Unit 7: Learning about English

1
Unit 7 Learning about English

• Text A The Glorious Messiness of English
• Text B The Role of English in the 21st Century

2
Pre-reading Tasks

• Answer questions on p.206.
• What is the passage about?
• English is a great language, but it is also a
  crazy language.
• The idiomatic usages mentioned in the recorded
  passage.

3

• ship by truck / send a cargo by ship
• send by truck / send a cargo by a large boat
• Noses that run / feet that smell
• This refers to what people usually say have a
  running nose, have smelly feet.
• a slim/fat chance
• used to say that something is very unlikely to
  happen

4

• a wise guy / a wise man
• A wise guy a person who pretends to be much
  wiser than he/she really is a derogatory term.
• A wise man a really wise person a commendatory
  term
• overlook / oversee
• overlook fail to see or notice pay no attention
  to miss
• oversee to be in charge of a group of workers
  and check that a piece of work is done
  satisfactorily supervise

5

• hot / cold as hell
• Hell can either be hot or cold. Extremely hot or
  cold
• burn up / burn down
• burn up if something burns up or is burnt up, it
  is completely destroyed by fire or heat
• burn down if a building burns down or is burned
  down, it is destroyed by fire
• fill in/ out a form
• Synonymous

6

• go off if an alarm goes off, it makes a noise to
  warn you about something
• go on to continue doing something or being in a
  situation
• the human race all people, considered together
  as a group mankind
• (Human race isnt) a race one of the main groups
  that humans can be divided into according to the
  colour of their skin and other physical features

7

• out ?NOT BURNING/SHINING?
• a fire or light that is out is no longer burning
  or shining
• ?SUN/MOON ETC?
• if the sun, moon, or stars are out, they have
  appeared in the sky
• wind up a watch tighten the spring of a watch
• wind up a speech end a speech

8
Interpret the Title

• glorious having or deserving great fame, praise,
  and honour
• a glorious future / a glorious victory / a
  glorious expedition
• messy 1. being dirty or untidy
• a messy room
• Sorry the place is so messy, I haven't had time
  to clear up.
• 2. a messy situation is complicated and
  unpleasant to deal with
• He's just been through a particularly messy
  divorce.

9

• glorious a commendatory term
• messiness a derogatory term
• What effect can be achieved when one is modified
  by the other?
• Oxymoron
• a deliberate combination of two words that seem
  to mean the opposite of each other, such as
  'cruel kindness'

10
Examples from Shakespeare (translated by Zhu
Shenghao)

• An honorable murderer ?????
• An honorable villain ?????
• A damned saint ?????
• Sweet pangs ?????
• Sweet knaves ???????
• Sweet sorrow ?????
• A living death ???
• Loving hate, heavy lightness, serious vanity,
  cold fire, sick health,

11
Oxymoron vs. Paradox

• Oxymoron ?????(??????????????????????,???????????
  ?????????????.)
• Paradox ???????(??????????????????.)
• Similarities ????????,????,????????,?????,?????,?
  ???,????
• Dissimilaritiesparadox ??????????????,???????????
  ?????? oxymoron?,??????????????,??????????,??????
  ??????.

12

• Scan the first three paragraphs to find out the
  definition for glorious messiness
• Text organization Ex.1 on p.214.
• Scan the first sentence of each paragraph in Text
  A to find out where the present tense is switched
  to the past tense?
• And where the present tense is resumed?

13

• Part I (1-3) Massive borrowing from other
  languages is a major feature of the English
  language.
• Part II (4-16) The History of the English
  language from the Indo-European parent language
  to modern English.
• Part III (17-19) Tolerance, love of freedom, and
  respect for the rights of others these
  qualities in the English speaking people explain
  the richness of their language.

14
Language Study of Part I (1-3)

• Does English have the largest vocabulary?
• It isn't as clearcut a question as it sounds. For
  any one language, the size of the largest
  dictionary is really just a matter of where the
  dictionary compilers decided to stop there will
  always be more slang words, technical terms,
  medical terms, (a major source of vocabulary
  enlargement), etc.

15

• vocabulary size of different languages
• I can, however, give you references of how many
  words get used in language. The complete text of
  the Bible has this many different words in
  different languages Maori 19,301 English 31,244
  Dutch 42,347 French 48,609 Russian 76,707 Finnish
  86,566
• The main difference between these is in the
  various derived and inflectional forms.

16

• massive unusually large, powerful, or damaging
• My phone bill is going to be massive this month.
• massive increases in the number of homeless
• Club members can get a massive discount of 50.
• Union leaders are warning of massive job losses.
• far comparative of adj. ?A LOT/VERY MUCH?
• far better/easier etc
• The new system is far better than the old one.
• There are a far greater number of women working
  in television than twenty years ago.
• far more/less
• I enjoyed it far more than I expected.

17

• French, the French
• English, the English Chinese, the Chinese etc.
• snack a small amount of food that is eaten
  between main meals or instead of a meal
• I grabbed a quick snack.
• Drinks and light snacks are served at the bar.
• snack foods like crisps and peanuts

18

• the hit parade
• a list that shows which popular records have sold
  the most copies
• parade (French origin) a public celebration when
  musical bands, brightly decorated vehicles etc
  move down the street
• a victory parade / the St Patrick's Day parade
• hit something such as a film, play, song etc
  that is very popular and successful
• a big/number 1 hit etc
• the Beatles' greatest hits
• be a hit with somebody (be liked by them)
• It's hoped the new museum will be a big hit with
  families.

19

• corrupt 1. to encourage someone to start
  behaving in an immoral or dishonest way to
  influence someone in a bad way
• The Senate will form a committee to determine if
  violence on television is corrupting young
  people.
• They say power corrupts.
• 2. to change the traditional form of something,
  such as a language, so that it becomes worse than
  it was
• The culture has been corrupted by Western
  influences.

20

• ban vt. to say that something must not be done,
  seen, used etc synonym prohibit
• Smoking is banned in the building.
• ban somebody from doing something
• Charlie's been banned from driving for a year.
• ban n. countable an official order that
  prevents something from being used or done
• a total ban on cigarette advertising
• lift/impose a ban
• The city has imposed a ban on smoking in all
  restaurants.
• The bill would lift a ban on U.S. pharmacists
  re-importing drugs.

21

• invent to think of an idea, story etc that is
  not true to give a new name that doesnt exist
  for sth
• I began to invent reasons for staying away from
  work.
• It was proven that one witness's story had been
  invented.
• They invented their own names for objects on the
  screen.
• (to make, design, or think of a new type of thing
• Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in
  1876.)

22

• tolerance willingness to allow people to do,
  say, or believe what they want without
  criticizing or punishing them opposite
  intolerance
• tolerance of/towards/for
• This is a gross abuse of public tolerance for the
  private misbehavior of famous athletes.
• The government is beginning to show more
  tolerance of opposition groups.
• The school encourages an attitude of tolerance
  towards all people.
• 2. the degree to which someone can suffer pain,
  difficulty etc without being harmed or damaged
• tolerance to
• Many old people have a very limited tolerance to
  cold.

23

• tolerant 1. allowing people to do, say, or
  believe what they want without criticizing or
  punishing them opposite intolerant
• tolerant of/towards
• Luckily, my parents were tolerant of my choice of
  music.
• a tolerant society
• tolerable a situation that is tolerable is not
  very good, but you are able to accept it
  opposite intolerable
• The apartment is really too small, but it's
  tolerable for the time being.

24

• to a very real extent to a great / large extent
• It's an old maxim but it's true to a great
  extent, you are what you eat.
• Its success will depend to a large extent on
  local attitudes.

25
Part II (4-16) The History of the English
language

• Some key terms and key stages related to the
  history of the English Language.

26

• The Indo-European family includes several major
  branches
• 1. Latin and the modern Romance languages
• 2. The Germanic languages
• 3. The Indo-Iranian languages, including Hindi
  (an official language in India) and Sanskrit (an
  ancient language of India )
• 4. The Slavic languages
• 5. The Baltic languages of Latvian and Lithuanian
  (but not Estonian)
• 6. The Celtic languages and
• 7. Greek.

27

• Of these branches of the Indo-European family,
  two are, for our purposes of studying the
  development of English, of paramount importance,
  the Germanic and the Romance (called that because
  the Romance languages derive from Latin, the
  language of ancient Rome)

28

• Around the second century BC, this Common
  Germanic language split into three distinct
  sub-groups
• East Germanic was spoken by peoples who migrated
  back to southeastern Europe. No East Germanic
  language is spoken today, and the only written
  East Germanic language that survives is Gothic.
• North Germanic evolved into the modern
  Scandinavian languages of Swedish, Danish,
  Norwegian, and Icelandic (but not Finnish, which
  is related to Estonian and is not an
  Indo-European language).
• West Germanic is the ancestor of modern German,
  Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and English.

29

• Viking a member of the group of Scandinavian
  people who sailed in ships to attack areas along
  the coasts of northern and western Europe from
  the 8th to 11th centuries
• Scandinavian people people from North Europe
  consisting of Norway, Swede, Denmark, Finland and
  Iceland.
• Norse the language that was spoken by the people
  of ancient Scandinavia, esp. the ancient
  Norwegian people

30

• The Norman Conquest the period when the Normans
  (people from Normandy in northern France), led by
  William the Conqueror, took control of England
  after defeating the English king Harold II, at
  the Battle of Hastings in 1066. These events had
  a very great influence on England's history,
  culture, and language, and French became the main
  language of the ruling class.

31

• The origins of English English began as a west
  Germanic language which was brought to England by
  the Saxons around 400 A.D.
• Old English (400-1100 AD)
• The Norman Conquest and Middle English
  (1100-1500) (influenced by French and Latin
  French brought words related to government and
  Latin religion and learning)
• Modern English (1500-Present) (A Dictionary of
  the English Language 1755 by Samuel Johnson)
• American English (The Elementary Spelling Books
  by Noah Webster 1783)

32

• West Germanic invaders from Jutland and southern
  Denmark the Angles (whose name is the source of
  the words England and English), Saxons, and
  Jutes, began populating the British Isles in the
  fifth and sixth centuries AD. They spoke a
  mutually intelligible language, that is called
  Old English.
• These invaders pushed the original,
  Celtic-speaking inhabitants out of what is now
  England into Scotland, Wales, and Ireland,
  leaving behind a few Celtic words. These Celtic
  languages survive today in Scotland and Ireland
  and in Welsh.
• About half of the most commonly used words in
  modern English have Old English roots. Words like
  be, water, and strong, for example, derive from
  Old English roots.

33

• The most famous example of Middle English is
  Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Unlike Old English,
  Middle English can be read, albeit with
  difficulty, by modern English-speaking people.

34

• Many students having difficulty understanding
  Shakespeare would be surprised to learn that he
  wrote in modern English. Many familiar words and
  phrases were coined or first recorded by
  Shakespeare, some 2,000 words and countless
  catch-phrases are his. Words he bequeathed to the
  language include "critical," "leapfrog,"
  "majestic," "dwindle," and "pedant." 

35
Language Study of 4-16

• necessity something that you need to have in
  order to live opposite luxury
• She saw books as a necessity, not a luxury.
• A car is an absolute necessity if you live in the
  country.

36

• arouse to make someone have a particular feeling
• arouse interest/expectations etc (make you become
  interested, expect something etc)
• Matt's behavior was arousing the interest of the
  neighbors.
• arouse hostility/suspicion/resentment/anger etc
  (to make someone feel very unfriendly and angry,
  or suspicious)
• A great deal of anger was aroused by Campbell's
  decision.
• Parked vehicles that arouse suspicion should be
  reported.

37

• stir a) transitive to make someone have a
  strong feeling or reaction
• stir memories/emotions etc
• Looking at the photographs stirred childhood
  memories of the long hot summers.
• The poem succeeds in stirring the imagination .
• b) intransitive if a feeling stirs in you, you
  begin to feel it
• Excitement stirred inside her.

38

• arouse anger, anxiety, concern, controversy,
  curiosity, emotion, enthusiasm, expectations,
  fear, hostility, interest, opposition, passion,
  resentment, suspicion, etc.
• stir action, coffee, controversy, emotion,
  hatred, heart, imagination, memory, mixture,
  pot, sauce, soup, sugar, tea, trouble, wind, etc.
• position to put someone in a place

39

• Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
• One of Britains greatest statesmen.
• He had been a soldier and a journalist before
  entering politics.
• He became Prime Minister and Minister of Defence
  in 1940. His radio speeches during World War II
  gave the British people a strong determination to
  win the war.
• He won a second term of Prime Minister from
  1951-1955.
• At age 80 he retired and died in 1965.
• Parallelism in the quote from Churchill.

40

• surrender to say officially that you want to
  stop fighting or to stop avoiding the police,
  government etc because you realize that you
  cannot win give in
• The terrorists were given ten minutes to
  surrender.
• surrender to somebody
• Thousands of illegal immigrants in Japan have
  surrendered to police.
• surrender yourself (to somebody)
• He immediately surrendered himself to the
  authorities.

41

• virtually 1. almost synonym practically
• Virtually all the children come to school by bus.
• He was virtually unknown before running for
  office.
• Virtually everyone expects Monica to succeed.
• 2. on a computer, rather than in the real world
• virtually published on the Internet
• for effect if someone does something for effect,
  they do it in order to make people notice
• She paused for effect, then carried on speaking.
• Dangerfield rolled his eyes for effect as he told
  the joke.

42

• Julius Caesar (100-44 BC)
• The best-known of all the ancient Roman leaders
• And the first one to land in Britain with an
  army. He did this twice, in 55 and 54 BC,
  although Britain did not become part of the Roman
  Empire until nearly a hundred years later.
• It was he who reformed the Roman Calendar which
  survives even today worldwide.
• July Julius

43

• invade enter a country, town, or area using
  military force, in order to take control of it
• The Romans invaded Britain 2000 years ago.
• Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.
• go into, get into esp. when sth / sb is unwanted
• Every summer the town is invaded by tourists.
• A virus has invaded most of their computers.
• What right does he have to invade my privacy?

44

• inhabit transitive
• if animals or people inhabit an area or place,
  they live there
• The woods are inhabited by many wild animals.
• I have no idea what sort of people inhabit the
  area.
• inhabited islands
• Inhabitable / uninhabitable

45

• mystery an event, situation etc that people do
  not understand or cannot explain because they do
  not know enough about it
• Twenty years after the event, his death remains a
  mystery .
• The way her mind worked was always a mystery to
  him.
• 'Why did he do it?' 'I don't know. It's a
  complete mystery .
• resemble to look like or be similar to someone
  or something
• It's amazing how closely Brian and Steve resemble
  each other.
• He grew up to resemble his father.

46

• descend 1. be descended from somebody
• to be related to a person or group who lived a
  long time ago
• She claims to be descended from Abraham Lincoln.
• The people here are descended from the Vikings.
• 2. to have developed from something that existed
  in the past
• ideas that descend from those of ancient
  philosophers

47

• come up with to think of a new idea, design, or
  name for something
• Is that the best excuse you can come up with?
• We've been asked to come up with some new ideas.
• The board must come up with a plan to put the
  city back on its financial feet (be successful
  again after having problems ).
• establish start a company, organization, system,
  etc that is intended to exist or continue for a
  long time
• The city of Boerne was established by German
  settlers in the 1840s.
• Our goal is to establish a new research centre in
  the North.

48

• drift ?MOVE SLOWLY?
• to move slowly on water or in the air
• drift out/towards etc
• The rubber raft drifted out to sea.
• Smoke drifted up from the jungle ahead of us.
• make a move move
• make a discovery discover
• Make a guess guess
• Martin made a move towards the door.
• If I had to make a guess , I'd say Sam was the
  youngest.
• He made the discovery that people would rather
  pay large sums of money than have their life work
  destroyed by gangsters.

49

• pass sth onto to sb to give information,
  tradition, disease, etc to another person
• I tried to pass on to Louie everything I knew
  about the business.
• I'll pass the information on to our sales
  department.
• She said she'd pass the message on to the other
  students.
• Yet they passed on the same tradition to their
  daughters, who then passed it on to their
  daughters.

50

• enrich add a good quality to something
• Add fertilizer to enrich the soil.
• Education can greatly enrich your life.
• The goal of the course is to enrich our
  understanding of other cultures.
• enrich sth / sb with sth
• In this way courses are enriched with case
  studies and presentations from experts working in
  relevant fields.
• Word formation en adj./n V cause
  to be
• More enlarge, endanger, enable, empower

51

• Inversion in the first sentence of Para.13
• To achieve coherence
• addition something / somebody that is added to
  something / somebody else, often in order to
  improve it
• This excellent book will be a welcome addition to
  the library of any student.
• A bottle of wine would make a pleasant addition
  to the meal.
• The young professor will be a most valuable
  addition to our board.

52

• flood of countable a very large number of
  things or people that arrive at the same time
• The UN appealed for help with the flood of
  refugees crossing the border.
• Many fear that the flood of imports could weaken
  Britain's economy.
• The town has been hit by a flood of visitors
  since it was featured in the movie.

53

• conquer 1. get control of a country by fighting
• Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, which we know today
  as France.
• Egypt was conquered by the Persian king Kambyses.
• 2. defeat an enemy
• The Zulus conquered all the neighbouring tribes.
• 3. gain control over something that is difficult,
  using a lot of effort
• She was determined to conquer her fear of flying.
• efforts to conquer inflation
• drugs to conquer the disease

54

• alternative countable something you can choose
  to do or use instead of something else
• alternative to
• Is there an alternative to the present system?
• If payment is not received within five days,
  legal action will be our only alternative.
• I had no alternative but to report him to the
  police.
• He quickly assessed what alternatives were open
  to him.

55

• William Caxton (1422 -1491)
• The man who set up the first printing firm in
  Britain.
• He printed his first book in 1474.
• By printing books in English, Caxton had a strong
  influence on the spelling and development of the
  language.
• Many of the books he published were French
  stories which he translated himself.

56

• a wealth of something a lot of something useful
  or good
• There is a wealth of information available about
  pregnancy and birth.
• Pat reckons she has gained a wealth of experience
  about human life.
• spring from be caused by something or start from
  something, usu. in large number or amount, or
  unexpectedly originate from
• behaviour which springs from prejudices
• Hatred often springs from fear.

57

• classic a book, play, novel, or film that is
  important and has been admired for a long time
• 'Jane Eyre' is Bronte's classic (adj.) novel of
  courage in the face of despair.
• Jane Eyre is one of the classics of English
  literature.
• all-time/modern/design etc classic
• The play has become an American classic.

58

• source a point or place from which sth
  originates
• The source of the Yangtze River lies in Northwest
  China.
• Cf. resource supplies of raw materials, etc.,
  which bring a country, a person, etc. wealth
  things that can be turned to for help, support
  when needed
• With regard to its population, China is poor in
  natural resources.

59

• Fill in the blanks with either of the two words,
  using the proper form where necessary.
• 1. When you dont know a word, a dictionary is a
  valuable ______.
• 2. Even though China is rich in manpower and
  material _____, she still has to treasure every
  bit of both.
• 3. Where does the Nile have its ____?
• 4. 53 of those questioned gave bad housing as
  their main ____ of worry.
• 5. A genuine scientific report requires clear
  indication of theoretical ____.

60
Language Study of Part III (17-19)

• Otto Jespersen (1860-1943)
• A Danish linguist and educationist
• The quote
• strike out start doing something or living
  independently
• It feels great to strike out on your own and find
  a job and a place to live.
• The time was finally ripe, they decided, to
  strike out on their own.

61

• nourish 1. give a person or other living thing
  the food and other substances they need in order
  to live, grow, and stay healthy
• The cream contains vitamin A to nourish the skin.
• a well nourished baby
• 2. formal to keep a feeling, idea, or belief
  strong or help it to grow stronger
• The Bill of Rights nourishes our freedom.
• He nourished the same attitude in others.

62

• soil, shoots, fences figuratively used
• spring up suddenly appear or start to exist
• Fast-food restaurants are springing up all over
  town.
• preserve 1. an area of land or water that is
  kept for private hunting or fishing
• 2. an activity that is only suitable or allowed
  for a particular group of people
• Banking used to be a male preserve .
• preserve of
• The civil service became the preserve of the
  educated middle class.

63
A Summary of Rhetorical Devices

• Oxymoron glorious messiness
• Metaphors core of English, a common parent
  language, another flood of new vocabulary, the
  cultural soil, the first shoots sprang up, grew
  stronger, build fences around their language, the
  special preserve of grammarians,
• Parallelism in Churchills quote.