Unit 7

Learning About English

Unit 7 Learning About English

Part Ⅰ Pre-reading activitiesPart Ⅱ Text APart Ⅲ Post-reading activities

Pre-reading activities: Humors

1. A cop spotted a woman driving and knitting at the same time. Coming up

beside her, he said, "Pull over!" "No," she replied, "a pair of socks!“

Notes: 1. pull over, v. (move the car over to the side of the road)把 ... 拉过来 , 靠岸 , 开到路边

2. pullover n. A garment, such as a sweater, that is put on by being drawn over the head. 套头衫羊毛衫等从头顶拉下穿着的服装

Text A

The Glorious Messiness of English

Robert MacNeil

The idiomatic usages

ship by truck / send a cargo by ship Noses that run / feet that smell A slim chance / a fat chance a wise guy / a wise man overlook / oversee hot / cold as hell burn up / burn down fill in/ out a form

the human race / a race wind up a watch/ wind up a speech

1. Interpretation of the title:

glorious: having or deserving great fame, praise, and honour

a glorious future / a glorious victory / a glorious expedition

messy: 1. being dirty or untidy a messy room Sorry the place is so messy, I haven't had time to clea

r up. 2. a messy situation is complicated and unpleas

ant to deal with He's just been through a particularly messy divorce.

1. Interpretation of the title:

glorious: a commendatory term messiness: a derogatory term

1. Interpretation of the title:

1). The figure of speech: Oxymoron 矛盾修饰法

Definition: a combination of two contradictory terms （两个意思互相矛盾或排斥的词语紧密地联结在一起，组成句子描述一个事物或表达一种思想或说明一个道理．）

Examples: virtual reality, living dead, bittersweet, modern history, pretty ugly, cruel kindness

1. Interpretation of the title:

2). What is “glorious messiness”? English is messy, but the messiness

reflects some good qualities of English, such as tolerance, the love of freedom, and the respect for others’ rights.

2. Text organization

Scan the first sentence of each paragraph in Text A to find out where the present tense is switched to the past tense?

And where the present tense is resumed?

2. Text organization

Parts Paragraphs Main ideas

Part One

Paras 1-3 A major feature of the English language: massive borrowing from other languages.

Part Two

Paras 4-16 The history of the English language from the Indo-European parent language to modern English.

Part Three

Paras 17-19 The reasons of the richness of English: tolerance, love of freedom and respect for the rights of others.

3. Part One

Questions: 1). Why does English today have a much large

vocabulary than any other living language? How large is it?

2). What is the attitude of the French toward borrowing from other languages? What do they do to preserve the purity of their language?

make a list of all the people and groups mentioned in Part Two Winston Churchill Julius Caesar Celts The Angles, the Saxons, etc. (the Anglo-Saxons) Christianity Vikings Normans William Caxton Settlers

Cultural notes:

Winston Churchill:Britain’s Prime Minister and Minister of Defense in 1940, and reelected as Prime Minister in 1951. His radio speeches during World WarⅡ gave the British people a strong determination to win the war. (1874-1965)“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

Julius Caesar (100-44 BC):

The best known of all the ancient Roman leaders, and the first one to land in Britain with an army in 54 and 55 BC respectively.

Vikings:A member of people from Scandinavia who attacked parts ofnorthern and western Europe, including Britain and Irelandin the 8th to 11th centuries. In Britain, they were also knownas Norsemen. They were feared as violent and cruel, butthey were also noted for their skills in building ships and assailors.

Norman:

Any of the people from Normandy in northern France who settled in England after their leader William defeated the English King at the battle of Hastings in 1066. The Normans took control of the country, a process known as the Norman Conquest. The language of government became first Latin, and then Norman French, and this caused many new words to be added to the English language.

The Norman Conquest: the period when the Normans (people fro

m Normandy in northern France), led by William the Conqueror, took control of England after defeating the English king Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. These events had a very great influence on England's history, culture, and language, and French became the main language of the ruling class.

William Caxton (1422 -1491): The man who set up the first printing firm in

Britain. He printed his first book in 1474. By printing books in English, Caxton had a st

rong influence on the spelling and development of the language.

Many of the books he published were French stories which he translated himself.

Old English: West Germanic invaders from Jutland and southern Denm

ark: the Angles (whose name is the source of the words England and English), Saxons, and Jutes, began populating the British Isles in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. They spoke a mutually intelligible language, that is called Old English.

These invaders pushed the original, Celtic-speaking inhabitants out of what is now England into Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, leaving behind a few Celtic words. These Celtic languages survive today in Scotland and Ireland and in Welsh.

About half of the most commonly used words in modern English have Old English roots. Words like be, water, and strong, for example, derive from Old English roots.

The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Unlike Old English, Middle English can be read, albeit with difficulty, by modern English-speaking people.

Otto Jesperson (1860-1943) Danish philologist, grammarian, and educationist. Hepromoted the use of the “direct method” in languageTeaching with the publication of his theoretical work How toTeach a Foreign Language (1904). Other books include hisseven-volume Modern English Grammar (1909)

Text organizationParas Content

4 - 9The introduction of the Indo-European language---the parent language of English

10-11Germanic tribes came to settle in Britain and brought Anglo-Saxon words---Old English

12The Christian religion enriched English with words from Greek and Latin

13The Vikings from Scandinavia came with words from Old Norse

14 The Norman Conquest--- French influence

15The European Renaissance and the printing press brought many new words from Greek and Latin

16The American revolution--- the emergence of a new variety--- American English

The Indo-European family includes several major branches:

1. Latin and the modern Romance languages; 2. The Germanic languages; 3. The Indo-Iranian languages, including Hindi (an offi

cial language in India) and Sanskrit (an ancient language of India );

4. The Slavic languages; 5. The Baltic languages of Latvian and Lithuanian (bu

t not Estonian); 6. The Celtic languages; and 7. Greek.

Of these branches of the Indo-European family, two are, for our purposes of studying the development of English, of paramount importance, the Germanic and the Romance( 罗曼语指法、意、西、葡、罗马尼亞等语 ) (called that because the Romance languages derive from Latin, the language of ancient Rome)

Around the second century BC, this Common Germanic language split into three distinct sub-groups:

East Germanic was spoken by peoples who migrated back to southeastern Europe. No East Germanic language is spoken today, and the only written East Germanic language that survives is Gothic.

North Germanic evolved into the modern Scandinavian languages of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic (but not Finnish, which is related to Estonian and is not an Indo-European language).

West Germanic is the ancestor of modern German, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and English.

Read the quotation by Emerson on page 216 and try to draw a picture of the development of the English language.

Indo-European languagethe parent language

Old English

Anglo-Saxon wordsby Germanic tribes Greek and Latin words

by Christian religion

Middle English

Old Norse by Vikings French words by

Norman Conquest

Modern English

Printing press European Renaissance

Br. English Am. English

A passage written in Old English

Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære þe hi of comon. Him wæs geandwyrd, þæt hi Angle genemnode wæron. Þa cwæð he, "Rihtlice hi sind Angle gehatene, for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað, and swilcum gedafenað þæt hi on heofonum engla geferan beon.“

Language Points: massive: unusually large, powerful, or

damaging My phone bill is going to be massive this

month. We’ve seen massive changes in recent

years. Club members can get a massive

discount of £50. We’ve made massive efforts to improve

the situation.

a list that shows which popular records have sold the most copies

hit: something such as a film, play, song etc that is very popular and successful

a big/number 1 hit the Beatles' greatest hits

be a hit with somebody (=be liked by them) It's hoped the new museum will be a big hit with

families.

the hit parade

corrupt: 1. to encourage someone to start behaving

in an immoral or dishonest way; to influence someone in a bad way The Senate will form a committee to determine if

violence on television is corrupting young people.

They say power corrupts. 2. to change the traditional form of

something, such as a language, so that it becomes worse than it was The culture has been corrupted by Western

influences.

ban: vt. to say that something must not be done, see

n, used etc; synonym prohibit Smoking is banned in the building.

ban somebody from doing something Charlie's been banned from driving for a year.

n. [countable] an official order that prevents something from being used or done a total ban on cigarette advertising

impose a ban The city has imposed a ban on smoking in all restaur

ants.

tolerance: 1. willingness to allow people to do, say, or believe

what they want without criticizing or punishing them opposite intolerance

tolerance of/towards/for The government is beginning to show more tolerance

of opposition groups. The school encourages an attitude of tolerance

towards all people. 2. the degree to which someone can suffer pain,

difficulty etc without being harmed or damaged tolerance to

Many old people have a very limited tolerance to cold.

tolerant: 1. allowing people to do, say, or believe

what they want without criticizing or punishing them opposite intolerant

tolerant of/towards Luckily, her parents were tolerant of her choice

of music. a tolerant society

tolerable: a situation that is tolerable is not very good, but you are able to accept it opposite intolerable The apartment is really too small, but it's

tolerable for the time being.

necessity: something that you need to have in order

to live opposite luxury She saw books as a necessity, not a luxury. A car is an absolute necessity if you live in th

e country.

arouse: to make someone have a particular feeling

arouse interest/expectations etc (make you become interested, expect something etc)

Matt's behavior was arousing the interest of the neighbors.

arouse hostility/suspicion/resentment/anger etc (to make someone feel very unfriendly and angry, or suspicious)

A great deal of anger was aroused by Campbell's decision.

Parked vehicles that arouse suspicion should be reported.

stir: a) [vt] to make someone have a strong feeling o

r reaction stir memories/emotions etc

Looking at the photographs stirred childhood memories of the long hot summers.

The poem succeeds in stirring the imagination . b) [vi] if a feeling stirs in you, you begin to feel it

Excitement stirred inside her.

arouse: anger, anxiety, concern, controversy, curiosity, emotion, enthusiasm, expectations, fear, hostility, interest, opposition, passion, resentment, suspicion, etc.

stir: action, coffee, controversy, emotion, hatred, heart, imagination, memory, mixture, pot, sauce, soup, sugar, tea, trouble, wind, etc.

surrender: to say officially that you want to stop fighting or

to stop avoiding the police, government etc because you realize that you cannot win; give in The terrorists were given ten minutes to surrender.

surrender to somebody Thousands of illegal immigrants in Japan have surre

ndered to police. surrender yourself (to somebody)

He immediately surrendered himself to the authorities.

virtually: 1. almost (synonym: practically )

Virtually all the children come to school by bus.

He was virtually unknown before. Virtually everyone expects Monica to

succeed. 2. on a computer, rather than in the

real world virtually published on the Internet

for effect: if someone does something for effect, th

ey do it in order to make people notice She paused for effect, then carried on speaki

ng. Dangerfield rolled his eyes for effect as he tol

d the joke.

invade: enter a country, town, or area using military for

ce, in order to take control of it The Romans invaded Britain 2000 years ago. Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 ， leading to the start

of World WarⅡ. In July 1937 the Japanese army invadedinvaded China.

go into, get into esp. when sth / sb is unwanted Every summer the town is invaded by tourists. A virus has invaded most of their computers. What right does he have to invade my privacy?

inhabit: if animals or people inhabit an area or pl

ace, they live there The woods are inhabited by many wild anim

als. I have no idea what sort of people inhabit th

e area. inhabited islands Inhabitable / uninhabitable

resemble: to look like or be similar to someone or s

omething It's amazing how closely the couple resembl

e each other. He grew up to resemble his father. I’d say he resemblesresembles his mother more than his f

ather.

descend: 1. be descended from somebody to be related to a person or group who lived

a long time ago The Japanese are thought to be descendeddescended from trib

es from the north of China. The people here are descended from the Vikings.

2. to have developed from something that existed in the past ideas that descend from those of ancient philosophe

rs

come up with: to think of a new idea, design, or name fo

r something Is that the best excuse you can come up with? We've been asked to come up with some ne

w ideas. The board must come up with a plan to put t

he city back on its financial feet (be successful again after having problems ).

pass sth onto to sb: to give information, tradition, disease, etc to an

other person I tried to pass on to him everything I knew about the

business. He promised to pass the information on to the sales

department. She said she'd pass the message on to the other stud

ents. Yet they passed on the same tradition to their daught

ers, who then passed it on to their daughters.

enrich: add a good quality to something

Add fertilizer to enrich the soil. Education can greatly enrich your life. The goal of the course is to enrich our understanding

of other cultures. enrich sth / sb with sth Word formation: en + adj./n V: cause to be More examples: enlarge, endanger, enable, em

power …

flood of: a very large number of things or people t

hat arrive at the same time The UN appealed for help with the flood of r

efugees crossing the border. Many fear that the flood of imports could we

aken Britain's economy.

conquer: 1. get control of a country by fighting

Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, which we know today as France.

Egypt was conquered by the Persian king. 2. defeat an enemy

The tribe conquered all the neighbouring tribes. 3. gain control over something that is difficult,

using a lot of effort She was determined to conquer her fear of flying. efforts to conquer inflation drugs to conquer the disease

a wealth of something: a lot of something useful or good

There is a wealth of information available about the development of English.

Pat reckons she has gained a wealth of experience about human life.

spring from: be caused by something or start from so

mething, usu. in large number or amount, or unexpectedly; originate from behaviour which springs from prejudices Hatred often springs from fear.

classic: a book, play, novel, or film that is import

ant and has been admired for a long time 'Jane Eyre' is Bronte's classic (adj.) novel of c

ourage in the face of despair. ‘Jane Eyre’ is one of the classics of Englis

h literature. The play has become an American classic.

source: a point or place from which sth originates

The source of the Yangtze River lies in Northwest China.

Cf. resource: supplies of raw materials, etc., which bring a country, a person, etc. wealth; things that can be turned to for help, support when needed With regard to its population, China is poor in natural

resources.

strike out: start doing something or living independ

ently; It feels great to strike out on your own and fi

nd a job and a place to live. The time was finally ripe, they decided, to str

ike out on their own.

nourish: 1. give a person or other living thing the food an

d other substances they need in order to live, grow, and stay healthy The cream contains vitamin A to nourish the skin. a well nourished baby

2. formal to keep a feeling, idea, or belief strong or help it to grow stronger 孕育，怀有 The Bill of Rights nourishes our freedom. He nourished the same attitude in others.

spring up: suddenly appear or start to exist

Fast-food restaurants are springing up all over town.

preserve: 1. an area of land or water that is kept for

private hunting or fishing 私人渔猎区 2. an activity that is only suitable or allow

ed for a particular group of people 少数人所专有的东西 Banking used to be a male preserve .