B
If you ask people to name the one
person who had the greatest effect on the English language, you will get
answers like“Shakespeare”,“Samuel Johnson”and“Webster”,but none of these men had any effect at all compared to a man who
didn’t even speak English-William the Conqueror.
Before 1066, in the land we now
call Great Britain
lived peoples belonging to two major language groups. In the west-central
region lived the Welsh, who spoke a Celtic language, and in the north lived the
Scots, whose language, though not the same as Welsh, was also Celtic. In the
rest of the country lived the Saxons, actually a mixture of Anglos, Saxons, and
other Germanic and Nordic peoples, who spoke what we now call Anglo-Saxon (or
Old English), a Germanic language. If this state of affairs had lasted, English
today would be close to German.
But this state of affairs did not
last. In 1066 the Normans led by William
defeated the Saxons and began their rule over England. For about a century,
French became the official language of England while Old English became
the language of peasants. As a result, English words of politics and the law
come from French rather than German. In some cases, modern English even shows a
distinction(区别) between upper-class French and
lower-class Anglo-Saxon in its words. We even have different words for some
food, meat in particular, depending on whether it is still out in the fields or
at home ready to be cooked, which shows the fact that the Saxon peasants were
doing the farming, while the upper-class Normans
were doing most of the eating.
When Americans visit Europe for
the first time, they usually find Germany more“foreign”than France because the German they see on
signs and advertisements seems much more different from English than French
does. Few realize that the English language is actually Germanic in its
beginning and that the French influences are all the result of one man’s
ambition.
59. The two major languages spoken
in what is now called Great
Britain before 1066 were __________ .
A. Welsh and Scottish B.
Nordic and Germanic
C. Celtic and Old English D.
Anglo-Saxon and Germanic
60. Which of the following groups
of words are, by inference; rooted in French?
A. President; lawyer; beef. B.
President; bread; water.
C. Bread; field; sheep. D.
Folk; field; cow.
61. Why does France appear less foreign than Germany to Americans on their first visit to Europe?
A. Most advertisements in France appear
in English.
B. They know little of the history
of the English language.
C. Many French words are similar
to English ones.
D. They know French better than
German.
62. What is the subject discussed
in the text?
A. The history of Great Britain.
B. The similarity between English
and French.
C. The rule of England by
William the Conqueror.
D. The French influences on the
English language.
