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1、to American. Later in the 18th century some British people were taken to Australia too. English began to be spoken in both countries. Finally by the 19th century the language was settled. At that time two big changes in English spelling happened: first Samuel Johnson wrote his dictionary and later N
2、oah Webster wrote The American Dictionary of the English Language. The latter gave a separate identity to American English spelling.English now is also spoken as a foreign or second language in South Asia. For example, India has a very large number of fluent English speakers because Britain ruled In
3、dia from 1765 to 1947. during that time English became the language for government and education. English is also spoken in Singapore and Malaysia and countries in Africa such as South Africa. Today the number of people learning English in China is increasing rapidly. In fact, China may have the lar
4、gest number of English learners. Will Chinese English develop its own identity? Only time will tell.STANDARD ENGLISH AND DIALECTSWhat is standard English? Is it spoken in Britain, the US, Canada, Australia, India and New Zealand? Believe it or not, there is no such thing as standard English. Many pe
5、ople believe the English spoken on TV and the radio is standard English. This is because in the early days of radio, those who reported the news were expected to speak excellent English. However, on TV and the radio you will hear differences in the way people speak. When people use words and express
6、ions different from the “standard language”, it is called a dialect. American English has many dialects, especially the Midwestern, southern, African American and Spanish dialects. Even in some parts of the USA, two people from neighbouring towns speak a little differently. American English has so m
7、any dialects because people have come from all over the world. Geography also plays a part in making dialects. Some people who live in the mountains of the eastern USA speak with an older kind of English dialect. When Americans moved from one place to another, they took their dialects with them. So
8、people from the mountains in the southeastern USA speak with almost the same dialects as people in the northwestern USA. The USA is a large country in which many different dialects are spoken. Although many Americans move a lot, they still recognize and understand each others dialects.THE OXFORD ENG
9、LISH DICTIONARYYou may think that English dictionaries have been used for many, many centuries. The spelling of English has always been a problem but it was more of a problem in the days before a dictionary. Then people could spell word in different ways which you might find it interesting. But it m
10、ade reading English much more difficult. So dictionaries were invented to encourage everybody to spell the same. In fact, an English dictionary like the kind you use today wasnt made until the time of the late Qing Dynasty. There men did most of the important early work on dictionaries: Samuel Johns
11、on, Noah Webster, and James Murray. These men spent nearly all of their lives trying to collect words for their dictionaries. For them, it wasnt only a job; it was a wonderful journey of discovery. The largest dictionary in the world is the Oxford English Dictionary, or OED for short. The idea for t
12、his dictionary came from an important meeting in Britain in 1857. Twenty-two years later, Oxford University asked James Murray to be the editor of its new dictionary. Murray had never been to college. At the age of fourteen, he left his village school in Scotland and taught himself while working in
13、a bank. Later he became a great teacher. After Oxford gave him the job, Murray had a place built in the garden behind his house to do his work. Part of it was one meter underground. In winter it felt like a barn, he had to wear a heavy coat and put his feet in a box to keep warm. Every morning, Murr
14、ay got out of bed at five oclock and worked several hours before breakfast. Often he would work by the candle light into the evening. Murray hoped to finish the new dictionary in ten years. But after five years, he was still adding words for the letter A! then others went to work with Murray, includ
15、ing his two daughters. He worked on the dictionary until he was very old. Forty-four years later, in1928, other editors finished it. It included more than 15,000 pages in twelve books. And you thought your dictionary was big!Unit 3JOURNEY DOWN THE MEKONGPART 1 THE DREAM AND THE PLANMy name is Wang K
16、un. Ever since middle school, my sister Wang Wei and I have dreamed about taking a great bike trip. Two years ago she bought an expensive mountain bike and then she persuaded me to buy one. Last year, she visited our cousins, Dao Wei and Yu Hang at their college in Kunming. They are Dai and grew up in western Yunnan Province near the Lancang River, the Chinese part of the river that is called the Mekong River in other countries. Wang Wei soon got them interested in cyc
