译林版牛津高中英语(必修3):Unit 2 Language-Reading(1)（在线收听）

English and its history

英语发展简史

All through history, people from many different countries and cultures have lived together in Britain.

在整个历史进程中，来自很多国家并具有不同文化的人们曾共同生活在不列颠。

The English language is made up of the grammar and vocabulary these people brought to Britain.

英语语言是由这些进入不列颠的人群所说语言中的语法和词汇构成的。

That is why English has so many difficult rules that confuse people.

这就是英语为何有那么多复杂规则而让人困惑的原因。

Old English

古英语

Old English is very different from the English we speak nowadays.

古英语和我们如今所讲的英语有很大的不同。

In fact, we would not be able to understand it if we heard it today.

实际上，如果我们现在去听古英语，我们也会不知其所云。

Before the middle of the 5th century, people in Britain all spoke a language called Celtic.

公元5世纪中叶之前，不列颠所有的人都说一种叫做凯尔特语的语言。

Then two Germanic groups from the European mainland--the Angles and the Saxons--occupied Britain.

然后，来自欧洲大陆的两个日耳曼民资——盎格鲁人和撒克逊人--占领了不列颠。

Old English consisted of a mixture of their languages.(Both the English language and the English people are named after the Angles; the word Angle was spelt Engle in Old English.)

古英语是他们语言的混合。（英语语言和英国人都是以盎格鲁人命名的；单词//“Angle”在古英语中的拼写为“Engle”。）