tries to ban words from English and declares thatWalkman is not desirable; so they invent a word,balladeur, which French kids are supposed to say instead—but they dont. 3 Walkman is fascinating because it isnt even English. Strictly speaking, it was invented by the Japanese manufacturers who put two simple English words together to name their product. That doesnt bother us, but it does bother the French. Such is the glorious messiness of English. That happy tolerance, that willingness to accept words from anywhere, explains the richness of English and why it has become, to a very real extent, the first truly global language. 4 How did the language of a small island off the coast of Europe become the language of the planet—more widely spoken and written than any other has ever been? The history of English is present in the first words a child learns about identity (/,me, you); possession(mine, yours); the body (eye, nose, mouth);size (tall, short); and necessities(food, water). These words all come from Old English or Anglo-Saxon English, the core of our language. Usually short and direct, these are words we still use today for the things that really matter to us. 5 Great speakers often use Old English to arouse our emotions. For example, during World War n, Winston Churchill made this speech, stirring the courage of his people against Hitlers armies positioned to cross the English Channel: We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight o