综英考试材料.docVIP

I dont really know my father. He isnt easy to get on with. Hes quite self-centred, and a little bit vain, I think, and in some ways quite unapproachable. The public must think hes very easy-going, but at home he keeps himself to himself. 我实在不了解我的父亲，与他相处很难。在我看来，他总以自我为中心，还有一点自负，在某种程度上难以接近。公众一定以为他很随和，但在家里，他总是拒人于千里之外。As a family, were not that close, either emotionally or geographically. We dont see much of each other these days. My father and I are totally different, like chalk and cheese. My interests have always been the country, but hes into books, music and above all, opera, which I hate. If they do come to see us, theyre in completely the wrong clothes for the country-mink coats, nice little leather shoes, not exactly ideal for long walks across the fields. 作为一家人，我们不仅住的地方相隔不近，在情感上也不那么亲近。这些天我们很少互相走动。父亲和我性格迥异，或者说是貌合神离。乡村是我的乐趣所在，而父亲却对书本，音乐，尤其是我最讨厌的歌剧感兴趣。就算他们真的来看我，也是穿着及其不合地宜的衣服---貂皮大衣，漂亮小巧的皮鞋，根本不适合在田间远足。 Studying any language is, in fact, an endless voyage. Each of the thousands of languages currently used in the world is a complex affair. Many languages do have a standard form-particularly on paper-and this is what we learn, but they probably also have a variety of regional dialects and social styles, and many are the products of the historical mingling of other languages. The English language is just such a hybrid. It began its career just under two thousand years ago as a form of ancient German, collided with a special kind of old French, was subjected to several waves of Latin and a flood of Greek, and since then has acquired bits and pieces of every other language that its users have ever been in contact with. 其实，学习任何语言就像是一次永无止境的航行。当今世界上使用的成千上万语言中的每一种语言都是一件复杂的事情。许多语言确实有一种标准形式---特别是书面语---这就是我们要学习的，然而，他们也可能有各种各样的地区方言和社会文体，许多是历史进程中和其他语言融合的产物。英语就是这样一种混合语言。大约二千年前开始演变的。首先是一种古德语形式，与一种特殊的古法语发生了冲突，其后又吸取了一些拉丁语和希腊语。自那以后有吸收了它的使用者所接触的其他所有语言的点点滴滴。 A third misconception about language claims that every language is -or should be-equally used and understood by all its practition