《英语流行话题阅读:语境识词3500》Unit75:英语中的法语

　　Unit 75
French in English
There is no doubt that today English is one of the most important and richest of the world's languages. Probably the most significant factor accounting¹ for the latter quality was the Conquest of England by the Normans more than 900 years ago. The conquering Normans spoke² French. Most of the inhabitants of the conquered nation spoke varieties of Anglo-Saxon of Germanic origin.
Of course, the Normans were stronger than the local inhabitants politically and naturally their language became the language of the King's court. It also became the language for written documents, together with Latin, and was generally regarded as "more literary" and somehow "better" than the language of the common people. In spite of apparently³ being "worse", however, the language of the ordinary inhabitants of England, and especially the language spoken by the inhabitants of the central part of the country, did not die out. For centuries, the two languages continued to exist side by side.
Besides this invasion French has influenced English in several others ways. First, France had its renaissance⁴ earlier than England and was a wealthier country than England for many centuries, so England borrowed many words and phrases for cooking, fashion, and arts from France. Second, French became the official language of diplomacy⁵, so that many words and phrases for law, war, and travel came into English. These days, French has lost status because the United Nations has five official languages, not just one: English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese.
The individual most responsible for bringing English and French together (and one of the greatest writer in English literature) was a customs official who lived in the late fourteenth century named Geoffrey Chaucer, whose Canterbury Tales is one of the most extraordinary works in English, practically created, or at least made acceptable, a new language, which was a combination of the more elegant French and the cruder but more powerful Germanic elements.
Since Chaucer's time the two languages have been woven closer and closer together, forming the single language that we now know as English. However, even today, vestiges⁶ of the differences survive, for words of French or Latin origin still tend to occur more frequently in formal written English than in spoken English. This naturally means that, for Spanish speakers, it is often easier to understand written English than spoken English. You can find evidence of this in this paragraph. Go through it and underline the words which are similar to words in Spanish. It is virtually certain that these will be words of Latin (or Greek) or French derivation, and probably they were brought to England by William the Conqueror⁷ and his men long ago.

1 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 renaissance   

n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴

参考例句：

• The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
• The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。

5 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

6 vestiges   

残余部分( vestige的名词复数 )； 遗迹； 痕迹； 毫不

参考例句：

• the last vestiges of the old colonial regime 旧殖民制度最后的残余
• These upright stones are the vestiges of some ancient religion. 这些竖立的石头是某种古代宗教的遗迹。

7 conqueror   

n.征服者，胜利者

参考例句：

• We shall never yield to a conqueror.我们永远不会向征服者低头。
• They abandoned the city to the conqueror.他们把那个城市丢弃给征服者。