英语泛读教程3上课文译文(unit1-7)

英语泛读教程3上课文译文(unit1-7)内容摘要：

他们无法从任何古代语言中对它们追根溯源。 谁发明的这些词。 何时何地发明的。 这些至今仍是个谜。 “迷惑 ”这词本身就是这些神秘词语中的一 个。 没人知道这个词的出处是什么。 《爱丽丝漫游奇境》和《爱丽丝漫游镜中世界》的作者刘易斯 •卡罗尔，是无实际意义词的伟大的发明家。 实际上，他造了一整套无实际意义的语言。 除了 “咯 咯地笑 ”这个词之外，卡罗尔发明的大多数无意义词并没有在英语中使用。 卡罗尔告诉我们： Chortle 是吃吃地笑声和喷鼻息两个行为交叉在一起时发出的声音。 这个词把两个不同意义的词并在了一起。 字典中把这样的词称为混合词。 不幸的是，最近我们几乎天天听到的一个新的复合词 是 “烟雾 ”，这是烟和雾两种意思的组合。 某些声音似乎与所描述的事物或行为相 吻合，人们将它们组合起来创造出无意义的词。 我们常常造词来代表很愚蠢的事情。 Spoof(傻话、哄骗 )一词是五十多年前由一个英国喜剧演员造出来的。 它的意思是 “用恶作剧的方式来取笑 ”。 Hornswoggle(隐瞒 )一词十九世纪在美国被广泛使用，表示 “欺骗 ”的意思。 如果一个不诚实的政客想对纳税人进行隐瞒，他就制造 boondoggle(无价值的琐事 )，这是一个对任何人都没有好处的、无用的、昂贵的工程。 不久前，有人造出了 gobbledygook(“官样文章 ”)一词。 当人们用冗长而无意义的词进行交谈或书写时，我们称之为官 样文章。 不幸的是，许多人使用官样文章，是因为他们想让自己显得比实际更重要，或者是因为他英语泛读教程 3 (Unit 17 课文 ) ants05 5 们不想让人们了解他们的真正意图和他们的所作所为。 所以，当不诚实的政客想用 “无价值的琐事 ”去 “哄骗 ”群众时，他通常会用 “官样文章 ”来敷衍。 在刘易斯 •卡罗尔写书的年代， “官样文章 ”一词还没有造出来，但是如果当时已经有这个词的话，卡罗尔会知道它的确切含义的。 卡罗尔喜欢戏弄或嘲笑那些不喜欢用效果更好的简单 词汇，而偏爱使用花哨的、大而不当的词的人。 《爱丽丝漫游镜中世界》的一个章节中，爱丽丝有一段与矮座椅沙发的对话，其中矮座椅沙 发坚持认为：它想让词汇是什么意思 词汇就是什么意思。 爱丽丝则坚持说这不可能。 如果每个人都这样做的话，那么没有人可以理解其他人了。 他们的对话如下： “但是 „荣誉 ‟一词不是指 „一个恰当、有力的论点 ‟， ”爱丽丝反对道。 “我要用一个词的时候， ” 矮座椅沙发用一种相当轻蔑的口吻说， “我想让它是什么意思它就是什么意思 恰如其分。 ” “但问题在于， ”爱丽丝说， “你能不能让词代表那么多不同的事物。 ” “问题是， ” 矮座椅沙发说， “谁是主人 仅此而已。 ” 正如矮座椅沙发所说，问题在于谁是主人。 矮座椅沙发以一种奇怪的方式 来使用词汇，这使它成为一个 “官样文章 ”大师，而不是语言大师。 一名语言大师知道词汇的真正含意及其出处；知道何时使用大的重要的词，何时使用短小但同样重要的简单的词。 温斯顿 •邱吉尔是英国一位伟大的首相，他同时也是一位伟大的作家，一个真正的语言大师。 他曾经说道： “短小的词为佳；而既古老又短小的词为最佳。 ” 2 Home Reading History of English The English language we speak today went through three stages called Old English, Middle English and Modern English. But ages before even Old English came into being, many other languages had to arise and develop. The oldest of these, as far as we know, was the IndoEuropean family of languages, which were beginning to be spoken clear back during the Stone Age. During the Stone Age, some IndoEuropean people lived on the islands of Britain. The earliest known of these British IndoEuropeans split into two groups called the Scots and the Celts. There was another group, who were not IndoEuropean, called Picts. Together these three peoples are known as Britons. The Britons were a fierce, Stone Age people constantly making war on each other. They dressed in animal skins, lived in caves or rude wooden huts. These people had their own languages. At the same time that the Stone Age Britons were living their warlike life, the Greeks, far to the east of them, were building a great civilization in Europe. Many of our ideas of art, literature, science, philosophy and government today e from the genius of these ancient people. As the Greek civilization reached a high point, another great civilization was being built in Italy by the Romans, whose language was Latin. When the Romans conquered Greece and made it part of their empire, they found a culture much older and far superior to their own. So they borrowed it. After conquering all of Europe, Rome invaded Britain and made it part of the empire, in 43 . Romans brought their advanced culture to the Britons. Not only did they bring their art, literature, law and the Latin language, they established schools, built buildings and roads and provided an army to protect themselves against invaders. Meanwhile, the Germanic peoples of northern Europe, known as “Norsemen” or “Northmen,” were developing another, separate European culture. Some groups of Norsemen came to be known as Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Goths. They were warriors, but also sailors and traders. In very early times the Angles and Saxons began to trade with the Celts in England. This was probably the first time the Britons came into contact with other peoples. 英语泛读教程 3 (Unit 17 课文 ) ants05 6 During the four hundred years Britain was part of the Roman Empire, Rome was getting weaker and weaker, and the Norsemen were getting stronger and stronger. Finally they thundered through the Roman defenses along the northern boundaries of the empire. In addition to the attack from the north, Rome was invaded from the east by Mongols, from the south by the Moslems. Being attacked on all sides, Rome had to call back her armies to protect what was left of the empire. By AD 409, Rome had lost all control of Britain. As soon as the Roman armies pulled out of Britain, the Picts and Scots began to destroy the Celts. The Celts turned for help to the Angles and Saxons across the sea in Sweden and Denmark. The latter were quick to respond, because they loved war. They saved the Celts。 they also destroyed practically all the culture which had been brought by the Romans: literature, sculpture, schools and roads. The Germanic languages of the Angles and Saxons bined to bee AngloSaxon. Since the Angles and Saxons had bee the power in England, the AngloSaxon language became the very early beginning of English. While the AngloSaxons were establishing their power in England and making their language the main language of that country, the Roman Empire was sinking deeper and deeper into trouble. By AD 476 the western empire had ceased to exist. And since the Germanic peoples had no interest in preserving Roman culture, it just died. The Church was all that was left of Roman civilization. But Latin survived as the language of churchmen and the wealthy, educated classes, and was to have a profound effect on the development of the languages of southern Europe and England. Gradually, between the sixth and eleventh centuries, the feudal estates of Europe grew into powerful kingdoms. Of these, the French kingdom of Normandy became very important to the development of English. The various peoples in England were ing together as a nation also, under the rule of more powerful kings such as Alfred the Great, who ruled between 871 and 899. Alfred was not only an efficient ruler and a great defender of his people, he was also an eager scholar. He was able to preserve some of the learning which had been。