LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD
1.Nobody knows what the first language was. But
scientists feel sure that nobody speaks it today because all languages change
and keep on changing as long as people use them. One language may change in
different ways in different places and grow into several languages.
2.If we could meet the people who spoke English five
hundred years ago, we probably couldn′t understand much what they said.
3.English itself is a mixture of several languages.
Scientists believe that these languages and many others all grew out of the
same language which they call Indo-European. Nobody speaks it now. But some of
its descendants are Latin, German, English, French, Greek, Russian and many of
the different languages spoken in India.
4.Britain and America were once described as nations
divided by a common language. Just what is difference between the English
spoken in Britain and America?
5.The first English settlers to reach America arrived
in Virginia in 1607 and in Massachusetts in 1620. They all spoke English of the
early seventeenth century – the language of Shakespeare and Milton. Most of
them came originally from the south and south-east of England. Although some of
them had spent some years of exile in Holland they spoke with the accents of
the southern part of their home country. To a large extent they kept that form
of speech, but they soon learned to give old words new uses. They also took
words from the local Indian languages for plants and animals that were new to
them.
6.Until the Declaration of Independence in 1776 over
two-thirds of the settlers in what later became the U.S. came from England.
After that date many other people came to make a new life for themselves in the
New World. These included Irish, French, Germans, Dutch, Italians, Slavs, and
Scandinavians. All these people gave new words to the language of North
America. The Negroes who had been taken from Africa as slaves to work on the
rice and cotton plantations added words and structures from their own native
languages. Some people today think that the very American expression O.K. comes
from a similar expression which was brought to America by the Negroes.
7.All these people contributed in various ways to the
language which was to become American English. Most civilizations and cultures
– in their writings, traditions, folk stories – have traces of the old
language.
I.
EXERCISES.
1. Найдите в тексте антонимы к следующим
словам:
different, last, leave, nobody, north, small, new,
give, dependence, few, exclude, therefore.
2. В колонке В найдите русские эквиваленты к
английским словам в колонке А.
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А
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В
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1. because
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A.
в большой степени
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2. that
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B.
пока
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3. as long as
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C.
так как
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4. as well as
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D.
хотя
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5. some of
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E.
так же как, а также
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6. once
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F.
между
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7. as
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G.
некоторые из
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8. between
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H.
когда-то
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9. although
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I.
как
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10.
to a large extent
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J.
что
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3. Найдите в тексте слова,
имеющие сходные корни с русскими словами ниже: Запомните их значения в
английском языке.
дивиденды, дата, декларировать, микстура,
фольклор, культ, коммуна, плантация, ассимиляция, цивильный.
4. Переведите письменно
следующие предложения из текста, обращая внимание на сказуемые в пассивном
залоге.
1. Britain and America were once described
as nations divided by a common language.
2. The Negroes who had been
taken from Africa as slaves added words and structures from their own
native languages.
3. Some people think that the
very expression O.K. comes from a similar expression which was brought
to America by the Negroes.
5. Дайте развернутый ответ на
вопросы по тексту. (выполняется
письменно)
1. Do people in Britain
and America speak the same language?
2. What words did the first English settlers take from local
Indian languages?
3. What peoples gave new words to the language of North America
after 1776?
4. What is English now?
1.
Пользуясь словарем,
переведите письменно четвертый абзац текста.
IV. ТEST
I. Соедините подходящие по смыслу части
предложений.
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1.
Scientists feel sure that …
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a.spoke
English of the 17th
century.
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2. One language may change …
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b.
nobody speaks the first
language now.
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3. The first settlers …
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c.
in different ways in
different places.
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4. There are …
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d.
have some traces of the
old language.
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5. Most civilizations and cultures …
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e.
some of descendants of
Indo-European in use now.
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I.
Укажите номера абзацев
текста, которые содержат информацию для ответа на вопросы ниже:
а. Каково
происхождение английского языка по предположениям ученых?
в. Смогли бы мы
понять людей, говоривших на английском языке 500 лет назад?
с. Под влиянием каких языков формировался английский язык, на котором
говорит современная Америка?
II.
Прочитайте следующие
утверждения и определите, являются ли они согласно тексту верными (Т),
неверными (F) или не обсуждаются вообще (N):
1. English as well as many
other languages grew out of the same language.
2. If you met the people who
spoke English five hundred years ago, undoubtedly you could understand what
they said.
3. Britain and America were
once described as nations divided by a common language.
4. The Egyptian king
Psammetichos decided to learn which of the world′s languages was the oldest.
IV. Расположите следующие предложения в таком
порядке, чтобы получилось краткое изложение текста.
1. Scientists believe that English as well as some other
languages all grew out of the same language.
2. American English, for example, differ in various ways
from the English language spoken in Britain.
3. But all languages kept on changing as long as people
used them.
4. It may be explained by the fact that a number of
nations contributed to the language which was to become American English.
5.It is called Indo-European.
V. Напишите краткое изложение текста на русском языке.
KEYS
I.1-b, 2-c, 3-a, 4-e, 5-d; II. a-2, b-1, c-5; III.
1-T, 2- F, 3-T, 4-N;
II.
1, 5, 3, , 2, 4.
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