(7) premise (8) at a disadvantage (9) panic (10) cultural (11) flexible (12) imply

2.

(1) chair (2) force (3) secrets (4) painstaking (5) recognized (6) steered (7) essentially (8) observations (9) women (10) tutor (11) inspired (12) unless II. Translation

1.

1) He is a man of few words, but when it comes to playing computer games, he is far too clever for his classmates.

2) Children who don’t know any better may think these animals are pretty cute and start playing with them.

3) There is no way to obtain a loan, so to buy the new equipment, I’ll just have to grit my teeth and sell my hybrid car. 4) The hunter would not have fired the shots if he had not seen a herd of elephants coming towards his campsite.

5) I find it ironic that Tom has a selective memory---he does not seem to remember painful experiences in the past, particularly those of his own doing. 2.

Nancy Hopkins is a biology professor at MIT. She craves knowledge and works hard. However, as a scientist, she could not help noticing all kinds of indications of gender inequality on campus. Men and women professors did the same work, but when it came to promotion the administrators were rather selective. It was ironic that after so much cultural progress, women were still at a disadvantage in institution of higher education. When her request for more lab space was refused, she knew she had to fight. So she gritted her teeth and complained to the President. The fight ended in victory and Nancy was converted into a

gender-equity advocate.

Unit7 Learning about English

Part II Reading Task Comprehension Content Question Pair Work

1. It has borrowed and is still borrowing massively from other languages. Today it has an estimated vocabulary of over one million words.

2. They don’t like borrowing foreign words. They try to ban words from English.

3. Old English or Anglo-Saxon English.

4. The Germanic tribes brought it to the British Isles in the 5th century.

5. They are usually short and direct. 6. They use words derived from Old English.

7. An English judge in India noticed that several words in Sanskrit closely resembled some words in Greek and Latin. A systematic study later revealed the Indo-European parent language. 8. Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, English, etc.

9. There were three languages competing for use in England. 10. Words from Greek and Roman classics came into the English

language.

11. The great principles of freedom and rights of man were born in England, then the Americans carried them forward.

12. No. English is and has always been the tongue of the common people. There should not be any fence around it to protect its so-called purity.

Text Organization Working On Your Own 1.

Part One: Massive borrowing from other languages is a major feature of the English language.

Part Two: the history of the English language from the Indo-European parent language to modern English.

Part Three: Tolerance, love of freedom, and respect for the rights of others---these qualities in the English-speaking people explain the richness of their language. 2.

Paras. 10-11: Germanic tribes came to settle in Britain and brought Anglo-Saxon words---Old English.

Para. 12: The Christian religion enriched English with words from Greek and Latin.

Para. 13: the Vikings from Scandinavia came with words from Old Norse.