2012年英语专业四级听力真题 演讲

Survival of the English Language

英语语言的生存

Good morning. Death is a common fate of unwritten languages.

早上好。死亡是不成文语言的共同命运。

But written records of the languages spoken on the island of Britain show us how the English language became the language of the island and how it survived.

但是不列颠岛上使用的语言的书面记录向我们展示了英语如何成为该岛的语言以及它如何幸存下来。

We now turn to those written records.

我们现在转向那些书面记录。

There are five critical periods in the survival of the English language.

英语的生存有五个关键时期。

1)410 CE to the mid-eighth century

1) 公元 410 年至八世纪中叶

Early in the fifth century, Rome recalled its legions and told the Britons to defend themselves.

五世纪初，罗马召回了它的军团，并告诉不列颠人自卫。

Rich,unprotected, and attacked from all sides, King Vortigern on the East coast invited Germanic mercenaries to cross the channel to defend him against his enemies within and without.

东海岸的国王 Vortigern 富有，无人保护，四面楚歌，他邀请日耳曼雇佣兵渡过海峡，以保卫他免受内外敌人的攻击。

These mercenaries, mostly Angle and Saxon clans of Germanic peoples, called their language “englisc” (pronounced “anglish”).

这些雇佣军，主要是日耳曼人的盎格鲁和撒克逊氏族，称他们的语言为“englisc”（发音为“anglish”）。

The language of the Germanic mercenaries became the language of the conquered area.

日耳曼雇佣兵的语言成为被征服地区的语言。

From the seventh through the mid-eighth centuries York in Northumbria, famed for its schools and for its literary productions, was the center of the English-speaking world.

从七世纪到八世纪中叶，诺森比亚的约克以其学校和文学作品而闻名，是英语世界的中心。

2)Mid-eighth century to 899

2)八世纪中叶至899年

By the mid 700’s, the Anglo-Saxons were on the receiving end of slaughter and ruined by Danish armies.

到 700 年代中期，盎格鲁撒克逊人正处于屠杀的接收端，并被丹麦军队摧毁。

Eventually,Alfred forced the Danes back.Danish Northumbria submitted to Alfred in 886.

最终，阿尔弗雷德迫使丹麦人退缩。丹麦诺森比亚于 886 年向阿尔弗雷德臣服。

Due to Alfred’s education programs, most of the existing laws, poems, songs and stories were in the West Saxon dialect of his Wessex. Alfred died in 899.

由于阿尔弗雷德的教育计划，现存的大部分法律、诗歌、歌曲和故事都使用他所在的威塞克斯的西撒克逊方言。阿尔弗雷德于 899 年去世。

3)959 to 1066

3)959年至1066年

In 959，King Edgar, the great-grandson of Alfred, ruled both Danes and Saxons in England.

959年，阿尔弗雷德的曾孙埃德加国王同时统治着英格兰的丹麦人和撒克逊人。

The incompetent King Ethelred the Unready succeeded Edgar.He could not control the Danes.

无能的埃塞尔雷德国王继承了埃德加。他无法控制丹麦人。

More Danes invaded; civil war followed. This second time, violent battles ended in a tie.

更多丹麦人入侵；内战随之而来。这是第二次，激烈的战斗以平局告终。

The Danish lender, Canute, and Saxon King-elect, Edmund Ironsides, divide the country into Danish and English speaking areas.

丹麦贷方，Canute和Saxon King-Elect，Edmund Ironsides，将该国分为丹麦语和英语的地区。

Two years later, Edmund died; Canute became King of all England in 1018.

两年后，埃德蒙去世了。 1018年，克努特成为全英格兰的国王。

With Canute the center of literary production moved London. English remained a written language.

随着克努特，文学创作的中心转移到了伦敦。英语仍然是一种书面语言。

Widower Canute wedded Emma,daughter of the Duke of Normandy.

鳏夫克努特娶了诺曼底公爵的女儿艾玛。

She was the mother of Edward, who became king after Canute’s heir from his marriage to Emma died.

她是爱德华的母亲，爱德华在克努特与爱玛的婚姻继承人去世后成为国王。

Raised in Normandy,Edward preferred the French. In 1066,the French-speaking Normans conquered England.

在诺曼底长大的爱德华更喜欢法国人。 1066年，讲法语的诺曼人征服了英格兰。

Norman French,based in London, became the only language of literature, law, an court.

以伦敦为基地的诺曼法语成为文学、法律和法庭的唯一语言。

This third time, English became the language of the brutally oppressed illiterate. The language again seemed heading for extinction.

这第三次，英语成为受残酷压迫的文盲的语言。这种语言似乎再次走向灭绝。

4)1080 to the 17th century

4）1080到17世纪

After 1080,only a few written documents in English appeared: a last chronicle entry in1134;a manual for religious women from around 1200.

1080 年之后，只出现了一些英文书面文件：1134 年的最后一个编年史条目；1200 年左右的宗教妇女手册。

During the twelfth and most of the thirteenth centuries, we have no written records of English laws,poetry,songs or stories.

在十二世纪和十三世纪的大部分时间里，我们没有关于英国法律、诗歌、歌曲或故事的书面记录。

In 1258 the bilingual French-English“Provisions of Oxford”,granting some rights to barons, showed up as the first public document in English in more than 200 years.

1258 年，授予男爵某些权利的法英双语“牛津规定”成为 200 多年来第一份英文公开文件。

In the fifteenth century,English gave further signs of renewed life.

在十五世纪，英语提供了进一步的新生迹象。

In 1413,King Henry IV wrote the first royal will in English.Religious plays were in English.

1413年，国王亨利四世用英语写下了第一份皇家遗嘱。

By the late sixteenth century,we see the flowering of English theater with Shakespeare and Marlowe and Jonson.

到十六世纪末，我们看到莎士比亚、马洛和琼森的英国戏剧开花结果。

Modern English arrived in the 17th century.The English language won this“Battle of Britain”.

现代英语在17世纪到达。英语赢得了这场“不列颠之战”。

5)1837 to today

5）1837年至今

In the nineteenth century, the“sun never set on the British Empire” was in the English language.

在十九世纪，“太阳从未落在大英帝国”是英语。

By the twentieth century,the Empire included India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,Hong Kong,Singapore, South Africa, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Bermuda.

到二十世纪，帝国包括印度，加拿大，澳大利亚，新西兰，香港，新加坡，南非，牙买加，特立尼达和多巴哥，圭亚那和百慕大。

English, of course, was also the language of the United States.

当然，英语也是美国的语言。

Today, not surprisingly, the English language is global in use.

今天，毫不奇怪，英语在全球范围内使用。

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