现代英语的发展历程

现代英语的发展历程
16世纪末期，大约有五百万到七百万人说英语。

几乎所有这些人都生活在英国。

在随后的世纪，英国人开始航海并征服世界的其他地方。

因此，英语开始在许多其他国家使用。

如今，把英语作为第一，第二语言或外来语来说的人比以前任何时候都多。

以英语为母语的人能够相互交流，即使他们所讲的英语不尽相同。

看这个示例：英国的贝蒂：你想去看看我的公寓吗？美国的埃米：是的，我想去拜访你的公寓。

那么，为什么英语经过一段时间会发生变化了呢？实际上当不同的文化互相沟通时，所有的语言都会发生变化和发展。

首先在大约公元450年到1150年的英国，人们所说的英语和今天所说的英语就很不一样。

比起现在我们说的英语它更大程度上是基于日耳曼语的。

然后逐渐德在大约公元800年到1150年，英语变得不再那么像日耳曼语了，因为首先是被讲丹麦语的人统治后来是被讲法语的人统治。

这些新定居者丰富了用于语言尤其是他的词汇。

因此到了十七世纪莎士比亚能够使用比以往更丰富的词汇。

在1620年一些英国人到美国定居。

后来在18世纪一些英国人也被带到了澳大利亚。

英语开始在这两个国家使用。

最后在19世纪这种语言确定下来。

在那时英语的拼写发生了两个很大的变化：首先赛缪尔-约翰编写了他的词典，后来诺亚-韦伯斯特编写了《美国英语辞典》。

后者体现了美国英语拼写的不同特色。

英语现在在南亚也被作为一门外语或第二语言使用。

例如，印度就有很多人可以说流利的英语，因为英国在1765年到1947年统治着印度。

那段时期英语成为政府和教育语言。

英语还在新加坡和马来西亚以及像南非这样的非洲国家使用。

今天在中国学习英语的人数正在快速的增长。

实施上，中国可能拥有人数最多的英语学习者。

中国英语会发展出自己的特色吗？只有时间可以证明。

Unit5
Have you ever wanted to be part of a band as a famous singer or musician? Have you ever dreamed of playing in front of thousands of people at a concert, at which everyone is clapping and appreciating your music? Do you sing karaoke and pretend you are a famous singer like Song Zuying or Liu Huan? To be honest, a lot of people attach great importance to becoming rich and famous. But just how do people form a band?
Many musicians meet and form a band because they like to write and play their own music. They may start as a group of high-school students, for whom practising their music in someones house is the first step to fame. Sometimes they may ptey to passers-by in the street or subway so that they can earn some extra money for themselves or to pay for their instruments. Later they may give performances in pubs or clubs, for which they are paid in cash. Of course they hope to make records in a studio and sell millions of copies to become millionaires!
However, there was one band that started in a different way. It was called the Monkees and began as a TV show. The musicians were to play jokes on each other as well as play music, most of which was based loosely on the Beatles. The TV organizers had planned to find four musicians who could act as well as sing. They put an advertisement in a newspaper looking for rock
musicians, but they could only find one who was good enough. They had to use actors for the other three members of the band.
As some of these actors could not sing well enough，they had to rely on other musicians to help them. So during the broadcasts they just pretended to sing. Anyhow their performances were humorous enough to be copied by other groups. They were so popular that their fans formed clubs in order to get more familiar with them. Each week on TV，the Monkees would play and sing songs written by other musicians. However。

After a year or so in which they became more serious about their work，the Monkees started to play and sing their own songs like a real band. Then they produced their own records and started touring and playing their own music. In the USA they became even more popular than the Beatles and sold even more records. The band broke up about 1970，but happily they reunited in the mid-1980s. They produced a new record in 1996。

并非乐队的乐队
你曾经想过要成为一个乐队里有名的歌手或音乐家吗？你是否曾梦想过在音乐会上面对成千上万的观众演唱，观众欣赏你的歌唱为你鼓掌吗？你唱卡拉OK时是否假装自己就是像宋祖英或刘欢一样著名的歌星吗？说实在的，很多人把名和利看得很重。

那么，人们又是怎样一起组成乐队的呢？
许多音乐家聚在一起组成乐队，是因为他们喜欢自己作曲，演奏自己的音乐。

他们开始可能是一组中学生，在某个人家里排练音乐是成名的第一步。

有时他们可能在街上或地铁里为过路人演奏，这样他们可以为自己或自己要买的乐器多挣一些钱。

后来，他们可能在酒吧或者俱乐部里演出，这样他们可以得到现金。

当然，他们希望在录音棚里录音，然后卖掉上百万张碟，从而成为百万富。

然而，也有一个用不同方式组建起来的乐队。

这支乐队叫门基乐队，它开始时是以电视节目表演的形式出现的。

组成乐队的音乐人演奏音乐，还彼此打趣都笑。

这些玩笑和音乐大多都在模仿甲壳虫乐队。

电视制作人原计划想寻找四位会唱又会表演的乐手。

他们在报纸上登了一则广告，想招摇滚乐手，但他们只招到一个满意的。

乐队的其他三人只能用演员来代替。

因为这些演员中有些人唱得不是很好，他们不得不依靠队里的其他人帮助，所以在演出的时候他们只是假唱，不管怎样他们的表演非常幽默以至于其他的乐队也开始模仿，他们非常走红使得歌迷们为了更加熟悉他们而成立了俱乐部，门基乐队每个星期都要在电视上演唱由别的音乐家创作的歌曲，然而经过大约一年以后，门基乐队逐渐对自己的工作认真起来，他们开始像一支真正的乐队那样演唱自己创作的歌曲，然后他们录制自己的唱片，并且开始巡回表演他们自己的音乐，在美国他们甚至比甲壳虫乐队还要受欢迎，出售的录音专辑还要多。

门基乐队大约在1970年左右解散，但是令人高兴的是，到80年代中期他们再次聚首，在1996年他们推出了一张新的专辑，像真正的乐队一样以此来庆祝他们以往的时光。