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1、大学英语四级阅读试题及答案解析（1）WhenonelooksbackuponthefifteenhundredyearsthatarethelifespanoftheEnglishlanguage,heshouldbeabletonoticeanumberofsignificanttruths.Thehistoryofourlanguagehasalwaysbeenahistoryofconstantchange—attimesaslow,almostimperceptiblechange,atothertimesav
2、iolentcollisionbetweentwolanguages.Ourlanguagehasalwaysbeenalivinggrowingorganism,ithasneverbeenstatic.Anothersignificanttruththatemergesfromsuchastudyisthatlanguageatalltimeshasbeenthepossessionnotofoneclassorgroupbutofmany.『Atoneextremeithasbeenthepropertyofth
3、ecommon,ignorantfolk,whohaveuseditinthedailybusinessoftheirliving,muchastheyhaveusedtheiranimalsorthekitchenpotsandpans.』①Attheotherextremeithasbeenthetreasureofthosewhohaverespecteditasaninstrumentandasignofcivilization,andwhohavestruggledbywritingitdowntogivei
4、tsomepermanence,order,dignity,andifpossible,alittlebeauty. Asweconsiderourchanginglanguage,weshouldnoteheretwodevelopmentsthatareofspecialandimmediateimportancetous.OneisthatsincethetimeoftheAnglo-Saxonstherehasbeenanalmostcompletereversalofthedifferentdevicesf
5、orshowingtherelationshipofwordsinasentence.Anglo-Saxon(oldEnglish)wasalanguageofmanyinflections.ModernEnglishhasfewinflections.Wemustnowdependlargelyonwordorderandfunctionwordstoconveythemeaningsthattheolderlanguagedidbymeansofchangesintheformsofwords.Functionwo
6、rds,youshouldunderstand,arewordssuchasprepositions,conjunctions,andafewothersthatareusedprimarilytoshowrelationshipsamongotherwords.Afewinflections,however,havesurvived.Andwhensomewordinflectionscomeintoconflictwithwordorder,theremaybetroublefortheusersofthelang
7、uage,asweshallseelaterwhenweturnourattentiontosuchmatersasWHOorWHOMandMEorI.Thesecondfactwemustconsideristhataslanguageitselfchanges,ourattitudestowardlanguageformschangealso.『Theeighteenthcentury,forexample,producedfromvarioussourcesatendencytofixthelanguageint
8、opatternsnotalwayssetinandgrew,untilatthepresenttimethereisastrongtendencytorestudyandre-evaluatelanguagepracticesintermsofthewaysinwhichpeoplespeakandwrite.』②1.Incon
