When
one looks back upon the fifteen hundred years that are the life span of the
English language, he should be able to notice a number of significant truths.
The history of our language has always been a history of constant change—at
times a slow, almost imperceptible change, at other times a violent collision
between two languages. Our language has always been a living growing organism;
it has never been static. Another significant truth that emerges from such a
study is that language at all times has been the possession not of one class or
group but of many. At one extreme it has been the property of the common,
ignorant folk, who have used it in the daily business of their living, much as
they have used their animals or the kitchen pots and pans. At the other extreme
it has been the treasure of those who have respected it as an instrument and a
sign of civilization, and who have struggled by writing it down to give it some
permanence, order, dignity, and if possible, a little beauty. As
we consider our changing language, we should note here two developments that are
of special and immediate importance to us. One is that since the time of the
Anglo Saxons there has been an almost complete reversal of the different devices
for showing the relationship of words in a sentence. Anglo-Saxon (old English)
was a language of many inflections. Modern English has few inflections. We must
now depend largely on word order and function words to convey the meanings that
the older language did by means of changes in the forms of words. Function
words, you should understand, are words such as prepositions, conjunctions, and
a few others that are used primarily to show relationships among other words. A
few inflections, however, have survived. And when some word inflections come
into conflict with word order, there may be trouble for the users of the
language, as we shall see later when we turn our attention to such maters as WHO
or WHOM and ME or I. The second fact we must consider is that as language itself
changes, our attitudes toward language forms change also. The eighteenth
century, for example, produced from various sources a tendency to fix the
language into patterns not always set in and grew, until at the present time
there is a strong tendency to restudy and re-evaluate language practices in
terms of the ways in which people speak and write.
单选题
In contrast to the earlier linguists, modern linguists tend to ______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】根据文章末尾“The eighteenth century, for example, produced from various sources a tendency to fix the language into patterns not always set in and grew, until at the present time there is a strong tendency to restudy and re-evaluate language practices in terms of the ways in which people speak and write．(现代语言学家倾向于根据人们说和写的方式评价语言实践，而不是像早期的语言学家根据一定的模式评价语言。)”，选项B符合文章的意思。
单选题
Choose the appropriate meaning for the word "inflection" used in line 4 of paragraph 2.: ______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】这是一个词义辨析题，要根据上下文的信息判断单词的意思。文章在第二段中间再次提到inflection时说，A few inflections，however，have survived，后面文章又举了WHO/WHOM和ME/I为例说明inflection，这是一篇关于语言学的文章，从例子可以看出inflection的意思应该是“单词的变形”，选项A正确。
单选题
Which of the following statements is not mentioned in the passage?
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】根据文章的内容，选项A“普遍认为1500年是现代英语的起点”在文章中没有提及，故为正确答案。文章第二句说“The history of our language has always been a history of constant change—at times a slow, almost imperceptible change, at other times a violent collision between two languages．(我们语言的历史是一个不断变化的历史——在一些时间里缓慢得几乎难以察觉，在另一些时间里则是两种语言的激烈碰撞。)，由此可以推断一些其他的语言对英语的发展有重大影响。选项B符合文章的意思。
单选题
Which of the following can be best used as the title of the passage?
单选题
We can infer from the passage that Anglo-Saxon ______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】见原文第二段对Anglo Saxon这种古英语与现代英语的对比和描述，属于细节型题，一般读懂文章就可以．正确解答。B提到function words是两个时代的英语的区别，但是at all语气过于绝对化；D项，原文提到“A few inflections, however, have survived.”，并不是“nothing remained”。