首页
登录
职称英语
The rise of English is a remarkable success story. When Julius Caesar landed
The rise of English is a remarkable success story. When Julius Caesar landed
游客
2023-07-27
50
管理
问题
The rise of English is a remarkable success story. When Julius Caesar landed in Britain nearly two thousand years ago, English did not exist. Five hundred years later, English, incomprehensible to modern ears, was probably spoken by about as few people as currently speak Cherokee (an American Indian language)-and with about as little influence. Nearly a thousand years later, at the end of sixteenth century, when William Shakespeare was in his prime, English was the native speech of between five and seven million English people and it was, in the words of a contemporary, "of small reach, it stretched no further than this island of ours, never not there over all. "
Four hundred years later, the contrast is extraordinary. Between 1600 and the present, in armies, navies, companies, and expeditions, the speakers of English-including Scots, Irish, Welsh, American, and many more-traveled into every corner of the globe, carrying their language and culture with them. Today English is used by at least 750 million people, and barely half of those speak it as a mother tongue. Some estimates have put that figure Closer to one billion. Whatever the total, English at the end of the twentieth century is more widely scattered, more widely spoken and written, than any other language has ever been. It has become the language of the planet, the first truly global language.
The statistics of English are astonishing. Of all the world’s languages, it is arguably the richest in vocabulary. The compendious (简明) Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words; and a further half million technical and scientific terms remain uncatalogued. About 350 million people use the English vocabulary as a mother tongue: about one tenth of the world’s population, scattered across every continent and surpassed, in numbers, though not in distribution, only by the speakers of the many varieties of Chinese. Three quarters of world’s mail, and its telexes and cables, are in English. So are more than half the world’s technical and scientific periodicals: it is the language of technology from Silicon Valley to Shanghai. [br] When did English appear as a language spoken by few people?
选项
A、In Julius Caesar’s time.
B、In Shakespeare’s time.
C、2000 years ago.
D、2500 years ago.
答案
D
解析
见第一段"When Julius Caesar landed in Britain nearly two thousand years ago, English did not exist. Five hundred years later, English, incomprehensible to modern ears, was probably spoken by about as few people as... "
转载请注明原文地址:http://tihaiku.com/zcyy/2872258.html
相关试题推荐
[originaltext]SomepeopledividetheEnglishlearnersintothreegroups:be
[originaltext]SomepeopledividetheEnglishlearnersintothreegroups:be
[originaltext]SomepeopledividetheEnglishlearnersintothreegroups:be
[originaltext]Thequestforsuccessalwaysbeginswithatarget.AsYogiBe
[originaltext]Thequestforsuccessalwaysbeginswithatarget.AsYogiBe
[originaltext]W:Well,Charles,Imustsaythatyourshopisprettyremarkable.
[originaltext]W:Well,Charles,Imustsaythatyourshopisprettyremarkable.
ThreeEnglishdictionariespublishedrecentlyalllayclaimtopossessinga
ThreeEnglishdictionariespublishedrecentlyalllayclaimtopossessinga
HisfluencyinEnglish____________(使她比其他女孩子有优势)forthejob.givesheranadvant
随机试题
明长城的主体建筑是( )A.城墙 B.敌台 C.烽堠 D.关隘
中医学认为,肾病综合征的主要病因病机是A.脾肾两虚 B.肝肾阴虚 C.肺肾气
轴上. (1)求动点N的轨迹C的方程; 请说明理由.
下列药物中,既能杀虫止痒、燥湿,又能温肾壮阳的是A.蟾酥B.蛇床子C.地肤子D.
《处方药与非处方药流通管理暂行规定》规定,销售处方药和甲类非处方药的零售药店必须
我国现行房地产业税种有()、契税。A:资源税 B:土地增值税 C:房产税
许多种类的蝴蝶鱼在尾部前上方、与头部眼睛相对称位置有一黑色斑点,宛如鱼眼,而它的
案例七: 一般资料:求助者,女性,36岁,本科文化程度,无业。 案例介绍:求
A.横断面研究 B.纵向研究 C.常规资料分析 D.病例-对照研究 E.
我国《证券法》规定,收购是指持有一家上市公司发行在外的股份的()时发出要约
最新回复
(
0
)