English has never been the only language in use over the British Isles , and it certainly is not now! Welsh is still used in Wales. Some Welsh people still speak it as their mother tongue , and it is widely taught in Welsh schools. Some people in Scotland and in Ireland still use a language that is related to Welsh. It is called Gaelic. These languages have a long history in these islands - longer than the history of English. In addition , people from

overseas have settled in England quite recently during this century. In some industrial cities , though not generally in Britain , you find groups of people who speak Polish , and other groups speaking the languages of the Indian subcontinent. A survey of North London schools in the early 1980' s found that nearly a third of the children spoke a language other than English at home.

The majority of the 55 million people living in England use English all the time. Standard English , that is , written English , is in use throughout Britain. Spoken English , however , sounds very different in different parts of the country. There is a story , a play. by the famous writer George Bernard Shaw , about a professor of English Language who can tell you someone' s address when he hears that person speak! That is exaggeration of course. Not even a Professor , who has studied the sounds of English all his life , can really do that. However ,it is true hat most people who have lived for a long time in Britain can tell a number of things about the people as soon as they speak! Usually we cannot tell the speaker' s address

, but we can guess the part of the country where the person comes from. We can tell how well educated he or she is too! If an international user of English , like anyone of you here , happens to meet speakers from , say , the North or the West of England , you may find them hard to understand. Unless you understand what is going on your confidence in your ability to use the language may be badly shaken.

36. Gaelic is related to Welsh. ( )

37. Welsh is not taught in schools anymore. ( )

38. One third of the 55 million people in England speak other languages besides English at home ( )

39. Written English is in use throughout Britain but spoken English sounds different in different parts of the country. ( )

40. Most people who have lived for a long time in Britain can tell how well educated a person is by the way he/ she speaks. ( )

The American victory in the Revolutionary War united 13 of the English-speaking settlements into the largest and most powerful political unit in the territory , even though those first 13 states hugging the eastern coast seem small compared with the country' s eventual size. As a result of the Revolution ,approximately 71 , 500 people out of a population of some 2. 5 million fled the new United States. Some were Loyalists - political or economic refugees whose loyalties to Great Britain remained strong; others were blacks seeking refuge from slavery. Immigration and the commercial slave trade after the war quickly restored the population to its former level. The Revolution also opened up the area west of the Appalachian Mountains to settlement , as fur traders and farmers were no longer confined by British settlement restrictions. Pioneering citizens , immigrants , and slaves moved west , displacing Native Americans who had hoped to preserve their cultures undisturbed by the expanding United States.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw a growing importation of Africans into North America. After 1808 U. S. law forbade the importation of slaves from abroad , although some smuggling of slaves continued. Few people from Africa chose to come to the United States voluntarily (the free African population was small) because they were considered second-class citizens , and confined largely to the northern states. Large numbers of Europeans migrated to the United States in the early national period , drawn by the promise of freedom , cheap land in the West , and jobs in the first factories of the emerging industrial age. The influx of Europeans , the end of the slave trade , and the ongoing wars removing Native Americans meant that some of the racial diversity of the population was diminishing. By the early decades of the 19th century , a greater proportion of Americans were of western European and Protestant heritage than at the time of the Revolution.

Over the course of the 19th century , the United States gradually absorbed the French colonists in the upper Midwest and in New Orleans , Louisiana; the Spanish and Russian colonists in the South , West ,and Northwest; and the territories of the Hawaiian people and other indigenous groups. Sometimes these territories were added by diplomacy , sometimes by brute force. European visitors were surprised at the diversity in nationalities and in religious and secular beliefs in early America , as well as the number of intermarriages between people of differing European heritages. There were also cross-racial births , sometimes voluntary and sometimes by force , but rarely within legal marriages. The population continued to grow through migration as well , driven in part by English , Irish , and German settlers who came in large numbers around 1848 to escape political repression and food shortages in Europe.

31. The American independence made all of the following leave the new country EXCEPT ( )

A. those who were hostile to the old colonialists

B. pro-British colonialists loyal to the old political system

C. those attempting to free themselves from slavery

D. those who fled on account of economic problems caused by birth of the new nation

32. It can be inferred from the passage that ( )

A. slavery was soon abolished after the victory of the American Revolution

B. people didn't enjoy freedom of settlement in the West before the Revolutionary War

C. native Americans moved abroad in large numbers during the War

D. the western expansion destroyed the environmental conditions in those areas

33. Which of the following stopped the influx of Africans into the United States in the first decade of the 19th century? ( )

A. Large numbers of European immigrants.

B. Some smuggling slaves.

C. Legislation by the government.

D. Second-class citizens.

34. By ( ), the United States succeeded in obtaining vast land from other colonies during the 19th century.

A. military action and re-settlement

B. negotiations and re-settlement

C. military action and negotiations

D. negotiations and industrialization

35. Implied , but not directly stated , is the fact that ( ) in early America.

A. there appeared to be many diverse nationalities

B. numerous different religions existed

c. marriages between European descendants were commonplace

D. marriages between different races were not encouraged or accepted

Slang , informal, nonstandard words and phrases , generally have shorter lives than the expressions of ordinary colloquial speech. The former are typically formed by creative , often witty juxtapositions of words or images. Slang can be contrasted with jargon (technical language of occupational or other groups) and with argot or cant (secret vocabulary of underworld groups) , but the borderlines separating these categories from slang are extremely blurred , and some writers use the terms cant , argot , and jargon in a general way to include all the foregoing meanings.

Slang trends originate in subcultures within a society. Occupational groups (for example , loggers , police , medical professionals , and computer specialists) are prominent originators of both jargon and slang. Other groups creating slang include the armed forces , teenagers , racial minorities , ghetto residents , labor unions , citizen-band radiobroadcasters , sports groups , drug addicts , criminals , and even religious denominations (Episcopalians , for example , produced the term ‘spike' , meaning a High Church Anglican). Slang expressions

often embody attitudes and values of group members. They may thus contribute to a sense of group identity and may convey to the, listener information about the speaker' s background. Before an apt expression becomes slang , however , it must be widely adopted by members of the subculture. At this point slang and jargon overlap greatly. If the subculture has enough

contact with the mainstream culture , its figures of speech become slang expressions known to the whole of society. For example , cool cat (aloof , stylish person) , Mr. Charley (a white man) , The Man (the law) , and Uncle Tom (a meek black) all originated in the predominantly black Harlem district of New York City and have traveled far since their inception. Slang is thus generally not tied to any geographic region within a country.

A slang expression may suddenly become widely used and as quickly dated (skiddoo). It may become accepted as standard speech , either in its original slang meaning (bus , from omnibus) or with an altered , possibly tamed meaning (jazz , which originally had sexual connotations). Some expressions have persisted for centuries as slang (booze for alcoholic beverage). In the 20th century , mass media and rapid travel have sped up both the circulation and the demise of slang terms. Television and novels have turned criminal cant into slang (five grand for $5000). Changing social circumstances may stimulate the spread of slang. Drug-related expressions (such as pot and marijuana) were virtually a secret jargon in the 1940s; in the 1960s they were adopted by rebe11ious youth; and in the 1970s and '80s they were widely known.

26. The passage mainly discusses ( )·

A. the social function of slang and jargon

B. the origins of slang and its social application

C. how jargon differs from slang

D. the relationship between slang and subcultures

27. With reference to the outstanding contributors to the birth of slang , the author mentions all of the following

except ( )

A. athletes

B. clergy

C. doctors

D. philosophers

28. The word They in para. 2 refers to ( )

A. slang expressions

B. group members

C. attitudes and values

D. the speakers

29. Slang expressions contribute to

A. the identification of individuals speech patterns

B. the basic lifestyle. of a certain group

C. the identity of people as individuals

D. the identification of a social group

30. Which of the following , according to the passage , contributed to accelerating the metabolism (新陈代谢) of slang expressions in the 20th century ?

A. Newspapers and magazines

B. Rebellious youth

C. Religious denominations

D. Drug--users

David Graddol , a language researcher and lecturer at the Open University in Britain , said that , on the one hand , English is becoming a language of everyday usage in some countries in Northern Europe. "Something like 70%

of the Dutch population claim now that they can hold a conversation in English quite comfortably ," Mr. Graddol said. "For them , it is not a textbook-based foreign exercise. They are already exposed to English in the environment. People have learned a little bit of it before they get to school , and they can see immediately that it has some use in their lives. In countries like the Netherlands , Sweden or Denmark you need English to complete your education. "

"In other countries , however , English is more truly a foreign language ," said Mr. Graddol , whose consulting firm , The English Council produced a worldwide report titled "The Future of English" for the British Council a few years ago. "In some countries , like China , there is not very much English in the environment and people may be learning it from teachers who may not speak English very well themselves."

In a third group of countries , like India and Nigeria where English has been used a long time , distinct local varieties of the language are emerging , complete with their own

dictionaries , textbooks and literature.

"English is so important in these countries that people use it in part to create their own social and even national identity ," Mr. Craddol said. "When that happens , the language starts going its own way. The variety of English that proficient speakers in such countries are learning may not be terribly useful in an international context. "

"Thus , the very reason for the rise of English - its guarantee of mutual intelligibility among people of different cultures - could dissolve if the language continues to split up into a variety of ‘ Englishes’."

21. 30 % of the Dutch population claim they can communicate in English very freely. ( )

22. People in the Netherlands , Sweden or Denmark use English to complete their education. ( )

23. According to the English Council , in some countries like China there is not very much English in the environment and English is more truly a foreign language. ( )

24. In countries where distinct local varieties of English are emerging like India , people no longer use their native language. ( )

25. According to the speaker , English is so popular in some European countries that it has started going its own way because people use it in part to create their own social and even national identity. ( )