3）常用短文
The English Language
English is the principal language of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland,
Australia, New Zealand, Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbodos, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana; the
official language of over a dozen African countries, and other areas such as Belize, Hong Kong, and
Gibraltar, and numerous islands in the Caribbean, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans; also the
"associated official language" of India. English speakers reach 365 million, so the language has been
referred to as the "unofficial international language".
There are three recognized periods in the history of English: Old English, from earliest
time to 1150 A. D.; Middle English, 1150-1500; and Modern English, 1500 to the present. English
reigned in England only in the late 14th century, with London dialect as the standard. As late as in 1700,
there were only 8. 5 million English speakers. As a result of vast colonial expansion, the number shot up
to 123 million by 1900, and has since tripled.考试网(www．Examw。com)
English is structurally closer to Chinese than to any of its European cousins. Parts of
speech are ofter fuzzy; the word "up" can be an adverb, preposition, verb, noun, or adjective. Word order
is stereotyped; there is a big difference in meaning between "look over" and "overlook" or "stand with"
and "withstand". Seven different meanings can be put into the following sentence by successively
inserting the modifier "only" before each of the words: She told me that she loved me. "Run" has more
than 250 meanings.
The complete English vocabulary consists of almost 1 million words, yet 3,000 words make up
95% of all utterance. English accounts for 3/4 of the world's mail, 1/2 of the newspapers, and 3/5 of all
radio stations.
