7、 (福建省四地六校联考高一第一次月考) English
is the most widely used language in the history of our planet. One in every
seven human beings can speak it. More than half of the world’s books and three
quarters of international mail are in English. Of all languages, English has
the largest vocabulary - perhaps as many as two million words.
However, let’s
face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in an eggplant, neither
pine nor apple in a pineapple and no ham in a hamburger. Sweet-meats are candy,
while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
We take English
for granted. But when we explore its
paradoes (探索它的矛盾), we
find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, public bathrooms
have no baths in them.
And why is it
that a writer writes, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce, and hammers
don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, should’t the plural of booth be
beeth? One goose, two geese - so one moose, two meese?
How can a slim
chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are
opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and
quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as
hell the next?
English was
invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of human
beings. That’s why, when stars are out, they are visible (能看见的); but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I
wind up my watch, I start it; but when I wind up this essay, I end it.