Unit 5 语境记单词及练习 Words in a context -2022-2023学年高中英语人教版（2019）必修第一册

Words in a context From my point of view, language is a common cultural symbol and its development records ups and downs of a nation. The history of Britain is characterized by invasions, which is fully reflected by the history of English. The history of English dates back to the 5th century, when dialects brought by Germanic invaders formed what we now refer to as Old English. Old English was closely related to German, and this might be the major reason why the majority of natives have great difficulty understanding it. In 1066 CE, Norman invaders occupied England and the upper class regarded English as a vulgar tongue. In this case, French and Latin words came flooding in, thus enormously enlarging English vocabulary. Later on, invasion continued to shape the history of English, but by means of colonization. New varieties that came into being in this era differ from British English in some specific aspects. For instance, when Americans refer to ‘underground’, ‘petrol’, ‘trousers’ and ‘flat’, they usually use ‘subway’, ‘gas’, ‘pants’ and ‘apartment’. However, recently, these gaps have greatly narrowed. Nowadays, after waves of struggles for independence and equality, the colonialism collapsed. Despite the previous struggles against Britain, in the current context of globalization, billions of people still use English, especially when handling global affairs. In this sense, speakers with a command of English are in great demand. Invasion is also a crucial factor that shaped the history of Chinese. But the development of Chinese has its unique characteristics. As a writing system based on pictures, Chinese characters were first carved onto shells or animal bones to describe nature. After the establishment of Qin Dynasty, written Chinese began to develop in one direction. Even today, no matter how greatly the pronunciation has changed, modern Chinese people can still appreciate classic Chinese literature. 在我看来，语言是一种共同的文化符号，它的发展记录着一个民族的兴衰。 英国历史的一个特点就是被侵略（与侵略）