首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Survival of English Language I . Introduction —English widespread in the 21st century —【B1】______show(s)how English survived【B1
Survival of English Language I . Introduction —English widespread in the 21st century —【B1】______show(s)how English survived【B1
admin
2015-09-30
53
问题
Survival of English Language
I . Introduction
—English widespread in the 21st century
—【B1】______show(s)how English survived【B1】______
II. Five periods of its survival
1)410 CE to the mid-8th century
—【B2】______mercenaries coming and spreading their language among【B2】______
the Britons
—center of【B3】______: York in Northumbia【B3】______
2)Mid-8 th century to 899
—The Danes replaced the Anglo-Saxons to rule Northumbia, but
were【B4】______by Alfred of Wessex.【B4】______
—Alfred called on people to revive English.
—Center was shifted to Winchester.
—Alfred’s【B5】______enabled most of the existing laws and literary【B5】______
works to be in English.
3)959 to 1066
—England was divided into【B6】______and English speaking areas.【B6】______
—Canute became ruler of a united kingdom.
—Center was moved to London.
—Edward succeeded Canute and English gave way to【B7】______【B7】______
4)1080 to the 17 th century
—Written English【B8】______before the advent of "Provision of Oxford".【B8】______
—Since 14th century, English had gained renewed life.
—【B9】______English appeared in the 17th century.【B9】______
5)1837 to today
—English was used widely as a result of【B10】______, computer, the【B10】______
World Wide Web and rapid communication.
【B5】
Survival of English Language
Good morning. Twice in its history, English came very close to joining the list of dead languages. Yet, this language of a small island not only survived, but lived to be spoken by an estimated 1. 5 billion people in the 21st century. Today we shall have a look at how English escaped its extinction.
Death is a common fate of unwritten languages.(1)But written records of the languages spoken on the island of Britain show us how the English language became the language of the island and how it survived. We now turn to those written records.
There are five critical periods in the survival of the English language.
1)410 CE to the mid-eighth century
Early in the fifth century, Rome recalled its legions and told the Britons to defend themselves.(2)Rich, unprotected, and attacked from all sides, King Vortigern on the East coast invited Germanic mercenaries to cross the channel to defend him against his enemies within and without. These mercenaries, mostly Angle and Saxon clans of Germanic peoples, called their language " englisc"(pronounced " anglish").
The language of the Germanic mercenaries became the language of the conquered area.(3)From the seventh through the mid-eighth centuries York in Northumbria, famed for its schools and for its literary productions, was the center of the English-speaking world.
2)Mid-eighth century to 899
By the mid 700’s, the Anglo-Saxons were on the receiving end of slaughter and ruin by Danish armies. The Danes overran all the Anglo-Saxon areas, including Northumbria, the heartland of literacy in Anglo-Saxon England. Wessex, ruled by Alfred the Great, remained the only area still controlled by English-speakers. The Danes were neither united nor had a united command: Alfred did.(4)Eventually, Alfred forced the Danes back. Danish Northumbria submitted to Alfred in 886.
After a century and more of death and destruction, very few literate English-speaking people remained. Alfred set out to revive the language through education and writing. In 891 he sent out a call for anybody who could read or write. Outside of his personal staff, the handwriting of only eight new people appeared in the earliest records. The center of literary production shifted from York in Northumbria to Winchester in Wessex.
(5)Due to Alfred’s education programs, most of the existing laws, poems, songs and stories were in the West Saxon dialect of his Wessex. Alfred died in 899.
3)959 to 1066
In 959, King Edgar, the great-grandson of Alfred, ruled both Danes and Saxons in England. The incompetent King Ethelred the Unready succeeded Edgar. He could not control the Danes.(6)More Danes invaded: civil war followed. This second time, violent battles ended in a tie. The Danish leader, Canute, and Saxon King-elect, Edmund Ironsides, divided the country into Danish and English speaking areas. Canute and Edmund made a compromise that a united kingdom went to whoever died first. Two years later, Edmund died: Canute became King of all England in 1018. With Canute the center of literary production moved to London. English remained a written language, at least for sermons and laws.
Widower Canute wedded Emma, daughter of the Duke of Normandy. She was the mother of Edward, who became king after Canute’s heir from his marriage to Emma died.(7)Raised in Normandy, Edward preferred the French. In 1066, the French-speaking Normans conquered England. Norman French, based in London, became the only language of literature, law, and court. This third time, English became the language of the brutally oppressed illiterate. The language again seemed heading for extinction.
4)1080 to the 17th century
(8)After 1080, only a few written documents in English appeared: a last chronicle entry in 1134: a manual for religious women from around 1200. During the twelfth and most of the thirteenth centuries, we have no written records of English laws, poetry, songs, or stories. In 1258 the bilingual French-English " Provisions of Oxford," granting some rights to barons, showed up as the first public document in English in more than 200 years.
In the 14th century the English language resurfaced as a legal and literary language. Orally transmitted English poetry was preserved in written form in the Auchinleck Manuscript from 1325 to 1330. In 1344 the first petition in English appeared. In the last quarter of the century, Chaucer wrote his works, including the Canterbury Tales, in English. During this same period, John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English, the language of the common people.
In the fifteenth century, English gave further signs of renewed life. In 1413, King Henry IV wrote the first royal will in English. Religious plays were in English. By the late sixteenth century, we see the flowering of English theater with Shakespeare and Marlowe and Jonson.(9)Modern English arrived in the 17th century. The English language won this " Battle of Britain. "
5)1837 to Today
In the nineteenth century, the "sun never set on the British Empire" was in the English language.(10)By the twentieth century, the Empire included India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Bermuda. English, of course, was also the language of the United States. The United States did its part to spread the language to the Philippines and Samoa. There is, however, a substantial difference between the wide-spread, yet irregular, distribution of English in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and today. That difference is the computer, the World Wide Web, and rapid communication.
Today, not surprisingly, the English language is global in use. English-speakers built the first electronic computing machines during World War II, which heralded the computer age. Years later, the technology that created the Internet and the World Wide Web is primarily the product of speakers and writers of the English language. Instruction manuals and technical documents, as well as printers, keyboards, and monitors are for users of English.
Now, you’ve got to know the five critical periods of English language. Although other languages across history reached the corners of their then known world, the English language survived near extinction: its written records now endlessly circle the entire world.
So much for today. Thank you for your attention.
选项
答案
education programs
解析
本题设题点在原因解释处。根据句(5)可知,由于阿尔弗雷德实施相关的教育方案以推广英语的使用,当时的法律、诗歌所用的语言都是其领地威塞克斯西部撒克逊人的方言,故答案为education programs。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/22KO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Arabiclanguageisoneoftheworld’smostwidelyusedlanguages.ItistheofficerlanguageofmanyArabnationsinthe【M1】____
Arabiclanguageisoneoftheworld’smostwidelyusedlanguages.ItistheofficerlanguageofmanyArabnationsinthe【M1】____
AccordingtoSampras,whatisthekeypointofaplayerhavingacoachbeingtooclose?
TheCommercialisationofScienceandTechnologyScienceandtechnologyandtheroleofcommercialisationinthatareaareve
TheCommercialisationofScienceandTechnologyScienceandtechnologyandtheroleofcommercialisationinthatareaareve
WhichofthefollowingisconsideredanAmericanmasterpiece?
Thereisamarkeddifferencebetweentheeducationwhicheveryonegetsfromlivingwithothersandthedeliberateeducatingof
BeforeJoseMartinezsetuphispizzadeliveryservice,he
BeforeJoseMartinezsetuphispizzadeliveryservice,he
MartinEdenisthesemi-autobiographicalnovelby______.
随机试题
若诊断为天行赤眼,它与瞳神紧小的主要鉴别点是:下述哪项检查支持瞳神紧小症:
全身麻醉前给予患者阿托品,其目的是()。
项目实施过程中合同管理的最终目的是()。
盛腾公司为一般纳税人,2014年11月1日“应交税费”总账科目贷方余额为86000元。2014年11月1日部分明细科目的余额如下:“应交税费一一应交增值税”科目借方余额为28600元,“应交税费——未交增值税”科目贷方余额为54000元。盛腾公司20
关于基本存款账户开户要求的说法正确的有( )。
投资政策说明书的制定,主要依据投资者的()。Ⅰ.投资需求Ⅱ.财务状况Ⅲ.投资限制Ⅳ.投资偏好
用矛盾的特殊性原理,说明具体问题具体分析的意义。
公共政策是指公共权力机关在对社会公共利益进行选择、综合、分配和落实的过程中依据特定时期的目标、经由政治过程所选择和制定的行为准则,是公共权力机关为解决公共问题、达成公共目标、以实现公共利益的方案。下列不符合这一定义的是()。
1930年1月,毛泽东在《星星之火,可以燎原》一文中写道:“我所说的中国革命高潮快要到来,决不是如有些人所谓‘有到来之可能’那样完全没有行动意义的、可望而不可即的一种空的东西。它是站在海岸遥望海中已经看得见桅杆尖头了的一只航船,它是立于高山之巅远看东方已见
Thedecisionaboutwheretolivewhilestudyingatthetertiarylevelcanhaveamajorinfluenceonastudent’schancesofsucce
最新回复
(
0
)