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1、2013年大学英语四级考试阅读理解练习20篇WhenonelooksbackuponthefifteenhundredyearsthatarethelifespanoftheEnglishlanguage,heshouldbeabletonoticeanumberofsignificanttruths.Thehistoryofourlanguagehasalwaysbeenahistoryofconstantchange—attimesaslow,almostimperceptiblechange,atothertimesaviolentcollisionbetween
2、twolanguages.Ourlanguagehasalwaysbeenalivinggrowingorganism,ithasneverbeenstatic.Anothersignificanttruththatemergesfromsuchastudyisthatlanguageatalltimeshasbeenthepossessionnotofoneclassorgroupbutofmany.『Atoneextremeithasbeenthepropertyofthecommon,ignorantfolk,whohaveuseditinthedailybusi
3、nessoftheirliving,muchastheyhaveusedtheiranimalsorthekitchenpotsandpans.』①Attheotherextremeithasbeenthetreasureofthosewhohaverespecteditasaninstrumentandasignofcivilization,andwhohavestruggledbywritingitdowntogiveitsomepermanence,order,dignity,andifpossible,alittlebeauty.Asweconsiderourc
4、hanginglanguage,weshouldnoteheretwodevelopmentsthatareofspecialandimmediateimportancetous.OneisthatsincethetimeoftheAnglo-Saxonstherehasbeenanalmostcompletereversalofthedifferentdevicesforshowingtherelationshipofwordsinasentence.Anglo-Saxon(oldEnglish)wasalanguageofmanyinflections.Modern
5、Englishhasfewinflections.Wemustnowdependlargelyonwordorderandfunctionwordstoconveythemeaningsthattheolderlanguagedidbymeansofchangesintheformsofwords.Functionwords,youshouldunderstand,arewordssuchasprepositions,conjunctions,andafewothersthatareusedprimarilytoshowrelationshipsamongotherwo
6、rds.Afewinflections,however,havesurvived.Andwhensomewordinflectionscomeintoconflictwithwordorder,theremaybetroublefortheusersofthelanguage,asweshallseelaterwhenweturnourattentiontosuchmatersasWHOorWHOMandMEorI.Thesecondfactwemustconsideristhataslanguageitselfchanges,ourattitudestowardlan
7、guageformschangealso.『Theeighteenthcentury,forexample,producedfromvarioussourcesatendencytofixthelanguageintopatternsnotalwayssetinandgrew,untilatthepresenttimethereisastrongtendencytorestudyandre-evaluatelanguagepracticesintermsofthewaysinwhichpeoplespeakandwrite.』②1.Inc
