The History of English

English is now the most common language in the world. It is the first language in the UK, the USA and Canada. It is also the most popular second language,     1    means English is     2    (probable) spoken by over one billion people around the world. But how did we arrive at the English we speak today?

The history of     3     English language begins in the fifth century with the invasion（入侵） of Britain by three tribes from Germany - the Angles, Jutes and Saxons. The original language of Britain was an older European language     4    (call) Celtic. Over time, most of the Celtic speakers were forced into the north and west of the British Isles. The invaders    5     (speak) a language called Anglo-Saxon and many of the most common words in English come from this.

In the eighth and ninth    6     (century), there were other invasions by the Vikings from Scandinavia. These brought words like “knifr”, or knife into the English language.

Outside of the United Kingdom, the use of English is growing.     7     is the official language of the European Union, and     8     (use) all over the world for air traffic control. Also, English is used     9    (much) than any other language on the Internet,     10     (make) it an important language in the world.

The Chinese people call flattery(奉承) to someone's face “presenting a tall hat” to someone.

In the past,     1     official in the imperial court in Beijing was appointed to an official post outside the capital. Before leaving, he went to his teacher’s home     2    (say) farewell. His teacher warned him, “It is not easy to be an official outside the capital. You should be     3    (care).” “Please don’t worry. I     4    (prepare)100 ‘tall hats’ already and will present one to every person I meet. I’m sure all the local people will be pleased.”

The teacher said    5    (angry), “We are all honest     6     (gentleman). How can you do that?”

The official,     7     pretended he had no way out, said, “Very few people under heaven are like you who dislike being flattered or presented with tall hats.”

    8    (hear) this, the teacher was very much pleased. He nodded and said, “    9     you said is true, too.”

After the official said farewell to his teacher and     10     (go) out, he said to his friend, “Of my 100 ‘tall hats’, now only 99 are left.”

Dong Shuchang from China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region captured the solar eclipse (日蚀) on June 21, 2020, in his photography work The Golden Ring,    1    (become) the winner of the 2021 Astronomy Photographer of the Year    2    (compete) in mid-September.

    3    (host) by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the contest received 4,500    4    (entry) from the world, among     5    . Don’s image finally won the great award. The young man started to prepare for a trip    6    (take) the shots toward the end of 2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic put    7    stop to his plan in early 2020. Thanks to the    8    (effect) pandemic control in China, Dong moved with his plan last year. More than three years of    9    (he) chasing the stars has brought excitement and accomplishment in his life, although the process was often mixed     10    sweats and tears.

On Sept. 29^th, 2021, 85-year-old Liu Yongtan,     1     (devote) to the research of radar technology, was awarded the title Role Model of the Times by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in     2     (recognise) of his achievements.

A professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology(HIT) in Heilongjiang province, Liu is known as     3     expert in radar and signal processing technologies, and the originator of China’s new radar systems for navigation(航海) and defense.

Born in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in 1936, Liu suffered a painful childhood due to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). His parents named him Yongtan, to express their wish     4     a peaceful nation.

With a great sense of     5     (nation) duty, Liu was admitted to the electrical engineering department at HIT in 1953. Because of his excellent academic performance, in his third year in college, he     6     (select) to study radio technology at Tsinghua University, which revolutionized (革新) humanity’s technological blueprint, way of life and the way war was practised in the     7     (twenty) century. In 1978, Liu went to the United Kingdom,     8     he started his study of radar technology and received new insights into the field. “At that time, other countries had already begun to develop new radar systems, raising in me a     9     (burn) desire to help my country build a modernized radar system, which was     10     (bad) needed for both national defense and commercial activities.”

Born in the province of Ancona, Italy, in 1870, Montessori became the first female doctor in her country after she     1     (graduate) from medical school in 1896. Later,    2     (work) with deprived children, she set up a “Children’s House” in Rome. This was the place     3     she developed the Montessori Method, an educational system that encourages an informal style of teaching. The Montessori philosophy is simple. For instance, one of its     4     (principle) is that children are unique individuals who must be free to learn without being criticized or restricted. As     5    result, children enjoy learning, and this gives them     6     (confident) and makes them happy. The Montessori Method also     7     (teach) children skills to help them become independent. A Montessori teacher observes children closely in order to provide them     8     individual learning programmes. Maria Montessori wrote many books and articles about education. Her works     9     (translate) into many languages so that people can learn more about the Montessori philosophy. Later in her life, she focused on using education     10     (promote) world peace.

Scientists in Australia have found that honeybees seem to understand the idea of zero. This is     1     (surprise) since bees have very small brains. So far only a few animals with larger brains     2     (show) this skill. And humans don’t     3     (usual) understand it until they’re around four years old.

The scientists created an experiment to test     4     honeybees understood the idea of “zero” or not. First, they trained the bees by rewarding (奖赏)     5     (they) with sugar water for choosing smaller numbers. The scientists hung up cards with different numbers of shapes. Under each card was a tray (盘子). The tray under the smaller number had sugar water. The tray under the larger number had something sour. After about forty     6     (test), the bees had learned to choose the cards with smaller numbers of shapes. The bees knew how to look at the cards, “count” the shapes on each card, and choose the card     7     had the fewest shapes. Then came the interesting part. The scientists put out a card with nothing on it－zero shapes. When given a choice between two or three shapes     8     “zero” shapes, bees picked zero. This showed they knew that zero, or “none”, was     9    (little) than “some”. Just to be sure, the scientists trained other bees     10     (choose) high numbers. Those bees did not choose zero.