2019英语专八听力mini lecture全真模拟训练MP3附文本（十九）

2019英语专八听力mini lecture全真模拟训练MP3附文本（十九）

　　2019专八考试临近，寒假期间专八考生们也别松懈了对专八听力的训练，新东方在线专八频道整理了2019英语专八听力mini lecture全真模拟训练MP3附文本，希望大家认真复习。

2019英语专八听力mini lecture全真模拟训练MP3附文本汇总

　　[00:10.12]TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS--GRADE EIGHT

　　[00:13.51]Section A MINI-LECTURE

　　[00:16.97]In this section you will hear a mini-lecture.

　　[00:20.29]You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY.

　　[00:23.73]While listening to the mini-lecture,

　　[00:25.82]please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE

　　[00:30.29]and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap.

　　[00:34.70]Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically

　　[00:39.23]and semantically acceptable.

　　[00:41.85]You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.

　　[00:45.67]You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.

　　[01:19.89]Now, listen to the mini-lecture.

　　[01:22.30]When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes

　　[01:25.05]to check your work.

　　[01:27.33]Evolution of the English Language

　　[01:30.51]Good morning, everyone.

　　[01:32.17]Today, we are going to talk about the evolution of the English language.

　　[01:37.77]As we all know, there are four major parts to every language system:

　　[01:43.37]lexicon, grammar, semantics, and phonology. When linguists study a language

　　[01:51.21]they are most concerned with these four systems.

　　[01:54.93]And today we shall examine the English language in these four aspects.

　　[02:01.58]First of all, a language's lexicon is its vocabulary.

　　[02:06.70]This is the system that dictionaries are most concerned with.

　　[02:11.37]The lexicon of the English language is immense and constantly growing.

　　[02:16.74]To better understand this, it is helpful to consider the history of the English language.

　　[02:23.30]English began as a Germanic dialect spoken by the Anglo-Saxons.

　　[02:29.40]During the Roman Empire, many Latin words were adopted into the English language

　　[02:35.55]through Anglo-Saxon dealings with Romans.

　　[02:38.93]In CE 877, England was divided in half after the Viking invasions of the Norsemen.

　　[02:47.36]Because of this, many Norse words were implemented into the English language.

　　[02:53.10]The procurement of many French words

　　[02:55.79]occurred in a similar manner after the Norman Conquest.

　　[03:00.18]The English Renaissance of the 16th and 17th centuries sparked new ideas

　　[03:06.27]which created a need for new words;

　　[03:09.46]many words were borrowed from Greek and Latin at that time.

　　[03:14.28]New ideas have most often created the need for new words.

　　[03:19.71]The Anglo-Saxons of the 5th century were new to the concept of merchant-trading,

　　[03:25.83]so they borrowed Latin words for the things and concepts that were new to them.

　　[03:31.07]The same is true about religion and government.

　　[03:34.51]When the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity,

　　[03:38.24]many Latin words were adopted.

　　[03:41.18]After the Norman Conquest, a change in the type of government

　　[03:45.29]required the implementation of many French words.

　　[03:50.15]Today, words like computer, internet, and search engine are common,

　　[03:56.03]but fifty years ago they were unheard-of concepts.

　　[04:00.20]New ideas, advances in technology in this example,

　　[04:04.58]continue to require additions to the English vocabulary.

　　[04:09.19]Dictionaries must be frequently updated

　　[04:12.20]in order to remain reliable sources of English's lexicon.

　　[04:17.82]The second system, grammar, also evolved throughout history.

　　[04:22.75]A change in grammar and sound structure occurred with the introduction of Norse.

　　[04:29.00]The English case system was simplified

　　[04:31.74]in its dealings with the French after the Norman Conquest.

　　[04:36.17]In his essay, "Good English and Bad," Bill Bryson states:

　　[04:41.39]"One of the undoubted virtues of English is that it is a fluid language

　　[04:46.25]in which meanings change and shift in response to the pressures of common usage...".

　　[04:52.33]Grammar, like lexicon, has evolved when necessary,

　　[04:56.62]though it has done so at a much slower pace.

　　[05:00.53]English grammar was invented in the 17th century

　　[05:04.67]and involved placing the rules of Latin onto the English language.

　　[05:10.05]Since then, many committees have been established

　　[05:13.61]in an effort to regulate English grammar and usage

　　[05:17.19]but were consistently unsuccessful.

　　[05:20.69]The notion that English should have universal rules of grammar

　　[05:25.40]led to the idea of Standard English.

　　[05:29.03]Standard English is the dialect of the English language

　　[05:32.81]that is spoken by "educated people" and based entirely on grammar.

　　[05:38.59]It is the form of English that is taught to foreign language students.

　　[05:43.48]Although it would seem that such rules of grammar would remain consistent,

　　[05:48.40]one cannot depend on an outdated grammar book to be a reliable source.

　　[05:54.24]In elementary school grammar courses,

　　[05:57.00]I was taught that it was grammatically incorrect

　　[06:00.50]to end a sentence with a preposition or begin one with a coordinating conjunction,

　　[06:06.56]and it was unnecessary to use a comma between the second to last item in a series

　　[06:12.74]and the coordinating conjunction that follows it.

　　[06:16.43]Those rules have all changed. Standard English now allows sentences

　　[06:22.14]to end in a preposition or begin with a coordinating conjunction,

　　[06:27.00]and the extra comma is necessary.

　　[06:30.80]Thirdly, about semantics.

　　[06:33.55]To study semantics is to study the meaning of words.

　　[06:38.24]Many dictionaries today not only give the current meaning of the word

　　[06:43.09]but also include a brief abstract of the word's etymology.

　　[06:48.04]To understand how semantics evolves,

　　[06:51.16]it is helpful to look at the etymology of words in the English language.

　　[06:56.22]In Middle English, "sinister" meant "on the left"; today it means "evil".

　　[07:03.86]In Old English, the word "sly" meant "to strike or slay";

　　[07:09.96]today it means something "clever, mischievous, or sneaky".

　　[07:15.99]More recently, "hot" can now be used to describe not only temperature

　　[07:21.34]but also a level of attractiveness; "cool" also refers to temperature

　　[07:27.32]or a level of popularity. "hip" can mean in style or refer to a body part.

　　[07:34.74]Around 1932, "hip" was commonly used as a verb transient

　　[07:40.28]that meant "to make aware".

　　[07:43.76]The last system is phonology. To best describe the evolution of phonology,

　　[07:50.00]it is useful to consider Ebonics, or black English.

　　[07:55.73]Some of the characteristics of Ebonics are the elimination of the sound

　　[08:00.90]"l" makes in the middle of a word and the substitution of a "w" sound

　　[08:06.73]when a word ends in "l". Black English words often drop the consonants

　　[08:12.58]at the end of words, especially if the word ends in two consonants.

　　[08:18.20]The reason for these differences in the phonology of Standard English

　　[08:22.40]and that of Black English is due to ancestry.

　　[08:26.58]African-Americans, whose native language was African,

　　[08:30.87]applied many of their rules of phonics to English words.

　　[08:35.39]Likewise, many words in Japanese language are simply English words

　　[08:40.49]with vowels between each of the consonants.

　　[08:43.93]They've taken our word for something that is a new idea to them

　　[08:48.58]and applied their rules of phonics to the word.

　　[08:52.37]OK. Let me recap what we have talked about today.

　　[08:56.81]The four major parts to every language system

　　[09:00.27]are lexicon, grammar, semantics, and phonology,

　　[09:04.52]and we've seen how they have evolved in the English language

　　[09:08.11]based upon the needs of those who use it. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude

　　[09:13.96]that language is shaped by change. To examine how language shapes change,

　　[09:20.07]it is important to consider how language is used between those who use it.

　　[09:27.98]Now you have THREE minutes to check your work.

　　[12:31.38]This is the end of Section A MINI-LECTURE.

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