A History of English…in Five Words

    In 1582, Richard Mulcaster, headmaster of a British school, wrote that the English would not go beyond their island. However, it didn't stay that way. Today, English is spoken all over the world.

    English is a colorful and diverse (多样的) language that long has picked up words from many other languages. Here are five words that show the English language's interesting history.

English

    English began in the language spoken by the early Germanic people in the fifth century AD. It is from them that the word “English” comes. First it is the Latin word Angli which means the people of Angul, where the Germanic people were from.

Beef

    Although roast beef is seen as a traditional English dish, the word “beef” was introduced from the French boeuf during the Middle Ages. It was one of a group of words, including pork and mutton, that were taken from the speech of the French who moved in Britain following the Norman Conquest (诺曼底登陆) of 1066. However, the farmers who kept these living things continued to call them by their old English names: cow, pig and sheep. This difference passes on till today.

Dictionary

    Dictionary is a borrowing from Latin dictornarius liber, “book of words”. It first appeared in English in the 6th century, along with a huge number of other words from Latin and Greek. The first English dictionary was written by Robert Cawdrey in 1604. Cawdrey focused only on the difficult words whose meanings would have caused problems for those not educated in Latin and Greek.

Tea

    Tea was brought into Britain early in the 17th century, becoming very popular by the 1650s. By the 18th century it had become a symbol（标志） of fashionable society and a best-selling of the coffee house culture.

    The word tea rises from the Chinese word cha. A love of tea is so ingrained (根深蒂固的) in British life that the expression “cup of tea” has come to stand for anything viewed positively. The saying “It's not my cup of tea.” means: I don't like it.

Emoji

    Emoji began developing in Japan in the 1990s for use by teenagers: the word “emoji” comes from the Japanese e “picture” + moji “letter”. Its successful acceptance in English has been helped by its similarity to words with the e-prefix (前缀) like e-mail. The Unicode Consortium's (统一码 联盟的) official lists emojis and their meanings, but users keep finding creative new ways to employ them. Emojis are just another example of the development and diversity of English.

Information Card

    More and more people are using the Internet to buy things. Many people like shopping on the Internet ①you can buy almost everything on the Internet. Shopping on the Internet is becoming more and more popular. You can shop at any time. The shops are always open. And online shopping can save a lot of time. When you want to shop on the Internet, you only need a computer and a mouse! But you also need a credit card (信用卡) when shopping on the Internet. You always have to be careful with your credit card number, because people sometimes steal (偷) ② it from online stories.

    Online shopping has several disadvantages, too. You can't see the product or try on the clothes. Paying over the Internet isn't always safe.

    Go travelling, that's one of the best ways for you to learn.

    Once you have decided your destination(目的地), the next step in planning a trip is to book your flights. Learning how to find cheap flights will help you a lot and you can save a lot from the biggest travel cost.

    As a travelling family, if you travel abroad and it's a long hard flight, I suggest that you plan your trip in advance so that you can get to your destination as quickly as possible, to make the trip more comfortable that your budget(预算) allows! If it's your one-and-only dream vacation for the year, I recommend you pay a little bit extra money for a high-quality airline and fly directly too!

    When searching for cheap flights online, we always start with Skyscanner, which is one of our favourite booking sites. Skyscanner is a comparison(比较) site that searches millions of flights from over a thousand airlines, and once you've found your flight on it, you are taken to the airline to make your booking with no extra money added. Download the new Skyscanner App, which makes it easier for you to find the best travel deals. It's an all in one search engine app with flights, hotels and car hire involved.

    Other credible flight search engines include Kayak, Hipmunk, Google Flights and Momondo.

    After you found your best flight on the search engines, do directly to that airline's own website and see if you can get it for cheaper tickets. Many airlines have lower fares only available on their own site.

    Tom comes from Australia. He studies in a middle school in Tianjin. He usually gets up at 7: 00 a. m. and then reads Chinese. He has breakfast at 7: 30 a. m. And then he goes to school by bike. He is never late for school. Classes begin at 8: 00 a. m. He has four classes in the morning and two in the afternoon. He has lunch at 12: 30 p. m. at home with his parents. They both work as reporters at a TV station. After school, sometimes he plays volleyball with his classmates, and sometimes he reads books in the school library. He goes back home at 4: 40 p. m. After supper, he always studies Chinese. He goes to bed at about 9: 10 p. m. He likes China and he thinks Chinese people are friendly and he believes he can make many friends here.

    On May 5^th, 2017, at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, China's first Homemade jet airliner(喷气式客机), the C919, took off successfully for the first time. It has taken about ten years for the scientists and researchers to make this Chinese dream come true. It's a pride of the whole nation. So far, more than 23 countries have already ordered 570 C919 planes from China. But we still have a long way to go before the C919 carries passengers by 2020.

    What's more, China is working on the new high-speed trains with the highest speed of 400km/h. It will be ready by 2020. Many countries, especially the ones in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, are planning to build high-speed rail lines or to improve their railways with the help of China.

    China has made great progress in both science and technology. And it makes a great contribution(贡献)to humans，too. All of these are changing the daily life of Chinese people，even of the people around the world.