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1、新东方英语四级：http://edu.21cn.com/kcnet1820/四级qq群：238407043WhenonelooksbackuponthefifteenhundredyearsthatarethelifespanoftheEnglishlanguage,heshouldbeabletonoticeanumberofsignificanttruths.Thehistoryofourlanguagehasalwaysbeenahistoryofconstantchange—attimesasl
2、ow,almostimperceptiblechange,atothertimesaviolentcollisionbetweentwolanguages.Ourlanguagehasalwaysbeenalivinggrowingorganism,ithasneverbeenstatic.Anothersignificanttruththatemergesfromsuchastudyisthatlanguageatalltimeshasbeenthepossessionnotofoneclassorg
3、roupbutofmany.『Atoneextremeithasbeenthepropertyofthecommon,ignorantfolk,whohaveuseditinthedailybusinessoftheirliving,muchastheyhaveusedtheiranimalsorthekitchenpotsandpans.』①Attheotherextremeithasbeenthetreasureofthosewhohaverespecteditasaninstrumentandas
4、ignofcivilization,andwhohavestruggledbywritingitdowntogiveitsomepermanence,order,dignity,andifpossible,alittlebeauty.Asweconsiderourchanginglanguage,weshouldnoteheretwodevelopmentsthatareofspecialandimmediateimportancetous.OneisthatsincethetimeoftheAnglo
5、-Saxonstherehasbeenanalmostcompletereversalofthedifferentdevicesforshowingtherelationshipofwordsinasentence.Anglo-Saxon(oldEnglish)wasalanguageofmanyinflections.ModernEnglishhasfewinflections.Wemustnowdependlargelyonwordorderandfunctionwordstoconveytheme
6、aningsthattheolderlanguagedidbymeansofchangesintheformsofwords.Functionwords,youshouldunderstand,arewordssuchasprepositions,conjunctions,andafewothersthatareusedprimarilytoshowrelationshipsamongotherwords.Afewinflections,however,havesurvived.Andwhensomew
7、ordinflectionscomeintoconflictwithwordorder,theremaybetroublefortheusersofthelanguage,asweshallseelaterwhenweturnourattentiontosuchmatersasWHOorWHOMandMEorI.Thesecondfactwemustconsideristhataslanguageitselfchanges,ourattitudestowardlanguageformschangeals
8、o.『Theeighteenthcentury,forexample,producedfromvarioussourcesatendencytofixthelanguageintopatternsnotalwayssetinandgrew,untilatthepresenttimethereisastrongtendencytorestudyandre-evaluatelanguagepracticesintermsofthewaysinw
