Although English is not as old as Chinese, it is 1 by many people around the world every day．English speakers are always creating new words, and we are often able to know where most words come from．
Sometimes, however, no one may really know where a word comes 2 ．Did you ever think about why hamburgers are called hamburgers, especially when they are not made with ham(火腿)?About a hundred years ago, some men 3 to America from Europe．They came from a big city in Germany 4 Hamburg．They did not speak good English, but they ate good food．When some Americans saw them 5 round pieces of beef, they asked the Germans what it was．The Germans did not understand the question and answered,“We come from Hamburg．”One of these Americans owned a restaurant, and had an idea．He cooked some round pieces of beef like those 6 the men from Hamburg ate．Then he put each between two pieces of bread and started 7 them．Such bread came to be called“hamburgers”．Today“hamburgers”are sold in many countries 8 the world．
9 this story is true or not, it certainly is interesting．Knowing why any word has certain meaning is 10 , too．This reason, for most English words, can be found in any large English dictionary．