Do you ever wonder why the English have one word for some animals and a different one for their meat? Why do they use pig and pork, cow and beef, and sheep and mutton? To find it out, we have to go back to 1066, when the Norman French invaded England and put a French king on the English throne (王位), which not only changed the government but also changed the language. French became the language of the upper classes of society. And it remained that way for 300 years. Only these high society people could afford to eat meat. As a result, French words like porc (pork) and beouf (beef) came into the English language. However, poor English farmers raised the animals. So the English language retained the words pig and cow from the Native Anglo-Saxon.
The Norman French added about 10,000 French words to the English language. Seventy-five percent of them are still in use today.
In French grammar, nouns have either a male or female gender (性别), so adjectives (形容词) take different forms for each. English has only one adjective that does this, and it came from French. The word “blond” describes someone with light-colored hair. “Blond” is used for men, and “blonde” describes women. And they are also nouns.
Some French words that entered the English language have taken on completely different meanings. The French phrase “a la mode” means “in style”. In English, the phrase means “with the ice cream”. Someone must have decided something eaten with ice cream was in style!
Now, as you learn English, you’re on your way to learning French!
小题1:French was once popular among the upper classes of the UK because_____.
A．too many French moved to Britain
B．French brought animals with them
C．the king and his officials spoke French
D．the king allowed French to be spoken小题2:Which word can replace the word “retained” in Paragraph 1?
A．Chose
B．Kept
C．Introduced
D．Give up小题3:Why does an English speaker find French easy to learn?
A．Because English and French share similar pronunciations.
B．Because English grammar and French grammar are similar.
C．Because a large number of English words have French origins.
D．Because English has great influences on the French language.小题4:French grammar is very different from English grammar because ______.
A．no words have the same pronunciation
B．all words have the same pronunciation
C．English nouns have a male or female gender
D．French nouns have different adjective forms小题5:What conclusion can we draw from the text?
A．Language is closely related to history and culture.
B．French and English words have nothing in common.
C．Language is controlled by the upper classes of society.
D．English combines French and the Native Anglo-Saxon.