2 . The British love word-play and they’re enthusiastic about defending the use of their language. In recent years, books about the grammar, pronunciation and punctuation (标点) of English have been written by the dozen, and sold extremely well, reflecting people’s love of the English language. People want to defend the “correct” use of their language, but also to preserve its ability to evolve along with society. Lynne Truss’s book Eats, Shoots & Leaves is an excellent example of these two opposite ideas. Its title shows the way that punctuation can change meaning in a sentence. “Eats shoots and leaves” is a perfectly normal description of a panda’s diet: he eats the shoots and leaves of bamboo trees. But the position of the comma (逗号) turns those nouns into verbs, and makes up a ridiculous little story: the panda eats (his dinner), he shoots (a gun), and he leaves (the building). It’s a silly joke, but it shows how changing something as simple as a comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence.

Published in 2003, Eats, Shoots & Leaves was an unexpectedly huge success. It is easy to assume the typical reader of this kind of book as the humourless type. However, the book has sold thousands and thousands of copies — it must be appealing to a wide range of people. The book’s winning secret is this: it makes some serious points about language and punctuation, but also has a light-hearted dimension, and uses stories and jokes to show its points. It has invited some tough criticism, too, especially from the US. On a broader range, Eats, Shoots & Leaves has opened up a lot of public debate on Truss’s ideas. Whether they agree with her or not, punctuation and grammar has become a popular topic to discuss.

In every generation there will be people who think that the standard of language is in decline, and who are more than happy to write to the newspapers to express their concern and opinions. Truss’s book also appeals to those who think that texting and blogging is lowering the standard of literacy. Whether the standard of the English language is decreasing, or simply evolving into new forms, the success of Eats, Shoots & Leaves proves that this is a subject that many English speakers find interesting and important.

3 . In many languages, the word for “mother/mom” takes an m-sound. Is there any reason for such near-universality?

Linguists(语言学家) generally argue for “the arbitrariness of the sign”: no connection exists between the word dog and the furry quadruped. A rare exception is onomatopoeia, where words representing the bark of a dog (bow-wow) and the buzz made by a bee are more or less similar to the sound. Yet most things are not subject to naming this way.

What about mama? It does not sound like a mother, but the fact is that some sounds are more widespread than others around the world. There are many dozens of observed consonants which are rare and hard for non-natives to learn.

In contrast, a few—such as b, m, p, t, d and k—show up far more frequently, in nearly every spoken language in the world. That is almost certainly because they are easy to make. A baby vocalising will, at first, make a vowel-like sound, usually something like “ah”, which requires little in the way of control over the mouth. If they briefly close their mouth and continue vocalising, air will come out of their nose, thus making the m-sound that is used in “mother” around the world.

Though the “mamas” bear the most obvious similarity, the “papas” have striking commonalities, too. Babies can easily stop their breath when they close their lips (rather than going on breathing through the nose). This produces a b-or a p-sound. It is surely for this reason that so many names for “father” use these consonants: papa in English, abb in Arabic and baba in Mandarin. T-and d-sounds are similarly basic, involving a simple tap of the tongue against the teeth: hence daddy, tatay (Tagalog) or tayta (Quechua).

Father and mother are, therefore, an oddity. F-is not especially easy to utter(发音); th-sounds are even harder. English, Greek and Spanish are unusual in having them. Even Anglophone children may struggle with th-sounds when they are five, or older still in many cases.

Anyway, it is hard to find linguistic universals amid the world’s dazzling variety.

4 . Have you had any problems while learning English? What did you do to overcome them? Here are five tips for you to enjoy learning English.

1. Read

Read as much as you can in English. No matter what it is, from cartoons to British literature, anything counts.

Naturally if you wish to develop, I would recommend you to choose something that provides you a challenge. So renew your library pass, subscribe to your favorite English magazine or go online!

2. Immerse (沉浸)

Understanding British or American culture can be a part of language learning. There are a lot of expressions or situations that can be understood and remembered better if you know a couple of customs, behavioral patterns, books or poems.

It is always inspiring to realize that you understand a short story, a text or even longer pieces of art in English.

3. Share

Where and how, you might ask. Well, there are many ways to do this. You can start your own blog in English about your hobby, travel experiences or anything that interests you.

If you don’t feel like writing, read others’ blogs or articles and feel free to comment if you have a question! You can also try to find an online community that has the same interest as you where you can share your own ideas, thoughts and beliefs.

4. Dare

This usually seems to be the most difficult part, but you have to overcome yourself! If you find yourself in a situation where you have the chance to use English, catch it!

You must overcome your fear that you might speak incorrectly, and you can also ask your partner to correct you. So whenever you travel or meet foreigners, don’t forget to speak as much as you can!

You can also subscribe to lively web pages that provide not only many interesting ways of online learning but also the chances to meet and speak to other language learners too!

5. Relax

Never forget the power of relaxation! You don’t always have to force yourself to study if you are tired. You can also listen to some music, watch a movie or listen to an audio (有声的) book (in English of course). It doesn’t sound too difficult, does it?

5 . The older you get, the more difficult it is to learn a new language. But no one knows exactly what the cutoff point is—at what age it becomes harder. In one of the largest studies, researchers from Boston-based universities found that children are good at learning a second language up until the age of 18, about 10 years later than earlier thought. But the study also showed that it is best to start by age 10 if you want to achieve the grammatical fluency of a native speaker.

To solve this problem, the research team collected data on a person’s age, language level and time studying English. They created a short online grammar quiz called “Which English?” that tested noun-verb agreement, pronouns, prepositions and relative clauses, among other linguistic elements. They wanted to find out when the “critical period” for achieving the highest levels of grammatical fluency ends.

Based on people’s grammar scores and information about their learning of English, the researchers developed models to find out how long it takes to become fluent in a language and the best age to start learning. They concluded that the ability to learn a new language, at least grammatically, is strongest until the age of 18. To become completely fluent, however, learning should start before the age of 10.

There are three main ideas as to why language-learning ability falls at 18: social changes, interference (干扰) from one’s primary language and continuing brain development. At 18, kids typically graduate from high school and start college or enter the work force full-time. Once they do, they may no longer have the time, opportunity to study a second language. Or it is possible that after one masters a first language, its rules interfere with the ability to learn a second language. Finally, changes in the brain that continue during the late teens and early 20s may somehow make learning harder.

This is not to say that we cannot learn a new language if we are over 20. There are many examples of people who pick up a language later in life.

Although the study was conducted only in English, the researchers believe the findings will transfer to other languages and they are developing similar tests for Spanish and Mandarin.

Language Days at the United Nations seek    1    (celebrate) cultural diversity and promote equal usage of the official languages. There are six days for each of the six official languages.

The Chinese language is one of the six official languages chosen by the United Nations, and UN Chinese Language Day    2    (hold) on April 20 every year. The date was selected from Guyu,    3    is the 6th of 24 solar terms in the traditional Chinese calendar.