教案1st period Text A (Global Reading)1 Background InformationEnglish LanguageThe English language is the most widely spoken language in the world. It is used as either a primary or secondary language in manycountries.During the 1500s, fewer than 2 million people spoke English. All of them lived in what is now Great Britain. Through the centuries, as the result of various historical events, English spread throughout the world. Today, about 400 million people speak English as their native language. Most of them live in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States.Another 100 million people living chiefly in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and in many African countries speak English in addition to their own language. An additional 200 million people probably know at least some English. (From the 1998 World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia)Characteristics of EnglishVocabulary. English has a larger vocabulary than any other language. There are more than 600,000 words in the largest dictionaries of the English language.Some English words have been passed on from generation to generation as far back as scholars can trace. These words, such as woman, man, sun, hand, love, go, and eat, express basic ideas and feelings. Later, many words were borrowed from other languages, including Arabic, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, Russian, and Spanish. For example, algebra is from Arabic, fashion from French,piano from Italian, and canyon from Spanish.A number of words, such as doghouse and splashdown, were formed by combining other words. New words were also created by blending words. For example, motor and hotel were blended into motel. Words can be shortened to form new words, as was done with history to form story. Words called acronyms are formed by using the first letter or letters of several words. The word radar is an acronym for radio detection and ranging.Pronunciation and spelling in English sometimes seem illogical or inconsistent. Many words are spelled similarly though pronounced differently. Examples include cough, though, and through. Other words, such as blue, crew, to, too, and shoe, have similar pronunciations but are spelled differently. Many of these variations show changes that occurred during the development of English. The spelling of some words remained the same through the centuries, though their pronunciation changed.Grammar is the set of principles used to create sentences. These principles define the elements used to assemble sentences and the relationships between the elements. The elements include parts of speech and inflections.Parts of speech are the word categories of the English language. Scholars do not all agree on how to describe the parts of speech. Thetraditional description lists eight classes: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. The most important relationships of the parts of speech include subject and verb, verb and predicate, and modifier and the word modified. English has fewer inflections than most other European languages. An English noun has only two inflections, the plural and the possessive. Inflections are used to change the tense and number of a verb or the case of a pronoun. Inflections can change adjectives to the comparative or the superlative —for example, big, bigger, biggest.American EnglishAmerican English is a variety of the English language spoken in the United States. Although all Americans do not speak the same way, their speech has enough in common that American English can be recognized as a variety of English distinct from British English, Australian English, and other national varieties. American English has grown up with the country. It began to diverge from British English during its colonial beginnings and acquired regional differences and ethnic flavor during the settlement of the continent.Today it influences other languages and other varieties of English because it is the medium by which the attractions of American culture —its literature, motion pictures, and television programs —aretransmitted to the world.Characteristics of American EnglishA. PronunciationIn broad terms, Canadian and American speakers tend to sound like one another. They also tend to sound different from a large group of English speakers who sound more British, such as those in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. For example, most Canadians and Americans pronounce an r sound after the vowel in words like barn, car,and farther, while speakers from the British English group do not. Also, some British English speakers drop h sounds at the beginning of words, so that he and his are pronounced as if they were spelled ee and is. The English spoken in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa sounds more like British English than American English does because these varieties have had less time to diverge from British English. The process of separate development began later in these countries than in North America.In some cases there are differences between American English and British English in the rhythm of words. British speakers seem to leave out a syllable in words like secretary, as if it were spelled secretry, while Americans keep all the syllables. The opposite is true of other words, such as specialty, which Americans pronounce with three syllables (spe-cial-ty) while British speakers pronounce it with five syllables (spe-ci-al-i-ty). Vowels and consonants may also have differentpronunciations. British speakers pronounce zebra to rhyme with Debra, while American speakers make zebra rhyme with Libra. Canadian and British speakers pronounce the word schedule as if it began with an sh sound, while Americans pronounce it as if it began with an sk sound.B. WordsThe most frequently used words are shared by speakers of different varieties of English. These words include the most common nouns, the most common verbs, and most function words (such as pronouns, articles, and prepositions). The different varieties of English do, however, use different words for many words that are slightly less common —for example, British crisps for American potato chips, Australian billabong for American pond, and Canadian chesterfield for American sofa. It is even more common for the same word to exist with different meanings in different varieties of English.Corn is a general term in Britain, for which Americans use grain, while corn in American English is a specific kind of grain. The word pond in British English usually refers to an artificial body of water, whereas ponds also occur naturally in North America. British English chemist is the same as American English drugstore, and in Canada people go to the druggist. Many of the words most easily recognized as American in origin are associated with aspects of American popular culture, such as gangster or cowboy.C. SpellingAmerican English spelling differs from British English spelling largely because of one man, American lexicographer Noah Webster. In addition to his well-known An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Webster published The American Spelling Book (1783, with many subsequent editions), which became one of the most widely used schoolbooks in American history. Webster’s books sought to standardize spelling in the United States by promoting the use of an American language that intentionally differed from British English. The development of a specifically American variety of English mirrored the newcountry’s separate political development. Webster’s most successful changes were spellings with or instead of our (honor, labor for the British honour, labour); with er instead of re (center, theater for the British centre, theatre); with an s instead of a c (defense, license for the British defence, licence); with a final ck instead of que (check, mask for the British cheque, masque); and without a final k (traffic, public, now also used in British English, for the older traffick, publick). Later spelling reform created a few other differences, such as program for British programme. Canadian spelling varies between the British and American forms, more British in eastern Canada and more American in western Canada.2. Group DiscussionHave you ever had an experience in which you are misunderstood or have failed to understand others? Misunderstandings can result from the spoken form or written form of the language that you use.2nd period Text A (Detailed Reading)Words and Expressions & Difficult Sentences1) misunderstanding: n. (an example of) wrong understanding 误解，误会e.g. Her poor French often leads to misunderstandings when she visits France.misunderstand: vt. understand wrongly 误解e.g. I’m sorry, I misunderstood you.It seems that you have misunderstood what I said at the meeting.2) get on: board (a bus, a train, etc.)登上（公共汽车、火车等）e.g. When I got on the bus, I found all the seats were occupied.They felt worried when they realized that they had got on the wrongtrain.3) head for: go towards 向…走去；朝…行进e.g. The ship was heading for Britain.He headed for the bus stop.4) …he could ride to New York without paying.介词without 解释为“不、未”，其后跟动词时，须用V-ing形式。